Neil Forsyth

Last updated

Neil Forsyth (born 1978) is a Scottish author, television writer and journalist.

Contents

Early life

Forsyth grew up in Dundee, Scotland where he attended the High School of Dundee [1] and his first writing appeared in a Dundee United fanzine. [2] He graduated from Edinburgh University [3] and held several jobs including as a nightclub promoter [1] before working as a freelance journalist. [2] He is also a graduate of the New York Film Academy. [4]

Books

Forsyth's first book Other People's Money (2007) told the true story of the Scottish fraudster Elliot Castro. It received significant coverage and was well received [1] though some newspapers questioned the book's moral purpose. "They thought it was wrong that we should profit from Elliot's crimes," Forsyth said, [1] "But that's always something I protested against quite vigorously. Elliot was caught, and sentenced, and paid for his crimes." The film rights were purchased by the producers of The Last King of Scotland . [5] In 2014 it was reported the book is being adapted for film by Crabtree Films with Forsyth writing the screenplay. [6]

Forsyth has written four books featuring the fictional comic character Bob Servant: Delete This At your Peril (2007), Hero of Dundee (2010), Why Me? (2011), and Ask Bob (2015). In 2009 Irvine Welsh selected the then out of print Delete This at Your Peril as his choice in an Esquire Magazine poll for the Funniest Books Ever. [7] On the book’s reissue, Barry Fantoni wrote "'I have worked with a lot of funny men – Peter Cook, Spike Milligan, Harry Enfield. Bob Servant is in a class of his own". [8] In 2011, The Scotsman said “Bob Servant has attained national treasure status” while the Press and Journal called Bob Servant "a modern Scottish comedy classic." [9] Forsyth has noted the Dundonian poet William McGonagall as an influence for the character along with Harry Flashman. [4]

After watching a medium perform in Edinburgh, Forsyth wrote the novel Let Them Come Through (2009). [10] Forsyth researched the psychic world by attending live shows [11] and speaking to experts including James Randi. [12] Let Them Come Through was published in the UK and the United States and was praised for Forsyth's dark humour. [11] [13] Forsyth’s second novel, San Carlos (2014), is set in Ibiza in the 1980s and is a thriller following a reformed neo-Nazi seeking a new life. San Carlos was Book of the Week in the Daily Mirror while The Herald said that Forsyth had shown a “different side to his talents” in the "pacy, unpretentious thriller." [14]

TV

As Bob Servant he made the leap to television in early 2013 in the cult BBC Four comedy Bob Servant Independent which added Jonathan Watson and Rufus Jones to the existing radio cast. [15]

In 2016, Forsyth wrote four one-off Playhouses for Sky. Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon was based on the apocryphal story that on 9/11, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson hired a rental car and drove from New York to Ohio. [16] The Playhouse was shot in late 2015, starring Brian Cox, Taylor and Joseph Fiennes. It also featured Carrie Fisher in one of her final roles. Before the planned 2017 transmission of the show adverse reaction to the casting of Fiennes as Jackson, particularly from Jackson’s daughter Paris Jackson, saw the show controversially pulled by Sky. [17]

Forsyth’s Sky Playhouse, Waiting for Andre, concerned the real-life friendship between Samuel Beckett (David Threlfall) and a teenage Andre the Giant (Liam Macdonald). Observer called it a “gorgeous and sumptuous half-hour” and noted it was a “great shame Beckett himself didn’t get to enjoy this delightful slice of life”. [18] Forsyth was nominated for a 2018 Writer’s Guild Award for Waiting For Andre in the Best Short Form TV Drama category. [19] The series of Playhouses (Urban Myths) was nominated for an International Emmy. [20]

In 2017, Forsyth wrote Eric, Ernie and Me , a one-off drama about Morecambe and Wise from the point of view of their writer Eddie Braben. It was broadcast on BBC4 on 29 December 2017 to a positive reception. The Observer said “What a lovely programme, rewatchable often”, [21] while the Sunday Express said, “Eric, Ernie And Me was not just beautifully realised nostalgia…but a reminder of how difficult the creative process can be.” [22] Eric, Ernie and Me was nominated for a number of awards, and Forsyth was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for his writing of the show. [23]

In 2019, Forsyth wrote and created Guilt, a BBC drama which premiered on the new BBC Scotland channel before being transmitted on BBC2. Guilt received high viewing figures, a positive critical reception and was included by a number of publications in their pick of the year’s television. The first series was nominated for a large number of awards and won Best Drama at the Scottish BAFTAs, The Royal Television Society of Scotland Awards, the Celtic Media Festival and the Broadcast Digital Awards. [24] A second series was broadcast in October 2021 and a third was broadcast in 2023.

