Calendar Girls - Tim Firth biography

< Back to listTim Firth

Author

Tim grew up in Warrington in the North West of England. He began writing for theatre by accident after applying at the age of 18 to attend a songwriting course run by Willy Russell and Danny Hiller, only to find it was in fact a playwriting course. He then went to Cambridge where he met the director Sam Mendes who directed his plays in several theatres, on a barge and afterwards at the Chichester Festival. On leaving university he met Alan Ayckbourn and began an association with the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, which resulted in the play Neville's Island. This transferred to the West End, gained Evening Standard and Olivier nominations and has subsequently been performed regularly around the world for 20 years. His other plays for Scarborough include The Safari Party, which transferred to open the new Hampstead Theatre, and The End of the Food Chain. Recently his Christmas musical The Flint Street Nativity premiered at the Liverpool Playhouse and became one of the most successful shows in the theatre's history. Tim's musical Our House, written with the band Madness, opened in the West End in 2002 and won the Olivier Award for best musical.

Tim's first television film, Money for Nothing, directed by Mike Ockrent, won the Writers' Guild award for best film. He then went on to write the comedy drama Preston Front which ran for three series, gaining many national and international awards including the RTS and Writers' Guild best series. Subsequent television work has included the film of Neville's Island starring Tim Spall, The Flint Street Nativity starring a class of famous actors playing themselves as kids, and Cruise of the Gods starring Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon and David Walliams. His long-running series for children, The Rottentrolls, warped the minds of a generation of teenagers, won a BAFTA and was the first children's programme to be broadcast at 4pm for kids and at 1am for adults.

Tim's first two feature films came out the same week in 2002. Blackball starred Vince Vaughn and Paul Kaye, and Calendar Girls starred Helen Mirren and Julie Walters. The latter went on to become one of the most successful British films of all time. His next film, Kinky Boots, starred Joel Egerton and Chiwitel Ejiofor and won audience awards at several American festivals.

Tim lives in North Cheshire with his wife Katy and children Jack, Joe and Georgia. He recently toured the UK with fellow playwright Willy Russell in a show of words and music, and his most recent work includes the play Sign of the Times, which toured the UK starring Stephen Tompkinson.