David Quantick

David Quantick (born 14 May 1961) is an English novelist, comedy writer and critic, who has worked as a journalist and screenwriter. A former freelance writer for the music magazine ''NME'', his writing credits have included '' On the Hour'', '' Blue Jam'' and '' TV Burp''. He won an Emmy Award for ''Veep'' in 2015.COMPLETE LISTING OF 67TH EMMY AWARDS WINNERS
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Early life

Quantick was born in Wortley, West Riding of Yorkshire (now South Yorkshire) on 14 May 1961, adopted, and moved at an early age with his family to Plymouth. Quantick spent the 1970s in Exmouth. Quantick went to Woodford Junior School and Plymouth College, then Exmouth Comprehensive School.

He was born in 1961, in a mother-and-baby home in Wortley, Yorkshire. His mother lived in the Midlands and went to stay with an aunt In Derbyshire to conceal the fact she was pregnant. He was adopted by a family, who were living in Sheffield at the time and then moved to Plymouth.

Quantick studied for a Law degree at University College London and "discovered I had no aptitude. They had these 'moot courts' - simulated a court hearings - and all I remember is dressing up in a cape like Batman." and took a Civil Service exam "to please my parents" and nearly failed" - "which was a shock".

"The school I went to has a mentor system. I was asked to go back and give a talk on 'having a dream'. I told them I believe strongly that you should not have a dream." - David Quantick

Career

Quantick began writing for the music publication ''NME'' in 1983, where with Steven Wells he concentrated on comedy writing until 1995. Alongside this, he also contributed material to British comedy shows such as '' Spitting Image''. In 1992, he joined the writing team for the Radio 4 spoof news programme '' On the Hour'', before writing for the television follow-up '' The Day Today'' in 1994. He appeared regularly on ''Collins and Maconie's Hit Parade'' ( Radio 1, 1994–1997), with his ''Quantick's World'' slot and on the weekly show, ''The Treatment'' on BBC Radio Five Live, which was an hour-long satirical news round-up.

In 1995, Quantick presented a pilot show called ''Now What?'' to Carlton Television but he series was not picked up for development. He wrote with Chris Morris for ''Brass Eye'' in 1996 (broadcast in 1997) and '' Blue Jam'' (Radio 1, 1997), as well as the subsequent television version '' Jam'' (Channel 4, 2000). He also provided material for '' Smack the Pony'' (Channel 4, 1999–2001), '' Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show'' (Sky One, 2000), '' So Graham Norton'' (Channel 4, 1998) and featured on Radio 4's '' The 99p Challenge''.

Working with Jane Bussmann, he co-wrote and performed ''Bussmann & Quantick Kingsize'' for BBC Radio 4 in 1998.

In 2000, Bussmann and Quantick created, specifically made for download over the web, what Quantick has claimed was the world's first internet sitcom and ''docusitcom'' (documentary/sitcom), ''The Junkies'', about three heroin addicts. Starring Peter Baynham, Sally Phillips, Peter Serafinowicz, and Kevin Eldon in a cameo appearance, the writing pair claimed the project grew out of their frustration with the commissioning process. They argued the average sitcom cost £200,000 to make and was difficult to finance, so they secured the services of cast and crew on a voluntary basis and made a show for less than £4,000. The site received over a million visits in its first eight months of existence. The pilot was later uploaded to Quantick's YouTube.

In 2000, Quantick's biography of the Clash was published, with further books appearing in 2001. That year he collaborated with Andrew Collins and Stuart Maconie on ''Lloyd Cole Knew My Father'', a live show about working as a music journalist. A performance was later broadcast on Radio 2 as a six-episode series. In 2003 and 2005, Quantick contributed material to sketch show '' That Mitchell and Webb Sound'', five series of '' 15 Minute Musical'' (2004–08) and several series of '' Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections''. He also made several appearances on Clive Anderson's radio panel show ''We've Been Here Before'' in 2003 and 2004.

In 2005, Quantick appeared in Channel 4's '' Come Dine with Me''. Between 2003 and 2005 Quantick co-presented a weekly programme ''One Way Single Parent Family Favourites'' on London based community arts radio station Resonance FM. In 2006 he wrote and presented series 3 of 'The Blagger's Guide', a six-part comedy series on BBC Radio 2 and appeared as Doctor Dave Radio on Radio 2 comedy programme, ''Radio Rivron''. Between 2001 and 2012 He was also part of the writing team of '' Harry Hill's TV Burp''. Following its final series, Quantick contributed material to ''The Thick of It'', helped write material for the comedian Rob Brydon, and recorded further editions of '' The Blagger's Guide'' for Radio 2 until 2014.

