Tim Fountain (born 23 December 1967) is a British writer.
Early life
Fountain was born in
Dewsbury
Dewsbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder, West Yorkshire, River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, ...
,
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...
. An only child, he was brought up in a pub in the village of
West Ardsley
West Ardsley is a settlement on the south-west edge of the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, in the county of West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it roughly approximates to an amalgamation of Tingley, ...
,
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...
.
He was educated at
Batley Grammar School
Batley Grammar School is a state-funded co-educational free school in Batley, West Yorkshire, England, for pupils aged 4 to 16.
History
The school was founded in 1612 by the Rev. William Lee. An annual founder's day service is held in his ...
Fountain's first international success was ''Resident Alien'' in 1999. Based on the life and writings of
Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp (born Denis Charles Pratt; – ) was an English raconteur, whose work in the public eye included a memoir of his life and various media appearances. Before becoming well known, he was an artist's model, hence the title of h ...
OBIE Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after th ...
s (performance and design). The show subsequently won a Herald Angel award for Bette Bourne at the Edinburgh Festival and toured across America, Australia and the UK. It was also broadcast on
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
.
Fountain's one-man show, ''Sex Addict'', opened at the
Edinburgh Festival
__NOTOC__
This is a list of Arts festival, arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the ...
in April 2004. During the 90-minute show, Fountain would discuss various sex topics, in person and online, and tackle issues of
homophobia
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...
and the perceived immorality of
promiscuity
Promiscuity is the practice of engaging in sexual activity frequently with different partners or being indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners. The term can carry a moral judgment. A common example of behavior viewed as promiscuous by man ...
. At the end, he encouraged the audience to select the next person he should have sex with on the dating website Gaydar. After Gaydar later sent him a
cease and desist
A cease and desist letter is a document sent by one party, often a business, to warn another party that they believe the other party is committing an unlawful act, such as copyright infringement, and that they will take legal action if the oth ...
letter, Fountain asked the audience to choose somebody from a list of online volunteers or nominate themselves.''The List'' praised the show for its humor and '' The London Evening Standard'' called it "artistically criminal". The show later transferred to London's
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...
in January 2005 and the Schaubühne in Berlin.
Fountain's other plays include ''Tchaikovsky in the Park'' which played a season at the Bridewell Theatre in London. ''Last Bus From Bradford'' (winner of the Pink Paper Play Award) which was staged at the Drill Hall in London. ''Julie Burchill Is Away'', about the controversial newspaper columnist
Julie Burchill
Julie Burchill (born 3 July 1959) is an English writer. Beginning as a staff writer at the ''New Musical Express'' at the age of 17, she has since contributed to newspapers such as ''The Daily Telegraph'', ''The Sunday Times'' and ''The Guardi ...
, starring Jackie Clune, ''Deep Rimming in Poplar'' starring Bette Bourne, and the stage adaptation of
Toby Young
Toby Daniel Moorsom Young, Baron Young of Acton (born 17 October 1963), is a British social commentator and life peer. He is the founder and director of the Free Speech Union, an associate editor of ''The Spectator'', creator of '' The Daily S ...
's book, ''How To Lose Friends and Alienate People'' starring Jack Davenport all of which played seasons at Soho Theatre in London's West End. Fountain adapted the Oscar-winning movie ''
Midnight Cowboy
''Midnight Cowboy'' is a 1969 American drama film directed by John Schlesinger, adapted by Waldo Salt from the 1965 novel by James Leo Herlihy. The film stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, with supporting roles played by Sylvia Miles, J ...
sex tourism
Sex tourism is the practice of traveling to foreign countries, often on a different continent, with the intention of engaging in sexual activity or relationships, in exchange providing money or lifestyle support. This practice predominantly oper ...
in Egypt during
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' praised the depth in the characters and dialogue but noted that there is a "lack of dramatic conflict."
His short play 'Beyond the Fringe', which satirised a left wing Mother's obsession with the Israel/Palestine conflict, was performed in a season of 6 new plays written by amongst other
Caryl Churchill
Caryl Lesley Churchill (born 3 September 1938) is a British playwright known for dramatising the abuses of power, for her use of non- naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes.
and
Mark Ravenhill
Mark Ravenhill (born 7 June 1966) is an English playwright, actor and journalist.
