David Quantick
Encyclopedia
David Quantick is a freelance journalist
, writer and critic who specialises in music and comedy.
in 1983, alongside Danny Baker
and Paul Morley
. Together with Steven Wells
, he contributed to many of the humorous snippet sections in the paper. He gained a reputation for incisive and witty observations on popular culture
and music. In addition to rock journalism, he was also submitting gags and sketches to British comedy shows
such as Spitting Image
.
Quantick built his profile steadily and his name began to appear increasingly often in print, radio and television. In 1992, Armando Iannucci
asked him to join the writing team for the Radio 4
spoof new programme On the Hour
, after which he made the natural progression to the television follow-up The Day Today
(BBC2
, 1994). Both shows were highly acclaimed, won awards and marshalled a loyal fan base.
At this stage, Quantick was still submitting copy to the NME, only giving up in 1995 after an unusually long association with the paper. Around this time, he was appearing regularly on Collins and Maconie
's Hit Parade (Radio 1
, 1994–1997), commenting astringently upon music's stars. This developed into his own named slot in the show, named Quantick's World. His relationship with Maconie continued in parallel on the weekly show, The Treatment on BBC Radio Five Live
, which was an hour-long satirical news round-up.
In 1995, Carlton Television
broadcast a set of 6 pilot television shows, one of which was Now What?. The series was not picked up for development but Quantick found a writing partner through these proceedings in Jane Bussmann
. The two went on to write and perform Bussmann & Quantick Kingsize (1998), a series of sketches and monologues for BBC Radio 4
.
Quantick rejoined Chris Morris
to write for Brass Eye
in 1996 (broadcast in 1997). He also wrote for Morris's radio series Blue Jam
(Radio 1
, 1997) and the subsequent television version Jam
(Channel 4
, 2000). The 2001 Brass Eye Special attracted so much protest that Government ministers promptly condemned the programme without having seen it.
Throughout this period, he also contributed to less provocative fare such as Smack the Pony
(Channel 4, 1999–2001), Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show
(Sky One, 2000) and could be heard on Radio 4
's The 99p Challenge
.
In 2000, Quantick and Bussmann created the world's first Internet sitcom Junkies
about three heroin addicts. Quantick also claimed it as the first docusitcom (documentary/sitcom). It starred long-time Morris collaborator Peter Baynham
, with Sally Phillips
(Smack the Pony) and Peter Serafinowicz
(Look Around You
). The project grew out of the writing pair's frustration with the commissioning process. The average sitcom, they said, costs £200,000 to make and finding funds is too difficult. 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.
In 2001, Quantick collaborated with Collins and Maconie again on Lloyd Cole Knew My Father, a live show where the three recounted humorous tales of working as rock journalists. Stories centred on the deflating aspects of the job: the boredom, missing assignments, the idiosyncrasies of fan letters. A performance was later broadcast on Radio 2
as a six-episode serial.
Around this time, Quantick took part in a number of nostalgic list shows on British television themed around decades past: I Love the 1980s and I Love the 1990s etc.
In 2003 and 2005, Quantick contributed material to sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound
, and co-wrote five series of 15 Minute Musical
(2004–08) with Richie Webb
, whom he also wrote with on several series of Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections
.
2005 also saw him take part in Channel 4's Come Dine With Me
, with four other celebrities.
Throughout, Quantick worked on biographies of musicians and comedians (The Clash
, Beck
, Lenny Bruce
, Richard Pryor
and Bill Hicks
).
Quantick continues to write, and co-presents a weekly programme One Way Single Parent Family Favourites on art radio station Resonance FM
. He is also part of the writing team of Harry Hill's TV Burp
, and writes and presents series 3 of 'The Blagger's Guide', a six-part comedy series on BBC Radio 2 with writer and producer Simon Poole. He also appears as Doctor Dave Radio on another Radio 2 comedy programme, Radio Rivron.
In 2006, Quantick recorded One — his first solo BBC Radio 4 series. A show in which no sketch featured more than one voice, it received excellent reviews and featured a variety of performers and writers, including Graeme Garden
, Bill Oddie
, Dan Maier, Kevin Cecil
and Jeremy Clarkson
.
On 3 April 2008, Word Magazine
was forced to apologise in court to Morrissey
, over an article by Quantick that accused the singer of racism and hypocrisy. In June 2008, Quantick was recruited as one of the launch presenters of Q Radio
, presenting a weekly show. He will also write a column for Q magazine
.