On 5 June 2020, he teamed with Objective Fiction, a label of All3Media-owned Objective Media Group, to create a joint venture television drama production label named Tannadice Pictures. [25]

In 2023 The Gold was announced to be broadcast on BBC One and Paramount+, written by Forsyth and produced by his Tannadice Pictures. [26]

Film

In 2022, a Forsyth script about the life of Samuel Beckett was filmed by James Marsh and starring Gabriel Byrne with the title Dance First . [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Cox (actor)</span> Scottish actor (born 1946)

Brian Denis Cox is a Scottish actor. A classically trained Shakespearean actor, he is known for leading performances on stage and television, as well as supporting roles in film. His many awards and nominations include two Laurence Olivier Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as a nomination for a British Academy Television Award. In 2003, he was appointed to the Order of the British Empire at the rank of Commander. Empire Magazine awarded him the Empire Icon Award in 2006, and the UK Film Council named him one of the top 10 powerful British film stars in Hollywood in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Braben</span> English comedy writer and performer

Edwin Charles Braben was an English comedy writer and performer best known for providing material for Morecambe and Wise. He also worked for David Frost, Ronnie Corbett and Ken Dodd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tannadice Park</span> Football stadium in Scotland

Tannadice Park, usually referred to as Tannadice, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland. It is the home ground of Dundee United F.C., who have played at Tannadice since the club was founded as Dundee Hibernian in 1909. The stadium has been all-seated since 1994 and has a capacity of 14,223. It is located only 200 yards from Dundee F.C.'s stadium, Dens Park; the two are the closest senior football grounds in the UK.

James Yuille McLean was a Scottish football player, manager and director. He managed Dundee United between 1971 and 1993, becoming the longest-serving and most successful manager in the club's history, winning three major honours. He was also part-time assistant manager to Jock Stein with the Scotland national team.

James Edward McInally is a Scottish football manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of Scottish League One club Peterhead. He played for Dundee United for 10 seasons in which he won the 1993–94 Scottish Cup and played in the 1987 UEFA Cup Final. At United he was also a three time Scottish Cup runner-up.

Jonathan Watson is a Scottish actor best known for his comedy sketch show Only an Excuse?, which parodied people and events from the world of Scottish football, as well as roles in the BBC comedies Bob Servant Independent in which he appears with Brian Cox, and as Colin in the acclaimed Two Doors Down. In the 1980s he was also a regular cast member of the Scottish sitcom City Lights and the sketch show Naked Video.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rufus Jones (actor)</span> English actor

Rufus Jones is an English actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllis Logan</span> Scottish actress

Phyllis Logan is a Scottish actress, known for playing Lady Jane Felsham in Lovejoy (1986–1993) and Mrs Hughes in Downton Abbey (2010–2015). She won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for the 1983 film Another Time, Another Place. Her other film appearances include Secrets & Lies (1996), Shooting Fish (1997), Downton Abbey (2019) and Misbehaviour (2020).

Lee Wilkie is a Scottish former footballer, who played as a central defender. Wilkie spent the majority of his career in Dundee, playing for both Dundee and Dundee United. Wilkie started his career with Dundee, making over 100 appearances in the Scottish Premier League. He won 11 Scotland international caps between 2002 and 2003, during the tenure of Berti Vogts. Soon after this he suffered from a series of knee injuries, which led to Wilkie being released by Dundee in August 2006. Wilkie then signed for Dundee United and he again played regularly for a while, but ongoing knee problems forced his retirement from professional football in April 2010.

Events from the year 2007 in Scotland.

Brian Taylor is a former political editor for BBC Scotland and columnist for the Scottish broadsheet newspaper The Herald. Taylor – who joined the BBC in 1985 – originally co-presented Left, Right and Centre and was political correspondent prior to his political editor role. He covered politics on television beginning from the 1979 United Kingdom general election.

Derrick John Goodwin was an English theatre and television director, writer and producer.

Bob Servant Independent, renamed Bob Servant, is a British television sitcom written and created by Neil Forsyth. The first series of six episodes was broadcast in 2013 on BBC4 and repeated on BBC2 Scotland, starring Brian Cox in the titular role and Jonathan Watson in the role of Frank. The show is set in Broughty Ferry, a suburb of Dundee. The second series, renamed Bob Servant, was broadcast in 2014 on BBC1 Scotland and 2015 on BBC4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Armstrong</span> Scottish footballer

Stuart Armstrong is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Southampton and the Scotland national team.

