Al Hunter Ashton Radio Plays
Al Hunter Ashton (26 June 1957 – 27 April 2007), born Alan Hunter, was an English actor and script writer.
Al came from a working class background. Born Alan Hunter (he later changed his name by deed poll to Al Hunter), he wrote scripts for his own amusement from the age of 15. He worked in his spare time as a stand-up comedian in clubs for £15 a night but became a stripper on discovering that he could earn the same amount for shedding his clothes. He was a naturist and often worked at home in the nude - with the curtains closed to keep out prying eyes.
He acted under the name "Al Ashton", choosing this to ensure he appeared high up in any alphabetical credits. He wrote under the name "Al Hunter". Later he combined the two acting and writing under the name "Al Hunter Ashton".
His first professional acting work was with a Theatre In Education company in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, and he was subsequently cast in Willy Russell plays such as Breezeblock Park (at Liverpool Playhouse) and Blood Brothers (at Derby Playhouse). Russell also later commissioned him to write the BBC Schools television play Teaching Matthew (in which Hunter also had a small role as a policeman, 1985), a satire on Russell's own Educating Rita. He was a frequent actor in some popular television series - though unfortunately my knowledge of TV is nil.
Al worked very closely with the Stage 22 School of Arts Network in the UK and upon his death from heart failure, children from the school made their own version of the Queen hit Only the Good Die Young which was dedicated to him and his three young children.
RADIO WORK
FIRST LOVE....c1992
A series broadcast in the early nineties at the long-after-the-watershed time of 11.30pm. Rather explicit in content but well written and entertaining. Each play about 30 minutes.
MAKING DO
by Tracey Aston : Middle - aged love.
THE CORNERS OF THE MOUTH
By Graham Swannell : Teenage Love.
ALISON
By Al Hunter: Two thirty-somethings look back ten years. ....Recordings supplied by Clive Lever .
HOWEVER....1991
R4, 30 Dec 91; by Al Hunter. A comedy of love and war set in the Russia-Japan conflict. Andrei's job is to write reports about fictional successes from the front. When these are believed at home, he accidentally becomes a hero overnight. With John Gordon-Sinclair, Willie Rushton, Alison Dowling, Graham Seed, David Richard-Fox, Timothy Carlton, Avril Clark, Timothy Bateson, Shaun Prendergast, Norman Jones. Directed by Adrian Bean. Monday play, 90m.
THE CAROL SINGERS....1987
23/12/87, afternoon play.
PIECES OF A SILVER LINING....c1983.
Afternoon Theatre with Martin Jameson .
BOOT BOOT WALLOP WALLOP NUT....1981
Thirty minute theatre. R4 31.10.1981/1430 with Alan Devereux/Mike Dowling/Colin Meredith/Patricia Gallimore. A highly entertaining comedy play about two lads at a football match. Hence the title.
THREE SHORT STORIES....date nk
Read by Alan Deveraux (Sid Perks from The Archers).
Nigel Deacon / Diversity website
Most of the above known to exist in VRPCC collections
