Patron

JEREMY DYSON

Jeremy Dyson

The first Patron of the Fantastic Films Weekend is writer, filmmaker, musician and occasional actor JEREMY DYSON .

Jeremy Dyson was born in Leeds. He studied Philosophy at Leeds University and later completed an MA in screenwriting at the Northern School of Film and Television. He is one of the award-winning comedy team The League of Gentlemen and currently operates between London and West Yorkshire.

Often described as the reclusive member of The League of Gentlemen, Dyson is instead a pragmatic man. A self-confessed ‘non actor' he restricts his on-screen appearances to the occasional cameo and lets fellow ‘Gentlemen' Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Mark Gatiss bear the burden of bringing more than 90 characters to life. Dyson, after a childhood spent devouring a mind-blowing range of film and TV horror and comedy, attended the city's university where the academic discipline fortified writing as a viable career.

After working as a bookseller, an occupation he exploited by gorging on a vast array of books on literature, cinema, philosophy and art he encountered his LoG co-writers at Leeds University's Bretton Hall drama school. They soon discovered a shared fascination with TV comedy and drama, twisted sexuality, horror film and alternative theatre (savagely lampooned later through the LoG character Oliver Plimsolls) and the group prepared a review show for theatre and festival audiences. Dyson and Gatiss also produced a now rare spoof of kids' TV magazines called This Is It! where their black and sick parodic style of comic writing, tinged with longing, was realised. This life-long love of supernatural horror film and weird television has resulted in regular invitations to fan conventions, guest appearances on TV ‘greatest ever' compilations and wryly comic voice-over commentaries on commercial DVDs.

The success of LoG resulted in Dyson directing his first film. The Cicerones, an enigmatic gothic rendering of Robert Aikman's short ghost story with Gatiss in the lead role, was filmed on location in Ghent. Returning to TV Dyson created the dark soap Funland with EastEnders writer Simon Ashdown.

As well as his prolific screenwriting duties Dyson has published a collection of disturbing short stories, Never Trust a Rabbit and Bright Darkness: the Lost Art of the Supernatural Horror Film, a critical-historical account of a neglected film sub-genre crucial to Dyson and the LoG 's oeuvre. His novel, What Happens Now, was published earlier this year by Abacus .

Dyson has a low-profile career as a musician and plays in the cult group Rudolf Rocker who were once John Peel favourites. Rudolf Rocker supplied LoG failed rockers Crème Brule with their non-hit Voodoo Lady, which Jeremy co-wrote. He also wrote the book to accompany music by composer and arranger Joby Talbot for The Same Dog that debuted in 2000 at The Barbican, thus confirming that for once the term ‘Renaissance Man' holds some validity. Mark Goodall