Sketch Factor Winners

Here are some of the Sketch Factor writers who are working with the team at BBC Radio Four's 'Recorded For Training Purposes'.

 

Mike Ryan

I am a dour northerner who entered the Sketch Factor by accident after going online to try and find a Sketchley’s in Fackley, Notts, to enquire about getting red wine stains out of a cat. I am scared of ghosts and things with big faces – on the back of this I am banned from the Antiquities section of the British museum, and Easter Island.

When not talking nonsense I work for a global insurance broker. I am mainly based in Manchester, London and Birmingham. I live in Bolton with my partner and we have an 8 month old son. I am a season ticket holder at Bolton Wanderers. I enjoy running, playing football and playing the guitar. People tell me that I’m funny, for someone who works in insurance. I do not know if this is a compliment.

 

Kate Chedgey

After studying English Language at Sheffield University I had various temping jobs as well as working as professional tea-maker at Radio Sheffield at the weekends. I moved down to London when I got a job working on the Doctor Who DVD back-catalogue where I learnt a depressingly large amount about Davros. I have had various media related jobs since then. One highlight was interviewing the owner of a guinea pig B&B in Basingstoke.

My first stab at writing came when I was asked to write a panto for Homeless Project in Catford last year. This was quite a task as I had never written anything before and was working with a very unique cast and audience. It was great fun though and was the catalyst for me deciding to try my hand at sketch writing. I have had a geek-ish obsession with comedy since I was little (I recited a slightly suggestive Goon Show sketch for my Brownie Entertainer’s Badge). I was really delighted to be selected and am looking forward to the challenge.

 

Peter Brooksbank

I’m 26 and originally from Boston, Lincolnshire, although I now live in Leicestershire and work in Nottingham.

My experience of writing extends little further than editing a football fanzine and penning the odd magazine article - this is the first time I've turned my hand to sketch writing.

 

John Dorney

I am an actor who's performed in venues as diverse as The National Theatre and a lift in Edinburgh and I am currently doing panto in Tewkesbury.

I've come close to winning a few writing competitions, had a play read in the Royal Court's Young Writers season, and represented the UK at the Young Writers Festival, Interplay, in Australia, but I've never had anything produced before now.

 

Danny Myers

Recorded for Training Purposes is my first writing commission. I did do some print and radio journalism at University on football, films and music. On graduating and after a couple of years temping, I ended up working at Camden Council and then the GLA doing policy stuff mainly, covering a variety of areas (drugs, legal aid, green issues, culture, transport).

Born in 76, raised in Leicester, I studied at Oxford, and after a year in Newcastle, I have lived in London since 1998.

 

Lindsay Nightingale

I originally trained as an actress and attended Drama Centre London where I was encouraged by my acting teachers to write comic monologues and sketches. After college I toured with various theatre productions in the UK and Italy and also continued writing.

In 2004 I had my daughter Lola and left London for Australia where we lived for a year before returning to live in my home town of Chester where I could concentrate on writing whilst looking after Lola.