Quantick regularly stood in when Stephen Merchant
was unavailable for his Sunday afternoon BBC 6 Music
radio show, and occasionally stands in for other broadcasters on the station. In 2007, he wrote the Doctor Who
audio play 'The Dark Husband
' featuring the 7th Doctor
, Sylvester McCoy
, for Big Finish Productions
.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, writer and critic who specialises in music and comedy.
Career history
David Quantick began writing for the music publication NMENME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
in 1983, alongside Danny Baker
Danny Baker
Danny Baker is an English comedy writer, journalist, radio DJ and screenwriter. Since the late 1970s, he has worked for a wide range of publications and broadcasters including NME, LWT, the BBC, and Talk Radio....
and Paul Morley
Paul Morley
Paul Morley is an English journalist, who wrote for the New Musical Express from 1977 to 1983, during one of its most successful periods, and has since written for a wide range of publications...
. Together with Steven Wells
Steven Wells
Steven Wells was a British journalist, author, comedian and notable punk poet born in Swindon, Wiltshire. He is best remembered for ranting poetry and his provocative, unapologetic music journalism. In June 2006, he wrote in the Philadelphia Weekly about his treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma...
, he contributed to many of the humorous snippet sections in the paper. He gained a reputation for incisive and witty observations on popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
and music. In addition to rock journalism, he was also submitting gags and sketches to British comedy shows
British comedy
British comedy, in film, radio and television, is known for its consistently quirky characters, plots and settings, and has produced some of the most famous and memorable comic actors and characters in the last fifty years.-Film comedy:...
such as Spitting Image
Spitting Image
Spitting Image is a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central Television. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one for editing in 1989....
.
Quantick built his profile steadily and his name began to appear increasingly often in print, radio and television. In 1992, Armando Iannucci
Armando Iannucci
Armando Giovanni Iannucci is a Scottish comedian, satirist, writer, director, performer and radio producer. Born in Glasgow, he studied at Oxford University and left graduate work on a PhD about John Milton to pursue a career in comedy....
asked him to join the writing team for the Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
spoof new programme On the Hour
On the Hour
On the Hour was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992.Written by Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring and David Quantick, it starred Morris as the overzealous and...
, after which he made the natural progression to the television follow-up The Day Today
The Day Today
The Day Today is a surreal British parody of television current affairs programmes, broadcast in 1994, and created by the comedians Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris. It is an adaptation of the radio programme On the Hour, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992...
(BBC2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
, 1994). Both shows were highly acclaimed, won awards and marshalled a loyal fan base.
At this stage, Quantick was still submitting copy to the NME, only giving up in 1995 after an unusually long association with the paper. Around this time, he was appearing regularly on Collins and Maconie
Stuart Maconie
Stuart Maconie is an English radio DJ and television presenter, writer, journalist, and critic working in the field of of pop music and popular culture. He is currently a presenter on BBC 6 Music, where he hosts an afternoon show five times a week , alongside Mark Radcliffe, called the Radcliffe...
's Hit Parade (Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
, 1994–1997), commenting astringently upon music's stars. This developed into his own named slot in the show, named Quantick's World. His relationship with Maconie continued in parallel on the weekly show, The Treatment on BBC Radio Five Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
, which was an hour-long satirical news round-up.
In 1995, Carlton Television
Carlton Television
Carlton Television was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties including the cities of Solihull and Coventry of the West Midlands, south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire,...
broadcast a set of 6 pilot television shows, one of which was Now What?. The series was not picked up for development but Quantick found a writing partner through these proceedings in Jane Bussmann
Jane Bussmann
Jane Bussmann is a comedian and author who has written for television and radio. Her credits include The Fast Show, Smack the Pony, Brass Eye, Jam and South Park, as well as the radio series Bussmann and Quantick Kingsize with David Quantick...
. The two went on to write and perform Bussmann & Quantick Kingsize (1998), a series of sketches and monologues for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
.
Quantick rejoined Chris Morris
Chris Morris (satirist)
Christopher Morris is an English satirist, writer, director and actor. A former radio DJ, he is best known for anchoring the spoof news and current affairs television programmes The Day Today and Brass Eye, as well as his frequent engagement with controversial subject matter.In 2010 Morris...
to write for Brass Eye
Brass Eye
Brass Eye is a UK television series of satirical spoof documentaries. A series of six aired on Channel 4 in 1997, and a further episode in 2001....
in 1996 (broadcast in 1997). He also wrote for Morris's radio series Blue Jam
Blue Jam
Blue Jam was an ambient radio comedy programme created and directed by Chris Morris. It aired on BBC Radio 1 in the early hours of the morning from 1997 to 1999....
(Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
, 1997) and the subsequent television version Jam
Jam (TV series)
Jam was a postmodern British dark comedy series created, written and directed by Chris Morris, and broadcast on Channel 4 during March and April 2000...
(Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, 2000). The 2001 Brass Eye Special attracted so much protest that Government ministers promptly condemned the programme without having seen it.
Throughout this period, he also contributed to less provocative fare such as Smack the Pony
Smack the Pony
Smack the Pony is a British sketch comedy show that ran from 1999 until 2003 on Channel 4. Its title was intended to sound like a euphemism for female masturbation; the working title was Spot the Pony. The main performers and writers on the show were Fiona Allen, Doon Mackichan and Sally Phillips...
(Channel 4, 1999–2001), Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show
Harry Enfield
Henry Richard "Harry" Enfield is a BAFTA-winning English comedian, actor, writer and director.-Early life:...
(Sky One, 2000) and could be heard on Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's The 99p Challenge
The 99p Challenge
The 99p Challenge is a spoof panel game originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4. The show is presented by Sue Perkins and features a selection of regular panelists such as Armando Iannucci and regular writers Kevin Cecil, Andy Riley, Jon Holmes and Tony Roche...
.
In 2000, Quantick and Bussmann created the world's first Internet sitcom Junkies
The Junkies (pilot)
The Junkies was a British sitcom pilot, produced in 2000 for a budget of just £3,500, and distributed over the Internet.The show was one of the first to be specifically made for download over the web. It was written by Jane Bussmann and David Quantick, and starred Peter Baynham, Sally Phillips,...
about three heroin addicts. Quantick also claimed it as the first docusitcom (documentary/sitcom). It starred long-time Morris collaborator Peter Baynham
Peter Baynham
Peter Baynham is a screenwriter and a British comedian, writer, and performer. He often collaborates with Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris and has worked with Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. He is first heard on Morris' early radio DJ slots, often going out to places...
, with Sally Phillips
Sally Phillips
-Career:Sally Phillips was the only woman in the 1990 Oxford Revue THRASH which also starred Ed Smith. She did nine consecutive Edinburgh Festivals, appearing in shows such as Ra-Ra-Rasputin, Arthur Smith's version of Hamlet and Cluub Zarathustra with Simon Munnery, Stewart Lee, Richard Thomas,...
(Smack the Pony) and Peter Serafinowicz
Peter Serafinowicz
Peter Szymon Serafinowicz is an English actor, comedian, writer, composer, voice artist and occasional director.-Early life:Serafinowicz was born in Liverpool, England. He attended Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Primary School and St Francis Xavier Secondary School...
(Look Around You
Look Around You
Look Around You is a British television comedy series devised and written by Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz, and, in the first series, narrated by Nigel Lambert...
). The project grew out of the writing pair's frustration with the commissioning process. The average sitcom, they said, costs £200,000 to make and finding funds is too difficult. 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.
In 2001, Quantick collaborated with Collins and Maconie again on Lloyd Cole Knew My Father, a live show where the three recounted humorous tales of working as rock journalists. Stories centred on the deflating aspects of the job: the boredom, missing assignments, the idiosyncrasies of fan letters. A performance was later broadcast on Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
as a six-episode serial.
Around this time, Quantick took part in a number of nostalgic list shows on British television themed around decades past: I Love the 1980s and I Love the 1990s etc.
In 2003 and 2005, Quantick contributed material to sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound
That Mitchell and Webb Sound
That Mitchell and Webb Sound is a comedy sketch show on BBC Radio 4 which started on 28 August 2003. A second series was broadcast in 2005 with a third starting on 24 May 2007. The series became adapted for television as That Mitchell and Webb Look in 2006. The series is seen in some ways a...
, and co-wrote five series of 15 Minute Musical
15 Minute Musical
15 Minute Musical is a comedy series on BBC Radio 4 written by Richie Webb, David Quantick and Dave Cohen. Each episode is in a different musical style with a story featuring current celebrities and politicians...
(2004–08) with Richie Webb
Richie Webb
Richie Webb is an award-winning British comedy writer, actor and composer. He was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School.As a writer and performer, he is perhaps best known for his work on BBC Radio 4 comedy programmes...