Marilyn Elsie Imrie was a Scottish theatre and radio drama director and producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Trotter</span> Scottish actor and director

Robert Trotter was a Scottish actor, director, and photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Objective Media Group</span> Television production company

Objective Media Group (OMG), previously known as Objective Productions, is a media company that produces entertainment, factual entertainment, reality, factual and scripted programming. It has produced shows including The Cube, Lingo, The Gold, Feel Good, Peep Show, Fresh Meat, and Toast of London. The company has offices in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Scotland and Los Angeles, California.

Eric, Ernie and Me is a 2017 television film based on the relationship between British television double-act Morecambe and Wise and their writer Eddie Braben. It starred Stephen Tompkinson as Eddie Braben, Mark Bonnar as Eric Morecambe and Neil Maskell as Ernie Wise. It was written by Neil Forsyth. The one-off drama premiered on BBC Four on 29 December 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ncuti Gatwa</span> Rwandan-Scottish actor (born 1992)

Mizero Ncuti Gatwa is a Rwandan-Scottish actor. He began his career on stage at the Dundee Repertory Theatre. He was nominated for an Ian Charleson Award for his performance as Mercutio in a 2014 production of Romeo & Juliet at HOME. Gatwa had his breakout role as a gay teenager in the Netflix comedy-drama series Sex Education (2019–present), which earned him a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actor in Television and three BAFTA Television Award nominations for Best Male Comedy Performance.

Guilt is a Scottish thriller and mystery series, which was the first drama commission of the new BBC Scotland channel and first broadcast there before being broadcast on BBC Two. Written and created by Neil Forsyth, the show initially centres on two brothers, played by Mark Bonnar and Jamie Sives, who get involved in a hit and run, before involving a large number of cast in an ongoing story. The first series of Guilt was broadcast in 2019, and the second series broadcast in the autumn of 2021. The show was a critical hit and was subsequently broadcast around the world including in America (PBS), France (Arte), Australia, Sweden, Germany (Arte), Portugal (RTP2) and South Africa (Showmax).

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "A New Radio Home For Uncivil Bob Servant". The Dundee Courier. 26 October 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Neil Forsyth Interview". Write Words. 11 September 2007. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  3. ↑ Macgregor, Fiona (28 September 2007). "The Spam Busters". Edinburgh: The Scotsman. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  4. 1 2 "Brian Cox To Play Dundonian 'Man of the People'". The Dundee Courier. 4 October 2010. Archived from the original on 5 November 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  5. ↑ "Conman to Make £100,000 From Movie". 31 December 2007.
  6. ↑ "Brian Kelly to direct fraudster drama".
  7. ↑ "How A Scottish Author Scammed The Email Spammers To Write A Bestselling Book". The Daily Record. 29 October 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  8. ↑ "delete at your peril". birlinn. 10 January 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  9. ↑ "Servant delivers". The Press and Journal. 29 November 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  10. ↑ "Book Previews". The Scotsman. 23 October 2010. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  11. 1 2 "Neil Forsyth Interview". Aesthetica Magazine. 1 August 2009. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  12. ↑ "Psychics Next Target For Neil Forsyth". The Dundee Courier. 6 July 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  13. ↑ "Let Them Come Through by Neil Forsyth". Bookbag. 1 August 2009. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  14. ↑ "San Carlos". The Herald. 30 April 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  15. ↑ "BBC Bob Servant Independent" . Retrieved 20 February 2013.
  16. ↑ "Urban Myths" . Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  17. ↑ "Show Controversially Pulled" . Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  18. ↑ "New Playhouse". The New York Observer . Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  19. ↑ "Writers Guild". 5 December 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  20. ↑ "International Emmy Award Nominations Unveiled". 27 September 2018.
  21. ↑ Ferguson, Euan (2 January 2018). "Guardian TV review". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  22. ↑ "Express Christmas TV reviews review" . Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  23. ↑ "RTS Midlands Awards 2018 Nominees". 27 September 2018.
  24. ↑ "Guilt-Awards-IMDb". IMDb .
  25. ↑ Jake Kanter (9 June 2020). "'Guilt' Writer Neil Forsyth Launches Tannadice Pictures With Objective Fiction". deadline.com . Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  26. ↑ "First Look images and further casting announced for upcoming BBC Drama The Gold". BBC.co.uk.
  27. ↑ "First look: Gabriel Byrne as Samuel Beckett in James Marsh's biopic 'Dance First'". Screen Daily.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.