Les Clarke
After leaving school at 15, Les spent 4 years playing in rock groups, firstly as a drummer and then as a lead singer. He then started singing and playing guitar in folk clubs, became bored and spent the next 30 years doing stand-up comedy and acting in theatres, clubs and on television.
He also toured for 3 years with an accompanist in a show he wrote called ‘The Other Side Of Les Clarke’ that contained 26 of his own songs.
In 2000, having always loved the theatre, Les changed course yet again and started to write and direct stage plays. He’s written over 40 plays now and had 36 of them produced all over England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, as well as in America, Canada, Spain and Iran!
One play, ‘Watching the Magpies’ has had 36 different productions to date and his plays have won over 100 awards.
In 2014 Les started to write full-length books with 10 completed so far and some have been published.
He’s also written two full-length musicals: ‘Beth’, a love story set in a small Dorset village in 1920, for which as well as writing the book, he composed the music and lyrics for all 17 songs. His latest musical is called ‘Falling’, for which again he wrote the book, music and lyrics, and is a modern-day love story set in an Insurance Call Center. He has also had a short radio play called ’A Great Idea’, broadcast.
