A former DJ in alternative
radio and part-time Radio Media lecturer, the editor of "Its Prof Again" Ralph won
the BBC/Radio Academy Student Award in 1995 for his moving radio
feature on Cot Death Fathers and the Essex Theatre Guild Award
for up and coming scriptwriter when he teamed up with the very talented Isaac Ferneyhough
for "Pop Goes Your Heart", a comedy about two retired
servicemen. He now runs an internet design company based in the
Midlands. He has two sons, Michael aged 8, and Antony (almost a
year old).
"It would be easy to be seen as a bit of an anorak I guess" says Ralph. "However I did enjoy the programme as a youngster and I doubt we will ever see its like again. I have always had a passion for the surreal and Vision On was often that - certainly the Prof. As a youngster it was just great to have your perception of things turned upside down and thrown into question.
Given the opportunity I'd give up webdesign today and resume writing with Isaac . We met as students at Colchester Institute in the mid 90s and discovered we had a flair for voices and comedy. Isaac is extremely quick witted and we knew each other so well we could work totally unscripted. Much of the actual scripts we developed (and indeed "Pop Goes Your Heart") came from the hours we spent with an open microphone and I owe Isaac a great deal for some of the funniest lines in the final scripts.
We could work entirely without a script and were often called upon to to do impromptu performances of Alec Guiness and Oliver Reed sharing a bedsitter or our more well known characters of 'Tom & George' in "Pop Goes Your Heart". We have at least 100 voices and characters in our repetoire.
Interestingly, in the stage production, Colin Pace played my part (George) whilst Isaac played Tom (as usual). It took Colin quite a while to realise that George was funny in his own right and that a prompt wasn't overly helpful. Although a comedy, "Pop Goes Your Heart" had a rather sad ending and it was suggested at one point that we do the Edinburgh Fringe festival but that would have required backing |
