David Quantick
Writing
Biography
David Quantick (born 14 May 1961) is an English novelist, comedy writer and critic, who has worked as a journalist and screenwriter. A former freelance writer for the music magazine NME, his writing credits have included On the Hour, Blue Jam and TV Burp. He won an Emmy Award for Veep in 2015. Quantick was born in Wortley, West Riding of Yorkshire (now South Yorkshire) on 14 May 1961, adopted, and moved at an early age with his family to Plymouth. Quantick spent the 1970s in Exmouth. Quantick went to Woodford Junior School and Plymouth College, then Exmouth Comprehensive School. He was born in 1961, in a mother-and-baby home in Wortley, Yorkshire. His mother lived in the Midlands and went to stay with an aunt In Derbyshire to conceal the fact she was pregnant. He was adopted by a family, who were living in Sheffield at the time and then moved to Plymouth. Quantick studied for a Law degree at University College London and "discovered I had no aptitude. They had these 'moot courts' - simulated a court hearings - and all I remember is dressing up in a cape like Batman." and took a Civil Service exam "to please my parents" and nearly failed" - "which was a shock". "The school I went to has a mentor system. I was asked to go back and give a talk on 'having a dream'. I told them I believe strongly that you should not have a dream." - David Quantick Quantick began writing for the music publication NME in 1983, where with Steven Wells he concentrated on comedy writing until 1995. Alongside this, he also contributed material to British comedy shows such as Spitting Image. In 1992, he joined the writing team for the Radio 4 spoof news programme On the Hour, before writing for the television follow-up The Day Today in 1994. He appeared regularly on Collins and Maconie's Hit Parade (Radio 1, 1994–1997), with his Quantick's World slot and on the weekly show, The Treatment on BBC Radio Five Live, which was an hour-long satirical news round-up. In 1995, Quantick presented a pilot show called Now What? to Carlton Television but he series was not picked up for development. He wrote with Chris Morris for Brass Eye in 1996 (broadcast in 1997) and Blue Jam (Radio 1, 1997), as well as the subsequent television version Jam (Channel 4, 2000). He also provided material for Smack the Pony (Channel 4, 1999–2001), Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show (Sky One, 2000), So Graham Norton (Channel 4, 1998) and featured on Radio 4's The 99p Challenge.
Known For
A look into American politics, revolving around former Senator Selina Meyer who finds being Vice President of the United States is nothing like she expected and everything everyone ever warned her about.
Veep
Playhouse Presents is a series of self-contained TV plays, made by British broadcaster Sky Arts. The series started airing on 12 April 2012, on Sky Arts 1. Each episode is written by a different writer with a different cast.
Playhouse Presents
Danger Mouse is back saving London, saving the World and, most importantly, saving Penfold in brand new and fantastically absurd, energetic adventures.
Danger Mouse
Investigative reporter Chris Morris puts modern Britain under the spotlight, and smacks the issues of the day till they bleed. He tackles weighty issues including animals, drugs, sex and skewered celebrities and politicians alike - and in a later episode in 2001, paedophiles.
Brass Eye
The show's format consists of four to seven teams of two undertaking a coach tour principally of continental Europe. The tours have usually lasted 30 or 50 days, with passengers remaining on the tour only until they are ejected by their companions on one day, to be replaced by a new couple the following day. The travellers are accompanied by tour guide Brendan Sheerin, who appears in every episode.
Coach Trip
The stylish, original and uninhibited Emmy award-winning sketch show starring Fiona Allen, Doon Mackichan and Sally Phillips. Distinctly contemporary. Decidedly maverick.
Smack the Pony
Adapted from Blue Jam, a late night radio show, Jam consists of six shows featuring dark humour and unsettling sketches unfolding over an ambient soundtrack. From the mind of Chris Morris.
Jam
Charlie Brooker's acerbic take on recent TV contains reviews of current shows, as well as stories and commentary on how television is produced.
Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe
The strange misadventures of Eddie and Buckley, two domesticated housecats dealing with life in the urban jungle.
Slacker Cats
Armando Iannucci's alternative take on some of the events that have defined the past 12 months.
2004: The Stupid Version
Henry, an English writer who has written a new book that has become a failure in the U.K, gets notified that the dull book has been highly trending over in Mexico. Little does he know that Maria, a Spanish translator, turned the book into an erotic novel. Henry and Maria then swerve around Mexico to do a book tour and go through a wind of events.
Book of Love
A sitcom satirising small-minded Britain. Written by Brenda Gilhooly, set in the fictional town of Mansford the show merrily satirises middle England, local politics, daft bureaucracy and the deluded nature of small-time power. The councillors are always getting hot under the collar about something - new EU regulations or a pole dancing club going up next to a nursery or the latest wheelie bin disaster.
The Mayoress
In 1991 50-year old John Lennon, living on the dole in Birmingham and following the moderate success of the Beatles, recalls how he left the band in 1962 after they were persuaded to release 'How Do You Do It?' as a single, rather than 'Love Me Do'.
Snodgrass
Harry Hill returns to DVD for a second volume of TV Burp Gold, with a brand new selection of the funniest bits from the Multi BAFTA winning, hit series, TV Burp. Some of TV's biggest shows such as Coronation Street, East Enders, Dancing On Ice and The X Factor get the full Harry treatment. It's crammed with hilarious jokes, funny clips and silly sketches plus a host of extras including "unseen" TV Burp and side-splitting out-takes.
Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold 2
This film sketches a very personal and decidedly political portrait of the Iron Lady who left the greatest mark on the UK, alongside Queen Elizabeth II. Archives and interviews are enriched by songs from this period that really help to understand the social atmosphere of that time.
Thatcher's Not Dead
Charting the rise of the Milliband brother, from their left-wing upbringing to their University days, using dramatized scenes and interviews with people who knew them.
Miliband of Brothers
A group of social media influencers go to the launch of a new hotel on a tropical island, where they find deadly spiders.
Spider Island
A documentary charting the history of Hastings Pier from its construction in 1872 through two major fires and also its use as a significant British music venue, playing host to gigs by Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Genesis, Tom Jones, Pink Floyd and The Sex Pistols.
Re: A Pier
Sal, Big Al and Jackie all deal with heroin use in a fun-filled romp.
The Junkies
Alastair Burnet announces the predicted results of the general election. Then he announces that the polls are now closed, shortly to be followed by the hospitals, the schools, and the BBC.