Ravenhill is one of the most widely performed playwrights in British theatre of the late-twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His major plays include '' Shoppi ...
at the Edinburgh fringe in 2015. It made front-page news in the Times newspaper when Fountain attacked (in print) the militant left wing protestors blocking the audience from entering a show performed by Israeli students. It transferred to
John Bercow
John Simon Bercow (; born 19 January 1963) is a British former politician who served as Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom), Speaker of the House of Commons from 2009 to 2019, and Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Pa ...
(The speaker of the House of Commons) apartment in the House of Commons where it was performed in front of
Shami Chakrabarti
Sharmishta Chakrabarti, Baroness Chakrabarti (born 16 June 1969) is a British politician, barrister, and human rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the director of Liberty, a major advocacy group which promotes civil l ...
and the deputy head of The Met and featured a
golliwog
The golliwog, also spelled golliwogg or shortened to golly, is a doll-like character, created by cartoonist and author Florence Kate Upton, which appeared in children's books in the late 19th century, usually depicted as a type of rag doll. I ...
entering from the Speaker's bedroom.
His most recent play EastEndless, performed by James Holmes, was a sell out success at the Camden Festival in 2019 and played Wiltons Music Hall in June 2020 before a run at the Edinburgh Fringe.
He directed the West End Production of '' Puppetry of the Penis''. The show was originally scheduled to run for a month at the Whitehall Theatre but ran for a year before going on to play Broadway, touring the UK for six years and playing many countries around the world. During this time he began an affair with the then-lesbian comedian Jackie Clune. In the same year he was also a principal writer on the animated television sitcom version of Oscar-winning '' Bob and Margaret'' which was broadcast on Channel Four in the UK and
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...
in the USA.
YouTube career
Tim and his partner Mr Boo, star on their own YouTube channel, Me and Mon Am which documents their travels around
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionCitroen Ami, electric quadracycle.
Writing
His books include ''Quentin Crisp: a biography'', published by Absolute Press. ''So You Want to Be a Playwright?'', published by Nick Hern. Rude Britannia, his book about the sex lives of the British is published by
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991.
History
George Weidenfeld ...
. He has written for numerous publications including ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
'', ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...
'', ''
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...
New Statesman
''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...
'' and ''
Attitude
Attitude or Attitude may refer to:
Philosophy and psychology
* Attitude (psychology), a disposition or state of mind
** Attitude change
* Propositional attitude, a mental state held towards a proposition
Science and technology
* Orientation ...
''. Fountain has appeared on ''
Newsnight
''Newsnight'' is the BBC's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. It is broadcast weeknights at 10:30 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel; it is also avail ...
'', ''
Woman's Hour
''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946.
History
The first BBC programme for women was the programme cal ...
'', '' Saturday Review'' and '' Loose Ends'' on BBC Radio Four and Weekender on BBC Radio 2. He presented a documentary about the death of Quentin Crisp for Channel Four.
He is a playwriting teacher and has tutored for many organisations including the
Central School of Speech and Drama
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
and
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...
*Harold's Day – 1989
*Morning has Broken – 1990
*Tchaikovsky in the park – 1993
*Last bus from Bradford − 1995
*A northern wanker in London – 1996
*Resident Alien – 1999
*Quentin Crisp, a biography – 2002
*Julie Burchill Is Away – 2002
*How To Lose Friends and Alienate People – 2003
*Deep Rimmin in Poplar – 2004
*Sex Addict – 2004
*Cinderella − 2005
*Midnight Cowboy – 2006
*So You Want To Be A Playwright – 2007
*Rock – 2008
*Dandy in the Underworld – 2010
*Rude Britannia – 2012
*Queen of the Nile − 2013
*Julie Burchill – Absolute Cult – 2014
*Beyond the Fringe – 2015
*Television Street – 2015
*Supping with the Devil – 2017
*EastEndless – 2019