After Dinner Speakers: Ned Sherrin, Steve Rider, Bad Manners

Ned Sherrin ( a farmer’s son) was educated at Sexeys, Bruton, Exeter College, Oxford and Gray’s Inn. He was called as a Barrister in 1955, but joined A.T.V. immediately after as a Producer in London and Birmingham. Two years later he moved to London to the B.B.C. and directed and produced a range of variety shows, panel games and musicals. In 1962 he devised, produced and directed the original ‘That Was The Week That Was’ programme and it’s successors ‘Not So Much A Programme More A Way Of Life’ and ‘B.B.C.3’ and a series of musical specials. He holds three B.A.F.T.A awards. Leaving the B.B.C. in 1966, he produced ten motion pictures in the next few years including ‘The Virgin Soldiers’, ‘The National Health’, ‘Girl Stroke Boy’, ‘Every Home Should Have One’ and the ‘Up’ series. As an author Ned Sherrin had a long collaboration with Caryl Brahms which produced many songs, three novels, two collections of short stories, a number of radio and television plays, five plays for the theatre - most notably ‘Beecham’ starring Timothy West, and six musicals : ‘I Gotta Shoe’, ‘Sing A Rude Song’, ‘Liberty Ranch’, ‘Nickleby And Me’ and ‘The Mitford Girls’ which transferred from the Chichester Festival to the West End’s Globe Theatre. He has directed five musicals including ‘Side By Side By Sondheim’ in which he also starred in the West End and on Broadway - for which he won a Tony Award nomination. He produced a Noel Coward compilation at the Goodseed Opera House in America (1981) and ‘Nickleby and Me’ at the Chichester Festival Theatre in the same year. ‘The Ratepayers Iolanthe’ was presented a the Queen Elizabeth Hall and later at the Phoenix Theatre in the West End in 1984 - for which Ned won an Olivier Award for directing. ‘The Ratepayers Iolanthe’ was in collaboration with Alistair Beaton as was ‘The Metropolitan Mikado’ at the Queen Elizabeth Hall (1985). ‘The Sloane Ranger Revue’ was devised and directed by Ned and presented at the Duchess Theatre. He has appeared frequently on television and radio. His own series ‘We Interrupt This Week’ was a hit on P.B.S. Television in America in 1978/9 and ‘Song By Song’, a series examining the work of thirteen international lyric writers was broadcast by Yorkshire Television in England and by P.B.S. network in America. He hosted many radio and television conversation shows - notably ‘Friday Night, Saturday Morning’, ‘Midweek’, ‘Medium Dry Sherrin’, ‘And So To Ned’, ‘Countdown’, a type of musical ‘Mastermind’ and ‘Saturday Supplement’ - a conversational magazine. He is currently presenting a weekly Radio 4 programme - ‘Loose Ends’ which won the award for Outstanding Radio Programme on BBC Radio 4 in 1986 from the Broadcasting Press Guild Radio Awards.In the book world, his autobiography - ‘A Small Thing Like An Earthquake’ was published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson in the Spring of 1983. ‘Song By Song’ (with Caryl Brahms), ‘Cutting Edge’ (J M Dent), ‘Anthology of Wit’ (1984) and ‘1956’ and All That’ (with Neil Shand) (Michael Joseph - 1984). Ned has edited Caryl Brahms’ memoirs which were published in 1986. A recent publication is ‘Loose Ends’ (Robson Books) - an assembly of conversations and confidences, reviews and revelations, speculations and shared experiences. In September 1986 Ned returned to the theatrical world as Director od a new play by Keith Waterhouse - ‘Mr and Mrs Nobody’ starring Judi Dench and Michael Williams which won critical and box office success during 1987. 1989 saw Ned contributing as a regular Saturday columnist for the Times and as an Associate Director on ‘Ten Glorious Year’ - a tribute to Margaret Thatcher. Theatrical Success continued with the West End’s most talked about evening, Victor Spinetti’s one man show ‘Thoughts From Very Private Diary’ which was directed by Ned. This show also enjoyed a very successful tour of Australia and opened in New York during 1992.During 1990 Ned directed two more plays by Keith Waterhouse ‘Jeffrey Bernard in Unwell’ starring Peter O’Toole opened in the West End to unanimous critical acclaim and broke all box office records for the Apollo Theatre. ‘Bookends’ starring Sir Michael Hordern and Dinsdale Landen also enjoyed a run at the Apollo Theatre.1991 saw the publication of another book Ned Sherrin’s Theatrical Anecdotes’, numerous television appearancesand the After Dinner Speaker of the Year Award. At the beginning of 1992, ‘Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell’ starring Dennis Waterman opened in Australia and has subsequently toured Britain and Dublin. ‘Our Song’ which re-united the team who created ‘Jeffrey Bernard’ and starred Peter O’Toole enjoyed critical acclaim and a successful run in the West End. ‘Ned Sherrin In His Anecdotage’ has been published by Virgin Books.