Nigel Planer — Young Once (14+)

A reading and talk by the comedian, actor and writer Nigel Planer, drawn from his memoir Young Once and mixing anecdotes, poems and a few tunes. It takes place at the Glee Club in Birmingham.

Nigel Planer reads from his memoir Young Once, weaving passages from the book with anecdotes, a selection of his poems and a few tunes. The session is built around his own words, so it suits people curious about his life and writing as much as those who know him from the screen.

Planer was an original member of the Comedy Store and Comic Strip groups, at the heart of 1980s alternative comedy, and is widely remembered for Neil the hippy in The Young Ones and The Comic Strip Presents. He created the actor character Nicholas Craig, who has featured in television and radio series and in the spoof autobiography I, An Actor. He has also written plays, three novels and A Good Enough Dad, and provided the voice for the first fifteen Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett.

The poems are drawn from Travelling Light, his latest collection, which follows Making Other Plans. Held at the Glee Club in the Arcadian Centre in Birmingham, the session will appeal to anyone interested in Planer's writing and his long career across comedy, television and print.