Paul Mayhew-Archer
Paul William Mayhew-Archer MBE is a British writer, producer, script editor and actor for the BBC. He is best known as the co-writer of The Vicar of Dibley and Esio Trot alongside Richard Curtis. His solo writing career includes My Hero and Office Gossip, which he created. He was the script editor for Old Harry's Game, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Grownups, Home Again, Coming of Age and Big Top.
Mayhew-Archer is also an amateur actor who has appeared in Drop the Dead Donkey and Mrs. Brown's Boys.
In October 2020, he was appointed MBE for services to people with Parkinson's disease and cancer.
Early life
Mayhew-Archer was born on 6 January 1953, as Paul William Archer; he attended Eastbourne College and went on to study English at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. He spent his spare time at school writing plays. While at Cambridge, he was a scriptwriter and performer with Andy Hamilton in the Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society.Career
Before becoming a script writer for the BBC, Mayhew-Archer was a Producer in the BBC Radio Light Entertainment Department, and before that was an English teacher.His most notable works are The Vicar of Dibley and My Hero, although he has also script-edited Old Harry's Game, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Grownups, Home Again, Coming of Age and Big Top, as well as for the first series of Miranda. Episodes of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps contain scenes set in fictional pubs called The Mayhew and The Archer, both named after him. He co-wrote Roald Dahl's Esio Trot for BBC One. He also wrote An Actor's Life for Me, a situation comedy series on radio and television, which starred John Gordon Sinclair as a struggling young actor. His other significant radio credits include producing I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Radio Active, and The Million Pound Radio Show.
In addition, Mayhew-Archer appeared on screen in an episode of Drop the Dead Donkey and as a Life Insurance Officer in the first episode of the second series of Mrs. Brown's Boys.
Mayhew-Archer started performing Stand-up comedy about his Parkinson's Disease diagnosis in 2017. In 2018 he performed his solo stand-up comedy show 'Incurable Optimist' at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.