Nicolas Ridley
Nicolas Ridley writes fiction, nonfiction and stage plays. His plays have been performed by professional and non-professional companies in theatres and at drama festivals in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Australia and the USA. A prize-winner and three times a Pushcart Prize nominee, his short stories, nonfiction and flash fiction pieces have appeared in a range of anthologies, magazines and literary journals in the UK, Ireland, Canada and the USA.
Photo: Paddy Gormley
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Were You Anyone Before Dad's Army?
The missing history of Private Godfrey
My play about my father, the author, actor and playwright, Arnold Ridley, opens at the at The Mission Theatre, Bath, and runs from 19-21 March 2026. Mansel David plays Arnold Ridley and Graham Pountney directs.
Arnold Ridley is best remembered today as Private Godfrey, the much-loved character in BBC Television’s Dad’s Army, but the part of Godfrey came towards the end of a long and varied career and a truly remarkable life.
Having survived the horrors of the First World War and early setbacks as an actor, he began writing plays, one of which, The Ghost Train, enjoyed immense success and is still popular today. What followed were more plays and then an extraordinary catalogue of setbacks and disasters. It is the story of a man who faced everything life threw at him with courage, good humour and resilience. A lesson for us all perhaps?
“This new biographical play is engrossing, hilarious, surprising, moving and devastating by turn.” Cormac Richards – Theatre Plays UK