John O'Farrell
Encyclopedia
John O'Farrell is a British
author, broadcaster and comedy scriptwriter.
, Berkshire
the youngest of three children, attending Courthouse Primary School and then Desborough Comprehensive. His father was a book dealer from Galway, Ireland.
He had some success as a child actor, playing Christopher Robin
in the West End at the age of ten, and appearing in the horror film From Beyond the Grave
with Diana Dors
and Donald Pleasence
. O’Farrell went on to study English and Drama at Exeter University.
he teamed up with Mark Burton
and the writing partnership got their first commission from Harry Thompson
(who later named his two pet rats Burton and O’Farrell). The duo won the BBC
Light Entertainment Contract Award, and contributed to a number of radio series, including Little Blighty on the Down, McKay the New and with Pete Sinclair, A Look Back at the Nineties
and Look Back at the Future in which O’Farrell also performed. The latter series won a British Comedy Award, a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award and a Premios Ondas
.
Burton and O’Farrell were commissioned for Spitting Image
in 1988 and the following year became two of the lead writers on the show. O’Farrell is credited with the idea of making John Major
permanently grey. They also wrote for Clive Anderson
Talks Back, Nick Hancock on Room 101, Murder Most Horrid, and co-wrote some of the Heads to Heads for Alas Smith and Jones
. In 1993 they left Spitting Image and became the first writers credited for the scripted parts of Have I Got News For You
. Also for Hat Trick Productions
they wrote a BBC1 sitcom The Peter Principle (‘The Boss’ in the US) starring Jim Broadbent
. They are also credited for ‘additional dialogue’ on the Aardman film Chicken Run
.
Supporter. The book became a number one best-seller and was nominated for the George Orwell Award and the Channel 4 Political Awards. It was adapted for BBC Radio 4
starring Jack Dee
and Doon Mackichan
. In September 2010 it was listed by The Economist
as Britain's third best-selling political memoir since 1998, after books by Barack Obama
and Bill Clinton
.
In 1999, O'Farrell began a weekly satirical column in The Independent, soon switching to The Guardian where he remained until 2005. Three collections of his columns have been published; Global Village Idiot, I Blame the Scapegoats and I Have A Bream.
In 2000 O’Farrell published his first novel, The Best A Man Can Get, which became the best-selling debut novel of 2002. It was dramatised for BBC Radio 4 starring Mark Heap
and Tamsin Greig
. The novel was later optioned by Paramount Pictures
. Two further novels followed, This Is Your Life and May Contain Nuts, which was adapted for ITV
by his former co-writer Mark Burton and starred Shirley Henderson
and Darren Boyd
. His novels have been translated into over twenty languages, including a Japanese manga edition of The Best a Man Can Get.
In 2007, he returned to non-fiction with the publication of An Utterly Impartial History of Britain, or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge which was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week and went on to sell over 250,000 copies. This was followed in October 2009 by An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain, or Sixty Years of Making the Same Stupid Mistakes as Always.
O’Farrell has contributed short stories and non-fiction pieces to a number of charity collections; Nick Hornby
’s Speaking with the Angel, Magic, Mums, Dads and Being British edited by Gordon Brown
.
His fourth novel The Man Who Forgot His Wife will be published in March 2012.
, Newsnight Review, Question Time
and Grumpy Old Men
. He has written and presented a number of TV and Radio documentaries such as Losing My Maidenhead and Paranoid Parenting for BBC1, and Dreaming of Toad Hall Turn Over Your Papers Now and The Grand Masquerade for Radio 4. (O’Farrell’s radio programme The Grand Masquerade on the Kit Williams treasure hunt book resulted with the mysterious golden hare re-surfacing twenty years after it disappeared.)
Other TV and radio appearances include Crime Team, What the Papers Say, The News Quiz, Heresy, Quote Unquote, The Write Stuff, What the Dickens, The 11 O’clock Show, We’ve Been Here Before and Clive Anderson’s Chat Room.
to create a new outlet for British comedy on the internet. The site also develops new writing using a submissions board where readers can rate each other's material and suggest rewrites or edits. A collection of some of the best stories were published in 2008 as Isle of Wight to Get Ceefax. A number of the writers have gone on to write for BBC Radio after developing their material on NewsBiscuit.
