Bread Basket
In 2003, I was asked if I could go to a BBC Sport conference on behalf of the whole East Midlands area. I felt flattered. I was only 24. I didn’t do that much sport apart from putting up local football reports on the local BBC website on Saturdays. Why me? I must be doing…
Oh Neil… Hippy, Dippy or Astronaut?
I’ve been thinking a lot about my name. It’s Neil, in case that passed you by. Does a name affect your destiny? Apparently it does. There’s a psychological theory of nominative determinism. It’s the idea that your name shapes your life. Neil is a name of Irish origin, meaning ‘champion’ or ‘warrior’ and erm… ‘cloud’.…
How Improv Taught Me to Accept Who I Am
The opening night of the Robin Hood International Improv Festival (1 September 2026). I’m with my friends at the Malt Cross, in front of the world’s best improv performers and they’re loving what we’re doing. It’s so joyous. I can hear them laughing and it’s the biggest buzz. I feel like I belong here. I’m…
Oh Boy. Taking a Quantum Leap
Quantum Leap was my favourite TV programme when I was a kid. It felt like it was made for me. I loved the ideas of time travel and being someone else. Which probably said a lot about me and how I felt about myself. Escaping my time and my body. The sci-fi series ran for five…
Not now, Gavin
INT. GP SURGERY – AFTERNOON NEIL, white, late 40s, in a retro Nottingham Forest shirt and shorts, and DR Saine, white, early 40s, in blue scrubs, are a few minutes into discussing his recent diagnosis of work-related stress. GAVIN is NEIL’S inner voice and of course, DR SAINE cannot hear him. DR SAINE From what…
The Reluctant Anchorman
Show night. I’m feeling good. I feel confident. I feel excited. I feel lots of trust in my fellow performers. I’ve got a character I want to try and their voice, and if the suggestion comes up, I’d like the chance to play a dog. Of course, with improv, things don’t always go to plan.…
Acting like a normal person
I can’t see the audience, but I can hear them laughing. I’m saying stuff and they’re actually LAUGHING. How is this happening? Maybe if I’d written what I was saying I’d have scribbled it out. But I’m not in the audience’s position. I’m not looking at me saying shit. I have no idea how this…
Improv-ing My Life
With Improv the most difficult thing you can be asked to do is be yourself. Which for me was the problem. At the start of my first workshop, surrounded by strangers, I looked at the exit. Should I just leave? I wasn’t sure I could do it. What if I opened up and they didn’t…
A history of footballing mardiness
As a kid I would get mardy about football. I would be called mardy. I would be told not to get so mardy. When I was upset or/and crying, invariably I’d be told I was just being mardy or ‘having a mard on’. But being accused of being mardy would only make me more mardy…
The Neurodivergent Teacher (for 3 months only)
Working in a school as a teacher exposed my ADHD traits. I just didn’t know it at the time. It’s blindingly obvious now. Following redundancy from the BBC, during lockdown, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Teaching appealed. Schools had stayed open during the pandemic to an extent. I wouldn’t be stuck at…
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