No time for writer’s block...

Ian Kershaw

Martyn Meets - Oldham TV and theatre writer Ian Kershaw
ONE of the joys of this job is that I get to meet some wonderful people. Even when they don’t live in Oldham any more...

When I travelled over the border into Derbyshire to meet self-exiled Oldhamer Ian Kershaw I was immediately enchanted.

He rose from his seat in a newly-opened cafe near his Broadbottom home with a ready, welcoming smile that told me a lot about one of the borough’s most prolific and successful writers.

Ian Kershaw is a writer, and a fine one too, with a list of credits across the spectrum from stage to radio and television.

Writing for each of these is a skill in its own right and negotiating all three is testament to his talent, added to which are a natural charm amply displayed in the 90 minutes in which we spoke about the life and times of a joiner turned scriptwriter, via a deceptively successful acting career.

Ian may be 44 but looks 20 years younger, with an eager-eyed countenance that seems wrong in a man who spends much of his time in the cellar of the two up, two down cottage he shares with his actress wife Julie Hesmondalgh — yep, that one — and two daughters.

It is in the dark recesses of their home that he writes, and writes and then writes some more. If the writing comes as easily as the smile, he’ll be prolific for an eternity.

Writer’s block? Forget it....”I haven’t got time for that!”

He means it, too. His output is bordering on sensational, covering the range from “Shameless”, “Doctors”, “EastEnders” and “Casualty” to “Holby City”.

He writes plays for radio and stage too — notably the Coliseum’s “Union Street” and more recently the award-winning “Star Cross’d”, which Coliseum artistic director Kevin Shaw commissioned from Ian and which turned a modern take on Romeo and Juliet into one of summer 2012’s most interesting theatre experiences, courtesy of performing the whole thing in Alexandra Park.

“That was hugely enjoyable,” says Ian. “Kevin initially wanted to put on a play in a big top but I like to think I helped persuade him to use the whole of the park as a set. What better place than the Lion’s Den for an Indian feast?”

His contemporary take on Shakespeare, and the whole experience of working outdoors, was uplifting and exciting, he said: “The whole project was just wonderful. People turned up to watch the rehearsals and people walking through the park would then join the audience. It was a great way to get people back into the park.”

All this was a far cry from his youth. The elder son of Joan and Mel, two Oldham taxi drivers, Ian was born in Fitton Hill and raised in Moorside as a pupil at Counthill School.

He couldn’t wait to leave school and did a five-year apprenticeships at Partingtons Builders as a joiner.

The idea of becoming an actor - later making a living as a scriptwriter - couldn’t have been further from his mind.

“To be honest I wanted to be a journalist - but only girls could do typing at Counthill, boys were excluded!” he laughs.

His love of writing was nurtured at Counthill by a teacher, Dave Garnett, whom Ian describes as “inspirational”. When the older Ian was taken to Manchester’s Contact Theatre by a girlfriend he fell in love with the idea of becoming an actor, quit his job and enrolled on a drama course at Tameside College.

Twelve months later he moved to Oldham to study at Grange Arts Centre, which at the time had a nationally-renowned theatre foundation course: “mum and dad were very supportive”, he says.

From there he joined thousands of applicants auditioning for half-a-dozen places at the Royal Welsh College of Drama and Music in Cardiff.

Charismatic Ian was taken on and was soon full-time jobbing actor, in TV’s “Fat Friends” and for a short as an “evil journalist” in “Coronation Street”. But the writing bug never left him.

“I always played around with writing, but there is something about Brits and writing. If you mention you’re a writer you get a (assumes toffee-nosed pose): ‘Oh yes, and what have you written...?’”

So he kept his creative talents under a big Oldham bushel - until he met the woman who was to become his wife, Julie (Corrie’s Hayley Cropper), and they went on a road trip to America’s West Coast.

“Julie knew lots of people and I was one night in the company of actors and screenwriters. One guy wrote the John Travolta film “Face/Off” and they were hugely supportive when I mentioned my writing. Totally different attitudes to people in the UK.”

Inspire and encouraged Ian was determined to turn his hand to writing, with the simple ethos he puts into all his work: “I want to write something I want to watch, something I will find interesting.”

He quotes pop star Morrisey as an inspiration: “Say something to me about my life”. He’s also a fan of a line in “Jurassic Park” in which Jeff Goldblum says to Richard Attenbrough: “You spent so much time thinking of how you could do something that you forgot to ask whether you should...”

Ian definitely decided he should, and hard work has madae him one of our most sought-after writers.

He won a prize in the Royal Exchange’s biennial Bruntwood playwriting competition - the country’s biggest - and earlier, as a member of the Coliseum writing group was one of 50 writers nominated for a year’s training by the Royal Court in London.

Ian loves the life, the freedom and the creative juices that flow so freely. He lives on the edge of the Peak District National Park, in his little house with his family, and writes, and writes and writes.

And he comes to Oldham to see his parents in Royton and speaks to his IT consultant younger brother Wayne.

He’s a genuinely likeable Oldham lad through and through: we should all be proud of him.