Richard Stirling

Richard Stirling is an English writer and actor, who has appeared on film, television and the West End theatre and Off-Broadway stage. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). He has written arts features for newspapers and magazines. His 2009 play Seven Other Children was written as a response to Caryl Churchill's controversial play Seven Jewish Children . ^[1]

He adapted the diaries of Cecil Beaton for performance, and played the title role. Following performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2022, to favourable reviews, ^[2] Cecil Beaton's Diaries was selected to be part of the 2023 Brits Off Broadway season, playing at New York's 59E59 Theaters in May, before touring the UK.

In 2025, his adaptation of Sir Compton Mackenzie's comic novel Extraordinary Women (novel) , with a score by Tony Award winner Sarah Travis had its professional premiere, "featuring a fantastic cast" of West End performers, ^[3] at Jermyn Street Theatre. Directly following this, he appeared in The Gathered Leaves, directed by Adrian Noble, with Jonathan Hyde, Joanne Pearce, Chris Larkin, Olivia Vinall and Zoe Waites at Park Theatre (London). ^[4]

Works

Books

• Julie Andrews: An Intimate Biography (Sunday Times Top Ten best seller,^{[ citation needed ]} UK Piatkus/Little Brown 2007; US St Martin's Press 2008; reprinted UK Little Brown 2013)

Plays

• Seven Other Children
• Over My Shoulder: The Jessie Matthews Story (starring Anne Rogers) ^{[5] [6]}
• Gay's the Word (revised version of the Ivor Novello/Alan Melville musical, starring Sophie-Louise Dann)
• A Princess Undone (starring Stephanie Beacham and subsequently Felicity Dean as Princess Margaret) ^{[7] [8]}
• Extraordinary Women (novel) (musical adaptation of the Compton Mackenzie novel)
• Cecil Beaton's Diaries

Selected roles

Film and television

• Eternal Return (Mervin Muffley) (2024)
• The Man Who Fell to Earth (Bird Man) (2022)
• Bridgerton (2022)
• The Crown (2020)
• The Princess Switch: Switched Again (2020)
• Scoop (Tinsley's Fan) (2006)
• Great Expectations (1999)
• Our Mutual Friend (Reverend) (1998)
• Mrs Dalloway (1997)
• The Choir (Lewis) (1995)
• The Secret Agent (Stevie) (1992)
• Jeeves and Wooster (Boko Fittleworth) (1990)
• War Requiem (Third Soldier; choreographer) (1989)
• Little Dorrit (John Chivery) (1987)

References

1. Francine Wolfisz (30 April 2009). "New play responds to Caryl Churchill's Seven Jewish Children". Haringey Independent.
2. Vale, Paul (9 August 2022). "Cecil Beaton's Diaries review". The Stage.
3. Akbar, Arifa (30 June 2025). "Extraordinary Women review – madcap musical of bohemian Bloomsbury bed-hopping". Guardian.
4. "The Gathered Leaves".
5. ""Over My Shoulder" by Richard Stirling at Wyndham's from 27 Oct to 8 Nov 03". 9 October 2003. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
6. Kingston, Jeremy (10 May 2003). "Over My Shoulder, review". The Times.
7. Barber, Richard (11 September 2016). "Stephanie Beacham: 'We need more difficult women like Princess Margaret'". The Daily Telegraph.
8. Cavendish, Dominic (26 February 2018). "Witty, bittersweet, tentative attempt to dramatise Princess Margaret's life, review". The Daily Telegraph.

External links

• Richard Stirling at IMDb