| Graham Duff | |
|---|---|
| Born | Blackburn |
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Graham Duff is an English writer, actor and producer. He was born in Blackburn, Lancashire and currently resides in Brighton on the south coast of England. He attended and graduated from the University of Brighton. His work for TV and radio is typified by intricate plotting, large casts, frequently dark subject matter and a love of wordplay and surrealism. His writing is influenced by the worlds of horror and science fiction, musical sub-cultures and the realms of fine art and art house cinema. He is a noted music enthusiast, having worked as a DJ and selected all the soundtrack music for seven series of his TV show "Ideal", as well as curating an ‘Ideal’ soundtrack album and helping to release albums by the leftfield bands Celebricide and Cyclobe.
Graham began writing and performing in the mid 1980’s with the performance art group Theatre of the Bleeding Obelisk and the fringe theatre company Wax Cabinet. During this period, he also worked occasionally as an assistant editor at Ikon, the video department of Manchester’s Factory Records. By the early 90’s he was a member of the comedy improvisation group Fish-heads. With Wax Cabinet colleague Malcolm Boyle, he wrote for BBC Radio 1’s "Mark Goodier Show" and contributed sketches to BBC Radio 3’s "The Music Makers". Graham also DJ’d and hosted comedy phone-in shows in the guise of self help guru Doctor Devlin on a number of independent and pirate radio stations, as well as presenting "The Duff Almanac", a regular feature on BBC Radio 4’s "Loose Ends".
His first one man stage show was ‘Burroughs’ (1992) – based on the life and times of infamous beat author William S. Burroughs. The show won a Brighton Festival award and was followed by "Diary of a Madman" (1993), adapted from the novel of the same name by Russian absurdist author Nikolai Gogol. With comedian and writer James Poulter, Graham toured internationally with the stand up shows "The A-Z of Drugs" (1995) and "The A-Z of Taboo" (1996). These were followed by another solo comedy show "Vinyl Anorak" (1997) about the world of music obsessives.
Along with Henry Normal and Steve Coogan, Graham co-wrote the six part comedy horror homage "Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible" (BBC2 2001), which starred Coogan in seven different roles. Graham himself appeared in four supporting roles. Graham then created and wrote all 53 episodes of "Ideal" (BBC3 & BBC2 2005-2011) starring Johnny Vegas as Manchester cannabis dealer Moz. Graham also appeared in the show as the promiscuous and bitchy gay man Brian, as well as an uncredited role as Moz’s frightening, masked neighbour Fist.
Graham wrote and performed the lead roles in his six part comedy series "Stereonation" (adapted from the stage show ‘Vinyl Anorak’) which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the summer of 1998. From 1998 to 2000, he presented "Totally Wired", an alternative music show on Brighton's "Juice 107.2" . Following this, Graham wrote three series of the BBC Radio 4 sci-fi sit-com "Nebulous" (2005-2008) starring Mark Gatiss as Professor Nebulous. The show featured Graham as the Professor’s assistant Rory. Graham has also worked as the script editor on all seven series of BBC Radio 4’s "Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show!" (2005-2011) starring Steve Delaney. The 4th series of which won the prestigious Sony Gold Award.
Aside from appearing in his own work, Graham has a small speaking part, as a Death Eater in the films "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" (2010) and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" (2011). He has also appeared in ITV’s comedy series "Monkey Trousers" (2005), Channel 4's "Ketch & Hiro-pon Get it On" (2008), as well as starring as a convicted pedophile in David Cross’s dark sit-com "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret" (2011) and a nazi in the Channel 4 comedy show "Totally Tom" (2011).
Graham has written articles for "The Guardian" and "Wire Magazine". He has also contributed a chapter to "The Cosey Complex" - a forthcoming book about the life and work of musician and performance artist Cosey Fanni Tutti to be published in 2012. He's made guest contributions on a number of albums by "People Like Us" aka Vicki Bennett. He acted in Exile — an audio drama based on Doctor Who , as well as writing another — Faith Stealer starring Paul McGann.