Actor, writer and puppeteer Wink Taylor and actress and comic creator Jessica Martin star in a soon-to-be released audio drama adaptation of the play Jeepers Creepers by Robert Ross, a two-hander chronicling the public and private life of comedian Marty Feldman.
After twenty years as a struggling variety turn and then a prolific scriptwriter and television star, comic genius Marty Feldman found screen stardom with his very first Hollywood role in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein.
With his wife Lauretta as the power behind the throne, his rise and fall and decline is related through bittersweet memories of the past and intoxicated infidelities in the present.
“Marty’s wife Lauretta was the driving force by his side,” says actress and comic creator Jessica Martin, who recorded her scenes in the new adaptation from her home studio HQ. “The play ran in the West End and has now been adapted and produced by the award-winning Spiteful Puppet productions. Wink Taylor brings Marty to life with his spot on portrayal.”
Jeepers Creepers has been adapted for audio by Robert Ross and Barnaby Eaton-Jones, and produced and directed by Barnaby Eaton-Jones. The resulting drama is a fantasy, a riff, with roots in fact – a three-act, two-handed snapshot of a loving, complex, completely fascinating couple, seen through the unique prism of a cornerstone of comedy, and the unique eyes of Marty Feldman.
Wink Taylor, described by some as “the man behind Basil Brush”, is an impressionist, writer and puppeteer, that extreme rarity in show business: a true all round entertainer. In a hugely varied career, he’s appeared alongside some of the greatest names in light entertainment such as Norman Wisdom, Ken Dodd and Paul Daniels, to name but a few.
He’s played the piano for Princess Anne, performed a ventriloquist routine for Mohammed Al Fayed, and credits include the audio drama, Doctor Who: Lost in the Dark Dimension, Sooty, Theo the Mouse – and he’s also the voice and writer behind the international range of celebrity talking greeting cards – Chatterbox, twice the recipient of the International Award for Best Comedy Greeting Cards.
His first novel, Bandril Invasion, the fourth in Candy Jar’s “Lucy Wilson Mysteries” series, was published last year, and he also also has stories in the Doctor Who spin-off anthologies Lethbridge-Stewart – Lineage, and Lethbridge-Stewart: The HAVOC Files 4.
Jessica Martin is an actress, singer, and impressionist whose career has diversified to include comic writing and illustrating. Last year, she successfully crowdfunded her graphic memoir Life Drawing: A Life Under Lights, which was published by Unbound. She most recently played the role of Mrs Blitzstein in the Union Theatre production of Lionel Bart’s Blitz, for which she was nominated this year’s Offie award for Best Lead Performance in a Musical.
• Jessica Martin is online at jessicamartinofficial.com
• Comics and Graphic Novels by Jessica Martin on AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Audio, downthetubes News, Other Worlds
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