Simon Alexander Farquhar is a British writer and broadcaster. His early one-act plays were staged at the Aberdeen Arts Centre, until a radio script set in Cullen, '' Candy Floss Kisses'', was picked up by actor and producer Martin Jarvis and commissioned for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

. This was followed by another Cullen-based drama, '' Elevenses with Twiggy'', set during the dying days of the Sixties and featuring a cameo performance by

Twiggy Dame Lesley Lawson (''née'' Hornby; born 19 September 1949) is an English model, actress, and singer, widely known by the nickname Twiggy. She was a British cultural icon and a prominent teenaged model during the swinging '60s in London. ...

herself.Harriet Devine ''Playwrights of the Royal Court 1956-2006'', London: Faber, 2006 His first full-length stage play, the

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

-based ''

Rainbow Kiss ''Rainbow Kiss'' is a play by Simon Farquhar, a Scottish writer. The script is published by Oberon Books. London production It was first staged at the Royal Court Upstairs in London in April 2006, having been chosen to occupy the theatre's 50th ...

'', opened at the

Royal Court A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word "court" may also be appl ...

in April 2006. The production starred Joseph McFadden and

Dawn Steele Dawn Steele (born 11 December 1975) is a Scottish actress best known for her portrayals of the characters Alexandra “Lexie” MacDonald from the BBC drama '' Monarch of the Glen'', Alice Trevanion in the ITV drama series '' Wild at Heart'' a ...

and was directed by Richard Wilson, as part of the theatre's 50th anniversary season.Charles Spence
"That kitchen sinking feeling"
''Daily Telegraph'', 14 April 2006Michael Billingto
"Rainbow Kiss, Royal Court, London"
''The Guardian'', 12 April 2006 ''

'' opened in New York in Spring 2008, directed by Will Frears and produced by The Play Company. In October 2006 he was invited to take part in the

Old Vic Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England * Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Ma ...

24 Hour Plays Celebrity Gala. The annual fund-raising event sees six writers asked to each choose from a pool of available actors and each write a ten-minute play for them overnight which is then learned and performed the following evening on the

stage. The result was '' Dream Me a Winter'' starring

Tamzin Outhwaite Tamzin Maria Outhwaite (; born 5 November 1970) is an English actress, presenter and narrator. Since playing the role of Mel Owen in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', she has starred in a number of theatre and television productions, includi ...

and

Patricia Hodge Patricia Ann Hodge, OBE (born 29 September 1946) is an English actor. She is known on-screen for playing Phyllida Erskine-Brown in '' Rumpole of the Bailey'' (1978–1992), Jemima Shore in ''Jemima Shore Investigates'' (1983), Penny in '' Mira ...

."Simon Farquahar"
On Air, Wireless Theatre Company He regularly writes for The Guardian, The Independent and The Times. He has also written many articles and appeared on television and radio as a television historian. In 2007 he wrote and presented the documentary ''Razor Sharp: The Story of Peter McDougall'', the Scottish television dramatist, and in 2015
''A Sympathetic Eye''
for BBC Radio 4. His book '' Play for Today: The First Year 1970-1971'' was published in 2021. His boo
''A Dangerous Place: The Story of the Railway Murders''
(2016) tells the story of the crimes of

John Duffy and David Mulcahy John Francis Duffy (born 1958) and David Mulcahy (born 1959) are two British serial rapists and serial killers who together attacked numerous women and children at railway stations in southern England during the 1980s. Their crimes are often re ...

, and is a memoir of his father, one of the police officers who led the case in the 1980s. It was shortlisted for th
2017 CWA Gold Dagger Award for Non-Fiction
In 2017 he wrote " Wassail Play", which was performed at the Theatre Royal, Dumfries.
''A Desperate Business: The Murder of Muriel McKay''
was published in 2022. It told the story of the 1969 failed attempt to kidnap the wife of

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

, and the continuing mystery of what happened to

Muriel McKay Muriel Freda McKay (4 February 1914 – ) was an Australian woman who was kidnapped on 29 December 1969 in the United Kingdom, and presumed murdered in the first few days of 1970. She was married to Alick McKay, an executive at News Limited an ...

, kidnapped in error and never found. The book was the result of three years of investigating the story, accessing previously-unseen files, and interviewing surviving witnesses, including Nizamodeen Hosein, one of the two brothers convicted of the murder of Muriel McKay.

Radio

* '' Candy Floss Kisses'' (2004) —

Afternoon Play ''Drama'' (formerly ''Afternoon Theatre'', ''Afternoon Drama,'' ''Afternoon Play'') is a BBC Radio 4 radio drama, broadcast every weekday at 2.15pm. Generally each play is 45 minutes in duration and approximately 190 new plays are broadcast each ...

, BBC Radio 4 * '' Elevenses with Twiggy'' (2006) — Afternoon Play, BBC Radio 4
''A Sympathetic Eye''
(2015) - Archive on 4, BBC Radio 4

Stage

* ''

I Do Solemnly Declare I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...

'' (2001) —

Aberdeen Arts Centre Aberdeen Arts Centre is a theatre and arts centre on King Street in Aberdeen, Scotland with a 350-seater auditorium. It is a Category A listed building. The building was originally the North Parish Church. The church was converted to an Arts ...

* ''

'' (2006) —

* '' Dream Me a Winter'' (2006) —

(part of ''The 24 Hour Plays'') * '' Wassail Play'' (2017) -

Theatre Royal, Dumfries The Theatre Royal in Dumfries, Scotland is the oldest working theatre in Scotland. The Theatre is owned by the Guild of Players who bought it in 1959, thereby saving it from demolition. The Guild's aim is to promote the tradition of live theatre ...

Books

*
A Dangerous Place
' (2016) * '' Play for Today: The First Year 1970-1971'' (2021) *
A Desperate Business: The Murder of Muriel McKay
' (2022)

Journalism

*
Obituaries for The Independent
'

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farquhar, Simon 1972 births Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Living people People from Aberdeenshire Scottish male stage actors Scottish dramatists and playwrights