Christine is a writer, performer and director. She is currently developing her comedy drama DOYOUWISHTOCONTINUE with production company Big Talk and was recently commissioned to adapt and direct her play MURMURATION for Hampstead theatre. Her award winning writing for radio lead her to be selected for the ERA 50:50 TellHerVision all female comedy writing room for TV.
CHRISTINE comes from a visual theatre background originally, and began making her own work for stage and cabaret before moving on to short films and installations. Most of her stories have women at their heart, are often set in her homeland of West Cumbria, using dark humour – sometimes to an absurd degree – to consider the vicissitudes of the human condition.
After winning the BBC Writers Prize in 2015 for her first radio play DOYOUWISHTOCONTINUE – she went on to write several more dark comedy dramas for radio four. Her second radio play SECRET KEBABS won the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2017 for Best Scripted Comedy, and her third play IDLE HANDS – about a redundant bank clerk who stalks her young postman – received a Writers Guild nomination for best radio drama 2019.
Christine likes to work across different mediums, allowing the subject matter to dictate the form. An example of this would be MURMURATION. In response to working with Voice Hearers during her time as Artist In Residence at MIND in Islington, she made a site specific 8mm film installation and was then supported by The National Theatre to develop the idea further. It became a radio play in 2021 – the perfect medium for a piece about audio hallucinations – starring Christopher Eccleston. And finally, Christine was commissioned by Hampstead Theatre to adapt and direct that radio play for the stage in 2023.
Christine’s work has always reflected her interest in mental health which she further pursued with a Masters degree in Psychoanalytic Studies at The Tavistock Clinic, London. Her most recent play TALKING TO CHICKENS is about the escape and adventures of an elderly lady with dementia who is followed by a doctor who’s own cognition is impaired due to the menopause. Her lived experience as a carer for a parent with Alzheimer’s lead to her current work: the abridgement of a new book about dementia and the human brain: TRAVELLERS TO UNIMAGINABLE LANDS.
After DOYOUWISHTOCONTINUE went on to tin the Funny Women Writers Award, it was picked up by Big Talk Productions and Christine is currently drafting the pilot episode for TV. Her screen writing skills developed when she was selected by North West Vision to attend a two year programme of workshops and tutorials culminating in her first feature script SMALL TOWN. She particularly enjoys writing for screen and has written and directed several short films, receiving a Best Director award for OUR ORDERED LIVES at Underwire Festival. Her comedy short MANHUNT was a finalist in the 2016 Funny Women’s Awards and played at the New York Comedy Film Festival.
After originally writing for devised theatre companies such as The People Show and Scarlet Theatre, she began to write and produce her own theatre work including MISSING JESUS and FINE for The Young Vic, and has now gone on to become a commissioned writer working for Shared Experience and The Royal Court during lock down, and more recently for Hampstead Theatre. She is currently developing her new play BREAKAGES, originally commissioned as a short for The Royal Court.
Christine has always enjoyed working in comedy and was the director and script editor of Foster Comedy Award nominees Lazy Susan for their first three years in Edinburgh. She has written extensively for her own comedy characters and stand up, and was half of the cabaret double act WONDERHORSE for several years. More recently she co- wrote and directed the You Tube comedy series FAIRY JOB about a wannabe children’s party entertainer who thinks she is a real fairy. She was delighted to be selected for TELLHERVISION comedy writers room – a small group of female writers set up by ERA 50:50 to address the gender imbalance within TV comedy.