, whom he also wrote with on several series of Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections
Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections
Parsons and Naylor’s Pull-Out Sections is a BBC Radio 2 satirical comedy show starring Andy Parsons and Henry Naylor. It also stars Richie Webb, and one female "special guest"....
.
2005 also saw him take part in Channel 4's Come Dine With Me
Come Dine With Me
Come Dine With Me is a popular Channel 4 television programme shown in the United Kingdom, produced by Granada Television and first broadcast in January 2005. The show has either four or five amateur chefs competing against each other hosting a dinner party for the other contestants...
, with four other celebrities.
Throughout, Quantick worked on biographies of musicians and comedians (The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
, Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
, Lenny Bruce
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider , better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist...
, Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...
and Bill Hicks
Bill Hicks
William Melvin "Bill" Hicks was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His material largely consisted of general discussions about society, religion, politics, philosophy, and personal issues. Hicks' material was often controversial and steeped in dark comedy...
).
Quantick continues to write, and co-presents a weekly programme One Way Single Parent Family Favourites on art radio station Resonance FM
Resonance FM
Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station run by the London Musicians' Collective .The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and over 300 volunteer technical and production staff.Until September 2007, ResonanceFM...
. He is also part of the writing team of Harry Hill's TV Burp
Harry Hill's TV Burp
Harry Hill's TV Burp is a British television comedy programme produced by Avalon Television for ITV and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. The show presents a satirical look at the week's television, including extracts from TV shows with added sketches, observational voice-overs, and guest appearances...
, and writes and presents series 3 of 'The Blagger's Guide', a six-part comedy series on BBC Radio 2 with writer and producer Simon Poole. He also appears as Doctor Dave Radio on another Radio 2 comedy programme, Radio Rivron.
In 2006, Quantick recorded One — his first solo BBC Radio 4 series. A show in which no sketch featured more than one voice, it received excellent reviews and featured a variety of performers and writers, including Graeme Garden
Graeme Garden
David Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.-Early life and beginnings in comedy:...
, Bill Oddie
Bill Oddie
William "Bill" Edgar Oddie OBE is an English author, actor, comedian, artist, naturalist and musician, who became famous as one of The Goodies....
, Dan Maier, Kevin Cecil
Kevin Cecil
Kevin Robert Cecil is a British screenwriter.Writing alongside Andy Riley , he has won two BAFTA awards, the first for writing the Comic Relief one-off special, Robbie the Reindeer, in 2000, and the second for Black Books in 2005...
and Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson is an English broadcaster, journalist and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for his role on the BBC TV show Top Gear along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May...
.
On 3 April 2008, Word Magazine
Word Magazine
Launched in 1995 by Carey Earle, Tom Livaccari and Dan Pelson, Word Magazine was one of the earliest and most influential e-zines. For over five years, Word created original stories, interviews, games, applications, music, interactive objects and art, and community spaces. Word published new...
was forced to apologise in court to Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
, over an article by Quantick that accused the singer of racism and hypocrisy. In June 2008, Quantick was recruited as one of the launch presenters of Q Radio
Q (radio station)
Q Radio is an online and DTV radio station, broadcasting on digital television across the UK and online. The station launched in June 2008 as an alternative to the UK's rock and alternative stations, with a strong relationship with Q magazine...
, presenting a weekly show. He will also write a column for Q magazine
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
.
Quantick regularly stood in when Stephen Merchant
Stephen Merchant
Stephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the...
was unavailable for his Sunday afternoon BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
radio show, and occasionally stands in for other broadcasters on the station. In 2007, he wrote the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
audio play 'The Dark Husband
The Dark Husband
The Dark Husband is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. -Cast:*Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy*Ace - Sophie Aldred*Hex - Philip Olivier*Ori - Danny Webb...
' featuring the 7th Doctor
Seventh Doctor
The Seventh Doctor is the seventh incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Sylvester McCoy....
, Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy is a Scottish actor. As a comic act and busker he appeared regularly on stage and on BBC Children's television in the 1970s and 80s, but is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1987 to...
, for Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
.
External links
- Collins & Maconie's Hit Parade Audio — SOTCAA — Real Audio clips from the radio series.
- SOTCAA article 'Collins, Maconie and Quantick
- Scroll down to Collins and Maconies' Hit Parade clip — Radio Zone
- Resonance FM
- David Quantick's YouTube channel
- An interview with David Quantick on RechargedMagazine.com