Biography of Ron Pearson

Ron's working life was spent in advertising. Starting as office boy he saw service in Leeds, London and Bradford agencies before he became Managing Director and then Chairman of one of Yorkshire's most respected agencies. To ease the strain of this exacting work Ron joined his village dramatic society. Several years later he auditioned and was accepted by the prestigious Bradford Playhouse. Billie Whitelaw, Edwar Petherbridge, Paul Whitson-Jones, Tom Bell, Rita Barlow, Duncan Preston, George Layton and quite a few more saw service at the Playhouse. In a lull from acting Ron wrote a one-act play that he thought was brilliant. A local adjudicator was not impressed. She was right. Ron then took a stab at a television script. At the time he was writing and directing a series of commercials for `Fisherman's Friend' featuring actor/writer/wrestler Brian Glover. He was not impressed. He did, however, give Ron three words of valuable advice re T.V. scripts - 'Watch the Slots'. On semi-retirement Ron enrolled on a playwriting course at the Swarthmore Centre in Leeds. One piece impressed the tutor (at last) and he encouraged Ron to open it out into a full-length script and to enter it into the Radio Times Drama Awards. Out of almost 900 entries it won first prize. It went out on BBC1 peak time Sunday. 'Harry's Kingdom' starred Timothy West and Peter Vaughan and was named `best single drama' by the London Evening Standard. Repeats followed on BBC2 and UKGold and it went America, Canada and round the world. The BBC commissioned a series - with cash up front - and after various stops and starts 14 x 1 hour long episodes were written before the project finally hit the dust. That's show business. After Harry's Kingdom Ron became flavour of the month. Hampstead Theatre Club invited him down `for a chat' and the Royal Court asked him to 'pop in'. Neither offered any money. Ron offered no scripts. A mite fed up with all this Ron concentrated on acting, directing and wielding a nifty paintbrush until he got the idea for 'The Last Reel'. Ron is grateful to Jasper for publishing this play, which he hopes will be popular throughout the U.K. Incidentally, at one time Ron held the world rights for a musical version of J. B. Priestley's classic comedy `When we are Married' but that's another story. He is currently working on another script due for completion early in 2008. Ron - a full member of the Writer's Guild of Great Britain for many years - is now a Life Member.