David Quantick | |
|---|---|
 Quantick at aBCA event in May 2018 | |
| Born | (1961-05-14)14 May 1961 (age 64) Wortley,West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 1983–present |
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 magazineNME, his writing credits have includedOn the Hour,Blue Jam andTV Burp. He won anEmmy Award forVeep in 2015.[1]
Quantick was born inWortley,West Riding of Yorkshire (nowSouth Yorkshire) on 14 May 1961, adopted, and moved at an early age with his family toPlymouth.[2] Quantick spent the 1970s in Exmouth.[3] Quantick went to Woodford Junior School andPlymouth College, thenExmouth 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.[4]
Quantick studied for a Law degree atUniversity 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."[5] and took a Civil Service exam "to please my parents" and nearly failed"[5]—"which was a shock".[5][6][7]
"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."
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Quantick began writing for the music publicationNME in 1983, where withSteven Wells he concentrated on comedy writing until 1995. Alongside this, he also contributed material toBritish comedy shows such asSpitting Image. In 1992, he joined the writing team for theRadio 4 spoof news programmeOn the Hour, before writing for the television follow-upThe Day Today in 1994. He appeared regularly onCollins andMaconie's Hit Parade (Radio 1, 1994–1997), with hisQuantick's World slot and on the weekly show,The Treatment onBBC Radio Five Live, which was an hour-long satirical news round-up.
In 1995, Quantick presented a pilot show calledNow What? toCarlton Television but he series was not picked up for development. He wrote withChris Morris forBrass Eye in 1996 (broadcast in 1997) andBlue Jam (Radio 1, 1997), as well as the subsequent television versionJam (Channel 4, 2000). He also provided material forSmack 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'sThe 99p Challenge.
Working withJane Bussmann, he co-wrote and performedBussmann & Quantick Kingsize for BBC Radio 4 in 1998.
In 2000, Bussmann and Quantick created, specifically made for download over the web,[8] what Quantick has claimed was the world's first[3] internet sitcom anddocusitcom (documentary/sitcom),The Junkies,[9] about three heroin addicts.[10] StarringPeter Baynham,Sally Phillips,Peter Serafinowicz, andKevin Eldon in acameo appearance,[11] 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'sYouTube.[12][11]
In 2000, Quantick's biography ofthe Clash was published, with further books appearing in 2001. That year he collaborated with Andrew Collins and Stuart Maconie onLloyd Cole Knew My Father, a live show about working as a music journalist. A performance was later broadcast onRadio 2 as a six-episode series. In 2003 and 2005, Quantick contributed material to sketch showThat Mitchell and Webb Sound, five series of15 Minute Musical (2004–08) and several series ofParsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections. He also made several appearances onClive Anderson's radio panel showWe've Been Here Before in 2003 and 2004.
In 2005, Quantick appeared in Channel 4'sCome Dine with Me. Between 2003 and 2005 Quantick co-presented a weekly programmeOne Way Single Parent Family Favourites on London based community arts radio stationResonance 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 ofHarry Hill's TV Burp. Following its final series, Quantick contributed material toThe Thick of It, helped write material for the comedianRob Brydon, and recorded further editions ofThe Blagger's Guide for Radio 2 until 2014.
In September 2012, Quantick published an e-book novel,Sparks, which was positively reviewed byNeil Gaiman andBen Aaronovitch.[13] He produced a four-episode comedy series52 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.[14] He received anEmmy in 2015 for his work on the HBO seriesVeep.[1] That year he crowd-funded a novelThe Mule via theUnbound company which was released on 25 February 2016.[15] He had two writing manuals published with Oberon Books:How To Write Everything in 2015, thenHow to Be a Writer: Conversations With Writers About Writing the following year.[16]
In April 2019, his novelAll My Colors came out, described by the author David M Barnett as "a blend ofMurakami-ish otherworldliness,Stephen King small town horror andDouglas Adams-esque absurdity."[17][18]
In 2019, Quantick became a Visiting Professor with theUniversity of Sunderland.[19][20][21]
In 2022, Quantick's first movie,Book Of Love, was released.[22] In the same year it won Best Primetime Movie at the 2022 Imagen Awards.[23]
Quantick has lived inEast Sussex since about 2011.[24][25]
Collins, Maconie and Quantick
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