nicholas pegg
playwright

This year’s production of Dick Whittington is the tenth successive pantomime that Nicholas has written for Hornchurch, and he is delighted to be celebrating a decade of writing for this wonderful theatre. His other Christmas productions for 2008 include Cinderella at Harrogate Theatre in Yorkshire.

After reading English Literature at Exeter University, Nick trained at the Guildford School of Acting, and he now divides his time between acting, writing and directing. His acting work has encompassed everything from Shakespeare, Rattigan and Molière to Oscar Wilde, Alan Bennett and Agatha Christie, in theatres as far afield as Plymouth, Glasgow, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Torquay, Birmingham, Exeter, Guildford and London.

Television has taken him to such exotic destinations as Walford (EastEnders), Cornwall (Doc Martin), and outer space (Doctor Who) – he has played a Dalek in all four of the ‘new’ series, most recently appearing in the two-part Journey’s End adventure starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate. For several years Nick has been closely involved in the weird and wonderful world of Doctor Who, acting, directing and writing for the ongoing audio series produced for the BBC by Big Finish Productions, and starring various of the original ‘Doctors’ in the title role. In addition to directing several of these productions and writing an episode called The Spectre of Lanyon Moor, Nick has crossed swords with the good Doctor in acting roles as diverse as a foppish sea captain from the eighteenth century, a robotic quiz contestant from the distant future, and a bisexual lizard-man from the planet Ursu. In 2003 he directed Shada, written by the late Douglas Adams and featuring an all-star cast including Paul McGann, James Fox, Andrew Sachs, Hannah Gordon and Susannah Harker, broadcast on BBC7 and now available on CD.

More recently Nick wrote the short stories Deep Water and Hold Your Horses for the 2008 and 2009 Doctor Who Storybooks, and has written a number of documentaries included on the DVD releases of the original Doctor Who television series.

Nick’s other directing work includes Twelfth Night at the Shakespeare Globe Museum, Diary of a Somebody on the Edinburgh Fringe, Hamlet at the Brixton Shaw Theatre, and a stint as Artistic Director of the summer repertory season in Frinton, Essex.

In addition to his scripts and short stories, Nick’s writing work includes countless magazine articles on popular culture, and he is the author of the acclaimed reference book The Complete David Bowie, in which capacity he appeared in the recent BBC documentary series Seven Ages of Rock.