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Stephen Tomlin is a semi-retired professional actor who produces and co-presents live audio events for The Border Readers. He had previously founded and ran Demi-Paradise Productions, presenting promenade Shakespeare and other seasonal entertainments at Lancaster Castle from 2000-2016. Under his birth name of Stephen Allen he was the 1991 BBC TV Mastermind champion, the first actor to win the UK’s most prestigious television quiz title.

Born and bred in the far south-west of England, Stephen trained as a specialist teacher at the Central School of Speech and Drama from 1969 – 72. After an intensive period acting, teaching and running drama workshops in inner city London, Manchester and Teeside Stephen joined the Dukes Theatre-in-Education company Lancaster in 1976 and the city became his home base for the following four decades. Stephen has worked extensively in all media nearly everywhere in the UK. In 2017 he moved to rural Northumberland to live with his partner, the artist and children’s picture book author, Kim Lewis. (www.kimlewisart.co.uk & www.kimlewisbooks.co.uk) They married in August 2021. (See Wedding Page under ‘Other’)

Stephen’s occasional country diary, This Other Eden, is also published here.

Recent journals cover explorations of London’s green hinterland, the landscape of Dungeness (above), a trio of railway viaducts in Cumbria and an account of last autumn’s ‘Murder, They Write’ tour of the borderlands.

PRODUCTION NEWS

Storm Babet caused a last minute postponement of Murder, They Write at Wallington (above) last October. The event has been rescheduled for Friday 19th April at 7.00 pm when Stephen will be joined by Janine Birkett to read in the magnificent setting of the Georgian mansion’s central hall. Tickets £7.50 via https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/north-east/wallington/events/a6ea212b-8135-40e5-bbda-036ed356f75a

Last autumn The Border Readers completed a highly successful 14 venue tour of Murder, They Write across the borderlands, narrating fictional crime stories by top writers Ann Cleeves, Martin Edwards and Cath Staincliffe. This year’s autumn production, Land Lines, features fictional stories about rural life by contemporary writers. Bookings now being taken!…See The Border Readers page for more information.

Roberta Kerr (l) Stephen & Helen Longworth (r) at Staveley Roundhouse

RECORDED WORK ONLINE

In collaboration with creative design practice TWDA (https://twda.co.uk/) Stephen has recorded some of the classic ghost stories he has previously read live for Demi-paradise and The Border Readers. These include The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde, The Phantom Coach by Amelia B Edwards, The Magic Shop by HG Wells, The Tractate Middoth and A View from a Hill by M R James, Man Size in Marble by Edith Nesbit and The Judges House by Bram Stoker. TWDA have edited the music, effects and visuals for each story. You can listen, for free, here: https://www.youtube.com/@gonzobrum

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My west country upbringing has defined certain key roles in different media during a long and hugely varied career in the performing arts. Having a rural working class background and ‘default’ voice to match gave authenticity and depth to the characters I’ve played in theatre, radio and television. Otherwise my normal everyday RP speech keeps me in ‘neutral’ ready to move into other voices and characters, reflecting where I have lived and worked around the UK. Being based in the north of England since 1973 has provided the other key component of my working practice. Dad was a Lancastrian – our family tree in the county goes back to the 17th Century – so I’m secure in having an understanding and pride in my northern heritage too. I was fortunate in getting a grant aided vocational training at Central, looking back on it as a kind of cultural SAS course that brought out the resourcefulness and adaptability essential to making a successful living in the business. At age 72, in another richly gifted phase of life and career, I continue to explore and develop enjoyable creative opportunities!

We shall not cease from exploration/And the end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time. (T S Eliot)