, where he has been chair of governors since it opened in 2004. He stood as a no-hope Labour candidate
in the 2001 general election in his home town of Maidenhead, which was the subject of the BBC documentary Losing My Maidenhead. O'Farrell insists he has never had any serious political ambitions and that he will not be standing anywhere again.
During the 2005 general election his comic emails to Labour Party members raised hundreds of thousands of pounds. In April 2007 he conducted the first ever interview of a serving Prime Minister on the internet. He has also written jokes for Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and other senior Labour figures.
in South London
and holiday in West Cork.
He supports Fulham FC and revealed in the club fanzine that the characters in each of his novels are named after players from a particular Fulham team.
O'Farrell met his wife Jackie when she worked in BBC Radio Comedy. She was the Production Assistant who had to sit on stage beside Humphrey Lyttleton during I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
, and O'Farrell joked "I married the lovely Samantha!"
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
author, broadcaster and comedy scriptwriter.
Early life
O’Farrell grew up in MaidenheadMaidenhead
Maidenhead is a town and unparished area within the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, in Berkshire, England. It lies on the River Thames and is situated west of Charing Cross in London.-History:...
, Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
the youngest of three children, attending Courthouse Primary School and then Desborough Comprehensive. His father was a book dealer from Galway, Ireland.
He had some success as a child actor, playing Christopher Robin
Christopher Robin
Christopher Robin is a character created by A. A. Milne, appearing in his popular books of poetry and stories about Winnie-the-Pooh. He has subsequently appeared in Disney cartoons....
in the West End at the age of ten, and appearing in the horror film From Beyond the Grave
From Beyond the Grave
From Beyond the Grave is a 1974 British anthology horror film from Amicus Productions, directed by horror director Kevin Connor, produced by Milton Subotsky and based on stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes...
with Diana Dors
Diana Dors
Diana Dors was an English actress, born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, Wiltshire. Considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood, Dors described herself as: "The only sex symbol Britain has produced since Lady Godiva."-Early life:Diana Mary Fluck was born in Swindon,...
and Donald Pleasence
Donald Pleasence
Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
. O’Farrell went on to study English and Drama at Exeter University.
Radio and Television Career
O'Farrell moved to London in 1985, winning a talent competition at Jongleurs, Battersea, but soon gave up stand up comedy in favour of comedy writing. After turning up at the open meetings for Radio 4’s Week EndingWeek Ending
Week Ending... was a satirical radio current affairs sketch show, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, usually on Friday evenings. It was devised by writer/producers Simon Brett and David Hatch, and was originally hosted by Nationwide presenter Michael Barratt.The show's title was always announced as...
he teamed up with Mark Burton
Mark Burton (writer)
Mark Burton is a British screenwriter specialising in comedy.- Early life :Burton grew up in Whitchurch-on-Thames, Oxfordshire and after attending Langtree School, Woodcote, and The Henley College, Henley-on-Thames, went on to study History at York University, where he was a contemporary of Harry...
and the writing partnership got their first commission from Harry Thompson
Harry Thompson
Harry William Thompson was an English radio and television producer, comedy writer, novelist and biographer....
(who later named his two pet rats Burton and O’Farrell). The duo won the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Light Entertainment Contract Award, and contributed to a number of radio series, including Little Blighty on the Down, McKay the New and with Pete Sinclair, A Look Back at the Nineties
A Look Back at the Nineties
A Look Back At The Nineties was a British comedy radio programme first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1993. Presented by Brian Perkins, the programme was a spoof look back at the decade from New Year's Eve 1999....
and Look Back at the Future in which O’Farrell also performed. The latter series won a British Comedy Award, a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award and a Premios Ondas
Premios Ondas
The Premios Ondas have been given since 1954 by Radio Barcelona, a subsidiary of Cadena SER, in recognition of professionals in the fields of radio and television broadcasting, the cinema, and the music industry.Past winners have included R.E.M., U2, The Corrs, Eric Clapton, the Red Hot Chili...
.
Burton and O’Farrell were commissioned for Spitting Image
Spitting Image
Spitting Image is a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central Television. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one for editing in 1989....
in 1988 and the following year became two of the lead writers on the show. O’Farrell is credited with the idea of making John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
permanently grey. They also wrote for Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson is a British former barrister, best known for being a comedy writer as well as a radio and television presenter in the United Kingdom...
Talks Back, Nick Hancock on Room 101, Murder Most Horrid, and co-wrote some of the Heads to Heads for Alas Smith and Jones
Alas Smith and Jones
Alas Smith and Jones is a British comedy sketch television series featuring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. It was broadcast on the BBC from 1984 to 1998...
