Comedy scripts to be showcased at Suffolk's Ink festival

The Suffolk town of Halesworth is to showcase over 30 radio, stage and screen scripts by East Anglian writers as part of the Ink 2017 festival. Additionally, there will be a special performance of two Ethel and Albert scripts created by comedy star Peg Lynch as part of the weekend's events.

The Cut venue in Halesworth will be hosting Ink between the 22nd and 23rd April. Now in its third year, the festival champions the best new scripts from East Anglian writers. The jam-packed weekend programme features new short stage productions, radio plays and films performed in a variety of spaces all over the renovated maltings building.

In amongst the programme this year are new offerings from comedy writers Bill Philpot, Andy Powrie and Lewis Wilding. Jon Canter (whose recent Radio 4 offerings include Boswell's Lives and Believe It!) and award-winning sitcom writer Jan Etherington (Second Thoughts, Faith In The Future) will be showcasing their latest scripts too.

The Hunted Man by Bill Philpot focuses on a gentleman whose beautiful daughter Sara is stepping out with 'Renaissance Man' Archie. The short play is billed as "fear and loathing in the shires."

Andy Powrie's Knock Knock is build around 'miserable git' Terry Britain. The programme teases: "Nothing improved when his wife ran off with a Hell's Angel. Until today." Meanwhile It's A Sperm's Life, penned by Lewis Wilding, is an "odd-ball comedy" about a batch of spermatozoa who "get an illuminating and hilarious induction."

Moussaka by Jon Canter is a comedy about a businessman who takes his first wife to lunch in a Greek taverna. The festival's programme notes say: "The young waiter struggles with their outsize order of nostalgia and ego."

Jan Etherington presents A Day In The (Married) Life, a sitcom about Jude and Harry. Jude is restless and dissatisfied with her long marriage and one small event is enough to make her decide to leave him. But will he notice she's gone? Etherington is also presenting a new radio play at Ink this year. The Flying Eye is about Tony, a plumber who wins a flight in the local radio traffic-spotter plane. Soon he is wishing he never left the ground though.

However, the highlight of the festival is likely to be an event which will delight fans of comedy history, and reveals a unique link between Suffolk and one of the founders of American sitcom.

In Her Mother's Voice, Astrid Ronning, who lives in Walberswick, presents the timeless humour of her mother, Peg Lynch (pictured), the first woman to create, write, produce, own, and star in both her own radio and television comedy series. Her creation, Ethel and Albert, about the everyday life of an average middle class couple living in small town America, became one of that country's most popular husband and wife comedies from the day it was first heard in 1938. In total, the show ran across radio and TV for over 60 years.

Peg Lynch has been described as "the woman who created sitcom" and a "comedy genius". At Ink festival, Astrid will play Ethel, the role created and performed by her mother, with leading actor Bernard Hill as her 'husband', Albert.

Hill is perhaps mostly known for strong dramatic roles, including Wolf Hall and Lord of The Rings and, perhaps most memorably, as Yosser - 'Gissa job' - in Boys From The Blackstuff. However, he reveals he's delighted to be performing light-hearted scripts again. "I've got comedy bones. Growing up, you either became the best fighter, or made people laugh. I told really good jokes!"

He adds: "Discovering Peg Lynch's script was like opening Pandora's box. They have wonderful structure and reflect what American life was really like back then."

Naturally, Astrid is extremely proud of her mother's life and career. During her lifetime, Peg wrote over 11,000 radio and television scripts, alone and unaided. Her last live performance was at the age of 96, at a Radio convention in Ohio - and she recorded a Comic Relief message before she died, in July 2015, 18 months before her 100th birthday.

So how does a daughter fill her mother's shoes? "Very carefully," says Astrid, laughing. Before performing two short episodes of Ethel & Albert with Bernard at the festival, she is planning to play recordings of her mother talking about her work and show a vintage 1950 kinescope of Peg in action. It's not to be missed!

Find out more about Peg Lynch via peglynch.com