In September 2012, Quantick published an e-book novel, ''Sparks'', which was positively reviewed by Neil Gaiman and Ben Aaronovitch. He produced a four-episode comedy series ''52 First Impressions with David Quantick'' for Radio 4 in 2014 in which he recounted stories about 52 individuals he had encountered in his life/career. He received an Emmy in 2015 for his work on the HBO series ''Veep''. That year he crowd-funded a novel ''The Mule'' via the Unbound company which was released on 25 February 2016. He had two writing manuals published with Oberon Books: ''How To Write Everything'' in 2015, then ''How to Be a Writer: Conversations With Writers About Writing'' the following year.

In April 2019, his novel ''All My Colors'' came out, described by the author David M Barnett as "a blend of Murakami-ish otherworldliness, Stephen King small town horror and Douglas Adams-esque absurdity."

In 2019, Quantick became a Visiting Professor with the University of Sunderland.

In 2022, Quantick's first movie, '' Book Of Love'', was released. In the same year it won Best Primetime Movie at the 2022 Imagen Awards.

Personal life

Quantick has lived in East Sussex since about 2011.

Bibliography

Fiction

*''Sparks'' (10 September 2012, Kindle ASIN: B0098UTP5E)
*''That's Because You're a Robot'' with Shaky Kane (Image Comics, 2014)
*''The Mule'' (Unbound, 25 February 2016, )
*''Go West'' (Unbound, 24 January 2019, )
*''All My Colors'' (Titan Books Ltd, 16 April 2019, )
*''Night Train'' (Titan Books Ltd, 29 September 2020, )
*''Ricky's Hand'' (Titan Books Ltd, 9 August 2022, )

Nonfiction

*''Dress to Kill'' by Eddie Izzard, David Quantick et al. (Virgin Books, Hardback, 26 November 1998, )
*''The Clash'' (''The Music Makers'' series) (MQ Publications Ltd, Paperback, 27 May 2000, )
*''Beck'' (''Kill Your Idols'' series) (Avalon Travel Publishing, Paperback, 18 December 2000, )
*''Revolution: The Making of the Beatles' White Album'' (''Vinyl Frontier'' series) (MQ Publications Ltd, Paperback, 26 September 2002, )
*''Grumpy Old Men'' (HarperCollins Entertainment), Hardcover, 7 June 2004, )
*''Grumpy Old Men on Holiday'' (HarperCollins Entertainment, Hardcover, 16 May 2005, )
*''Grumpy Old Men: New Year, Same Old Crap'' (HarperCollins Entertainment, Hardcover, 15 October 2007 )
*''The Dangerous Book for Middle-Aged Men: The Manual for Managing Mid-Life Crisis'' (Preface Publishing, Hardcover, 24 September 2009, )
*''Memoirs Of A Shoegazing Gentleman'' (Sonic Cathedral, 2014)
:* ''Memoirs Of A Shoegazing Gentleman'' – 30th Anniversary Special Edition (SCR058) )
*''How To Write Everything'' (Oberon Books, 8 January 2015, )
*''How to Be a Writer: Conversations With Writers About Writing'' (Oberon Books, 13 October 2016, )
*''Quantick's Quite Difficult Quiz Book'' (Robinson, 4 November 2021, )

References

External links

davidquantick.comDavid Quantick
- Rock's Backpages
An interview with David Quantick
on RechargedMagazine.com

David Quantick
at the Internet Movie Database

The Junkies (Short 2001)
- IMDb

Collins, Maconie and Quantick
Collins & Maconie's Hit Parade Audio
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SOTCAA
— RealAudio clips from the radio series.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Quantick, David
1961 births
Living people
English male television writers
Comedians from Devon
Comedians from Hampshire
Comedians from South Yorkshire
English biographers
English comedy writers
English humorists
English male journalists
English male screenwriters
English music critics
English radio writers
English screenwriters
English television writers
English male biographers
NME writers
People educated at Plymouth College
People from Exmouth
People from Wortley, South Yorkshire