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Jonathan Church Theatre Productions and RJG Productions in association with Park Theatre present 

It's Headed Straight Towards Us

By Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer

WRITERS | ADRIAN EDMONDSON AND NIGEL PLANER 
DIRECTOR | RACHEL KAVANAUGH
SET & COSTUME DESIGNER | MICHAEL TAYLOR
LIGHTING DESIGN | MARK DOUBLEDAY
SOUND DESIGN | FERGUS O'HARE
CASTING DIRECTION | SERENA HILL
 

Adrian Edmondson

Adrian accidentally became a comedian in the mid 70’s when he and his friend Rik Mayall performed in pubs in an effort get equity cards. They became a double act called ‘20th Century Coyote’ performing at the Comedy Store and the Comic Strip clubs before going on to make the TV series The Young Ones, The Comic Strip Presents…, Filthy, Rich & Catflap, Saturday Live and Bottom. The latter of which spawned five national tours. Simultaneously an acting career saw Adrian take leading roles in two Les Blair films Honest Decent & True and Newshounds; as well as If You See God, Tell Him; Jonathan Creek a three-year stint in Holby City, six months in Eastenders. More recently he has appeared in the dramas War & Peace; Star Wars: The Last Jedi; A Spy Among Friends, and Rain Dogs. In the theatre he has appeared as Brad in The Rocky Horror Show, as Estragon in Waiting for Godot, as William in Bits of Me are Falling Apart (Soho Theatre); and as Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Scrooge in A Christmas Carol for the RSC. As a musician he created the spoof heavy metal band Bad News; the folk/punk band Bad Shepherds; the more comedic Idiot Bastard Band; and has been a regular guest with The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. He has also performed in Hyde Park with The Who. He has written numerous TV comedies, most notably Bad News Tour; The Dangerous Brothers; Bottom and Teenage Kicks. He wrote a novel The Gobbler in the late 90s, and more recently two books for children Tilly & the Time Machineand Junkyard Jack & the Horse That Talked. A reality TV addict, Adrian has appeared in Comic Relief Does Fame Academy (3rd); Hell’s Kitchen (2nd) and Celebrity Masterchef (Winner!). He also presented 36 episodes of The Dales and 50 of the travelogue Ade in Britain. 

Nigel Planer

He was an original member of the Comedy Store and Comic Strip groups at the centre of the so-called ‘Alternative Comedy’ movement in the 1980s and one of the stars of the TV series The Young Ones, and The Comic Strip Presents. Since then, he has enjoyed a successful career as an actor in television, theatre, film and radio. He has played leading roles in the original productions of Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked, Hairspray, Feelgood and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He won a BRIT award in 1984 and has been nominated for Olivier, TMA, What’s on Stage, and BAFTA awards. With Christopher Douglas, he created the actor character ‘Nicholas Craig’, who featured in TV and radio series, a spoof autobiography and one man show.  

Writer; His first play, On the Ceiling, was produced in Birmingham and in London’s West End, his second; Death of Long Pig premiered at the Finborough in London. The Game of Love and Chai, a re-imagining of Marivaux’s farce, opened at the Tara Arts theatre, London, followed by a National tour. All Above Board, toured in 2021 with the Northern Theatre of Comedy. He has written novels, radio plays, and TV scripts as well as writing and voicing over one hundred episodes of The Magic Roundabout for Channel 4. This year sees the release of his latest novel, Jeremiah Bourne in Time (Unbound) – a strange and funny take on time-travel, and a collection of poetry, Making Other Plans (Flapjack Press). 

Rachel Kavanaugh 

Theatre credits include: Great British Bake Off the Musical (Cheltenham Theatre and West End), The Witches of Eastwick (Cirkus Theatre in Stockholm and Cameron Mackintosh), The Wind in the Willows (Palladium and UK Tour); Rough Crossing (UK Tour); for Chichester Festival Theatre: Shadowlands, Half a Sixpence (also Noel Coward Theatre), The Winslow Boy (and UK Tour), Single Spies (and UK Tour), An Ideal Husband, The Way of the World,  Love Story (transferred to Duchess Theatre and Walnut St Theatre, Philadelphia and received an Olivier Award Nomination for Best New Musical)  The Music Man, and A Small Family Business;  for the RSC: A Christmas Carol, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Alice in Wonderland;  for Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre:  Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Olivier Award Nomination for Best Musical Revival), The Sound of Music (Olivier nomination for Best Musical Revival and Winner WhatsOnStage Award for Best Musical Revival);  The Taming of the Shrew, Cymbeline, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Love’s Labours Lost, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Hope Place at the Liverpool Everyman; The Rivals and Arcadia at the Bristol Old Vic; Oklahoma! (UK Tour); Oklahoma! for the BBC Proms with The John Wilson Orchestra. As Artistic Director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre productions included Arthur and George, Notes to Future Self, His Dark Materials, The Cherry Orchard, Peter Pan – a Musical Adventure, Uncle Vanya, The Madness of King George III and Arcadia.