My pal David Stafford, who has died aged 74 of lung most cancers, sustained a diverse profession as a author and broadcaster for greater than 40 years. For a decade from the late Eighties, he contributed a much-loved weekly column to the Saturday Guardian, latterly often called Staffordshire Bull.
His comedy writing profession took off after he met Alexei Sayle in 1980, which resulted in a number of profitable writing collaborations together with the Time Out column Nice Bus Journeys of the World, an award-winning Capital Radio sequence, Alexei Sayle and the Fish Individuals (1981), and the Channel 4 movie Itch (1991), directed by Beeban Kidron.
Alongside this, David spent the Eighties establishing himself as a TV presenter, specialising in wry items on arts programmes similar to Channel 4’s The Media Present. He later appeared frequently on BBC Two’s The Late Present (his teasing tackle the 1989 movie of Henry V endures on YouTube: “What churl would ever dare to pan a person as glam as Kenneth Branagh?”).
In addition to frequent radio work as a presenter and panellist on exhibits together with Going Locations, and visitor presenter slots on Residence Truths, from the late 90s David wrote a string of Radio 4 dramas together with his third spouse, Caroline (nee Moran), whom he married in 1993. The genuinely authentic, surrealism-tinged comedy sequence Man of Soup (1999-2000) was adopted by exhibits together with The Brothers (2004–07), Hazelbeach (2007-10) and the interval authorized drama Birkett (2012).
David additionally collaborated with Caroline on seven witty, well-researched pop biographies, whose topics ranged from Randy Newman and Ronnie Lane to Kenny Everett and Lionel Bart.
Latterly David had discovered a distinct segment as a criminal offense novelist, creating the well-received Skelton’s Information sequence of Golden Age-style 20s authorized mysteries, the primary of which, Skelton’s Information to Home Poisons, was nominated for a Crime Writers’ Affiliation award in 2020.
David was born in Birmingham to Eveline (nee Hunt) and Ted Stafford, who ran a barber’s store in Alum Rock. After attending King Edward VI grammar college in Aston, he studied drama at Birmingham College (1968-71), earlier than working in road theatre as a part of the newly established Interaction Theatre Collective in Leeds.
David’s first two marriages, to Lin Hawkins and Alice Harper, each led to divorce. He’s survived by Caroline and their three daughters, Clemmie, Connie and Georgie.