. In 1993 they left Spitting Image and became the first writers credited for the scripted parts of Have I Got News For You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
. Also for Hat Trick Productions
Hat Trick Productions
Hat Trick Productions is a British independent production company that produces television programmes, mainly specialising in comedy.-History:...
they wrote a BBC1 sitcom The Peter Principle (‘The Boss’ in the US) starring Jim Broadbent
Jim Broadbent
James "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...
. They are also credited for ‘additional dialogue’ on the Aardman film Chicken Run
Chicken Run
Chicken Run is a 2000 British stop-motion animation film made by the Aardman Animations studios, the production studio of the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit films...
.
Literary career
In 1998, O’Farrell published Things Can Only Get Better: Eighteen Miserable Years in the Life of a LabourLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Supporter. The book became a number one best-seller and was nominated for the George Orwell Award and the Channel 4 Political Awards. It was adapted for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
starring Jack Dee
Jack Dee
James Andrew Innes "Jack" Dee is an English stand-up comedian, actor and writer known for his sardonic, curmudgeonly, and deadpan style.-Early life:...
and Doon Mackichan
Doon Mackichan
Doon Mackichan is an English comedienne and actress.-Biography:Born in London, Mackichan was brought up in Surrey until the age of 9 when she moved with her family to Upper Largo, Fife. She is a graduate of Manchester University...
. In September 2010 it was listed by The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
as Britain's third best-selling political memoir since 1998, after books by Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
and Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
.
In 1999, O'Farrell began a weekly satirical column in The Independent, soon switching to The Guardian where he remained until 2005. Three collections of his columns have been published; Global Village Idiot, I Blame the Scapegoats and I Have A Bream.
In 2000 O’Farrell published his first novel, The Best A Man Can Get, which became the best-selling debut novel of 2002. It was dramatised for BBC Radio 4 starring Mark Heap
Mark Heap
Mark Heap is an English actor. He began his acting career in the 1980s as a member of the Medieval Players, a touring company performing medieval and early modern theatre, and featuring stilt-walking, juggling and puppetry...
and Tamsin Greig
Tamsin Greig
Tamsin Greig is an English actress principally known for two Channel 4 television comedy parts: Fran Katzenjammer in Black Books and Dr. Caroline Todd in Green Wing...
. The novel was later optioned by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
. Two further novels followed, This Is Your Life and May Contain Nuts, which was adapted for ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
by his former co-writer Mark Burton and starred Shirley Henderson
Shirley Henderson
Shirley Henderson is a Scottish actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire .-Early life:...
and Darren Boyd
Darren Boyd
Darren Boyd is an English actor well known for his roles in Smack the Pony, Green Wing, Whites and most recently for playing the role of John Cleese in Holy Flying Circus. He is a classically trained singer, and played a jazz musician in NBC’s Watching Ellie...
. His novels have been translated into over twenty languages, including a Japanese manga edition of The Best a Man Can Get.
In 2007, he returned to non-fiction with the publication of An Utterly Impartial History of Britain, or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge which was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week and went on to sell over 250,000 copies. This was followed in October 2009 by An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain, or Sixty Years of Making the Same Stupid Mistakes as Always.
O’Farrell has contributed short stories and non-fiction pieces to a number of charity collections; Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...
’s Speaking with the Angel, Magic, Mums, Dads and Being British edited by Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
.
His fourth novel The Man Who Forgot His Wife will be published in March 2012.
Broadcasting
O’Farrell is an occasional guest on such programmes as Have I Got News For YouHave I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
, Newsnight Review, Question Time
Question Time
Question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers , which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be cancelled in exceptional circumstances...
and Grumpy Old Men
Grumpy Old Men (TV series)
Grumpy Old Men is a conversational-style television programme on BBC2 which debuted in 2003, The first run of four programmes was repeated several times before a second series, also of four episodes, was shown in 2004. A third series aired in April 2006. There were also 2003 & 2004 Christmas...
. He has written and presented a number of TV and Radio documentaries such as Losing My Maidenhead and Paranoid Parenting for BBC1, and Dreaming of Toad Hall Turn Over Your Papers Now and The Grand Masquerade for Radio 4. (O’Farrell’s radio programme The Grand Masquerade on the Kit Williams treasure hunt book resulted with the mysterious golden hare re-surfacing twenty years after it disappeared.)
