Alistair Beaton
Alistair Beaton is a playwright and satirist, journalist, radio presenter, novelist and television writer. At one point in his career he was also a speechwriter for Gordon Brown.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Beaton was educated at the universities of Edinburgh, Moscow and Bochum and graduated from the University of Edinburgh with First-Class Honours in Russian and German. He lives in London.
Works
Non-fiction
The Thatcher Papers The Little Book of Complete Bollocks The Little Book of New Labour Bollocks The Little Book of Management BollocksFiction
Don Juan on the Rocks Drop the Dead Donkey 2000Stage plays
The Ratepayers' Iolanthe South Bank and Phoenix Theatre West End The Metropolitan Mikado South Bank King the Musical Piccadilly Theatre West End Feelgood Hampstead Theatre and Garrick Theatre West End Follow My Leader Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Hampstead Theatre King of Hearts Hampstead Theatre Caledonia King's Theatre Edinburgh International Festival Fracked: Or Please Don't Use The F Word Chichester Festival Theatre and National Tour The Accidental Leader Arts Theatre West End Alone in Berlin Royal & Derngate and York Theatre Royal Kardinalfehler / Cardinal Error, a satirical comedy about the Catholic Church, currently in rep at Theater Trier, Germany. Nation-wide tour of Germany scheduled for 2025Translations and adaptations
- Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector produced at the Chichester Festival Theatre, starring Alistair McGowan
- Gogol's The Nose La Vie parisienne Die Fledermaus The Arsonists The Caucasian Chalk Circle
- ''The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui''
Television
Not The Nine O'Clock News It'll All Be Over in Half an Hour Spitting Image Incident on the Line The Way, the Truth, the Video Downwardly Mobile A Very Social SecretaryRadio
Fourth Column, a BBC Radio 4 show for writers and journalistsElectric Ink, BBC Radio 4 starring Robert LindsayMiscellaneous
- Consultant to Columbia TriStar Pictures 1991-1995
- Additional lyrics for the song "Small Titles And Orders" in the Chichester Festival Theatre's production of The Gondoliers in the summer of 2003.
- Consultant to stage musical Himmel und Kölle, Volksbühne, Cologne 2020/2021