Simon Farquhar

Education

University of Aberdeen.

Career

During his time at the University of Aberdeen he was an active writer and performer in the university"s drama group, Centre His early one-act plays were staged at the Aberdeen Arts Centre, until a radio script set in Cullen, Candy Floss Kisses, was picked up by actor and producer Martin Jarvis and commissioned for British Broadcasting Corporation 4. This was followed by another Cullen-based drama, Elevenses with Twiggy, set during the dying days of the Sixties and featuring a cameo performance by Twiggy herself. His first full-length stage play, the Aberdeen-based Rainbow Kiss, opened at the Royal Court in April 2006.

The production starred Joseph McFadden and Dawn Steele and was directed by Richard Wilson, as part of the theatre"s 50th anniversary season.

Rainbow Kiss opened in New York in Spring 2008, directed by Will Frears and produced by The Play Company. In October 2006 he was invited to take part in the Old Vic 24 Hour Plays Celebrity Gala.

The annual fund-raising event sees six writers asked to each choose from a pool of available actors and each write a ten-minute play for them overnight which is then learned and performed the following evening on the Old Vic stage. The result was Dream Maine a Winter starring Tamzin Outhwaite and Patricia Hodge.

In 2007 he wrote and presented the documentary Razor Sharp: The Story of Peter McDougall, the Scottish television dramatist, and in 2015, A Sympathetic Eye for British Broadcasting Corporation 4.

Candy Floss Kisses (2004) — Afternoon Play, British Broadcasting Corporation 4

Elevenses with Twiggy (2006) — Afternoon Play, British Broadcasting Corporation 4

I Do Solemnly Declare (2001) — Aberdeen Arts Centre

Rainbow Kiss (2006) — Royal Court

Dream Maine a Winter (2006) — Old Vic (part of The 24 Hour Plays).

Achievements

• He has also written many articles and appeared on television and radio as a champion of television drama, particularly of the 1970s.