Other TV and radio appearances include Crime Team, What the Papers Say, The News Quiz, Heresy, Quote Unquote, The Write Stuff, What the Dickens, The 11 O’clock Show, We’ve Been Here Before and Clive Anderson’s Chat Room.
Internet
In September 2006, O'Farrell launched the news satire website NewsBiscuitNewsBiscuit
NewsBiscuit is a British satirical news website. It was founded in September 2006 to create a new outlet for British humour on the internet by a group consisting mainly of comedy writers including John O'Farrell.- Content :...
to create a new outlet for British comedy on the internet. The site also develops new writing using a submissions board where readers can rate each other's material and suggest rewrites or edits. A collection of some of the best stories were published in 2008 as Isle of Wight to Get Ceefax. A number of the writers have gone on to write for BBC Radio after developing their material on NewsBiscuit.
Politics
A life long member of the Labour Party, O'Farrell is still politically active, having successfully campaigned for a new state secondary school in his part of South London, Lambeth AcademyLambeth Academy
Lambeth Academy is a co-educational secondary school in the English Academy programme, in the London borough of Lambeth, London . It's sponsor company/charity is the United Learning Trust.-Admissions:...
, where he has been chair of governors since it opened in 2004. He stood as a no-hope Labour candidate
Paper candidate
In a representative democracy, the term paper candidate is often given to a candidate who stands for a political party in an electoral division where the party in question enjoys only low levels of support...
in the 2001 general election in his home town of Maidenhead, which was the subject of the BBC documentary Losing My Maidenhead. O'Farrell insists he has never had any serious political ambitions and that he will not be standing anywhere again.
During the 2005 general election his comic emails to Labour Party members raised hundreds of thousands of pounds. In April 2007 he conducted the first ever interview of a serving Prime Minister on the internet. He has also written jokes for Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and other senior Labour figures.
Personal life
O'Farrell is married with two children. He and his family live in ClaphamClapham
Clapham is a district in south London, England, within the London Borough of Lambeth.Clapham covers the postcodes of SW4 and parts of SW9, SW8 and SW12. Clapham Common is shared with the London Borough of Wandsworth, although Lambeth has responsibility for running the common as a whole. According...
in South London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
and holiday in West Cork.
He supports Fulham FC and revealed in the club fanzine that the characters in each of his novels are named after players from a particular Fulham team.
O'Farrell met his wife Jackie when she worked in BBC Radio Comedy. She was the Production Assistant who had to sit on stage beside Humphrey Lyttleton during I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or Clue, is a BBC radio comedy panel game broadcast since 11 April 1972 at the rate of one or two series each year , transmitted on BBC Radio 4, with occasional repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC's World Service...
, and O'Farrell joked "I married the lovely Samantha!"
Novels
- May Contain Nuts (2 May 2005) (2005, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-60608-7)
- This Is Your Life (2002) (2004, Grove Press, ISBN 0-8021-4134-X) (2003, Black Swan, ISBN 0-552-99849-4) (2002, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-60098-4)
- The Best a Man Can Get (2000) (2002, Broadway Books, ISBN 0-7679-0714-0) (2001, Black Swan, ISBN 0-552-99844-3) (2001, Broadway Books, ISBN 0-7679-0713-2) (2000, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-60084-4)
Non Fiction
- An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain: or Sixty Years of Making the Same Stupid Mistakes as Always (22 October 2009) (2009, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-61622-8)
- An Utterly Impartial History of Britain — Or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots In Charge (22 October 2007) (2007, Doubleday, ISBN 978-0-385-61198-5)
- I Have A Bream (February 2007) (2007, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-61088-2)
- I Blame the Scapegoats (2003) (2004, Black Swan, ISBN 0-552-77194-5) (2003, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-60674-5)
- Global Village Idiot (2001) (2004, Grove Press, ISBN 0-8021-4038-6) (2002, Corgi, ISBN 0-552-99964-4) (2001, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-60293-6)
- Things Can Only Get Better: Eighteen Miserable Years in the Life of a Labour Supporter, 1979-1997 (1998) (1998, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-41059-X) (1999, Black Swan, ISBN 0-552-99803-6)
External links
- APWatt.co.uk — O'Farrell's profile on his literary agent's website
- NewsBiscuit.com — O'Farrell's satirical news-parody website