Charlie Higson Pt 1 - Screenwriter, Novelist & Actor

Screenwriter, comedian, showrunner, actor, novelist, podcaster, musician, singer... Charlie shares so many projects from his long and varied career that we didn't have time to fit them all into 1 episode - so listen out for part 2 coming shortly. This episode's abandoned, unfinished and rejected writing projects include a film best described as A Christmas Carol meets Channel 4's Star Stories,  a TV drama series about the early life of a political icon and a Monty Python mash-up. CAST: Nigel Pilkington, Kenny Blyth, Noni Lewis, Christopher Kent, Shash Hira, Keith Wickham, Emma Clarke Charlie Higson first came to prominence as lead singer of The Higsons before moving into comedy writing and performance. Alongside Paul Whitehouse he wrote for Harry Enfield and then co-created The Fast Show, becoming one of its key writers and central cast members throughout its BBC run and later specials. His television and film writing includes the feature Suite 16, the revival of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) as writer, actor and showrunner, and the creation of Swiss Toni as well as creating the 2015 ITV drama series Jekyll & Hyde. As a novelist, Higson wrote adult crime fiction before being commissioned to create the Young James Bond series, delivering five titles between 2005 and 2008. He followed this with the seven-book post-apocalyptic saga The Enemy. He also wrote the Fighting Fantasy title The Gates of Death and returned to the Bond universe in 2023 with On His Majesty’s Secret Service. He is the creator and presenter of the history podcast Willy Willy Harry Stee, and author of the companion book illustrated by Jim Moir aka Vic Reeves, while continuing to write, produce and perform across screen and audio. For more details about Charlie, his offcuts and the actors performing them see the episode show notes:  The Offcuts Drawer - Charlie Higson, Part 1