Charlie Higson Archive

Papers and correspondence of Charlie Higson (1958- ), English actor, comedian, author and former singer. He has also written and produced for television. The collection is comprised of his literary papers – novels, film and television scripts (partly drafts); shooting scripts; third party scripts; some professional and personal correspondence; ephemera; notebooks; photographs; press-cuttings; newspapers and magazines; miscellaneous papers.

Born Charles Murray Higson, 1958 in Frome, Somerset. Educated at Sevenoaks School, and the University of East Anglia, 1977-1980 (English and American Literature and Film) where he met Paul Whitehouse, David Cummings and Terry Edwards. Higson, Cummings and Edwards formed the band 'The Higsons' of which Charlie was the lead singer, 1980-1986. Higson turned to writing for Harry Enfield with Whitehouse and performing comedy. He came to public attention as one of the main writers and performers of the BBC 2 sketch show The Fast Show (1994–2000). The Fast Show Book was published in 1996. He worked with Whitehouse on the radio comedy Down the Line .

In 1994 Higson co-wrote (with Lise Mayer) the screenplay for the film thriller Suite 16 . He worked as producer, writer, director and occasional guest star on Randall & Hopkirk from 2000 to 2001. Subsequent television work has included writing and starring in the BBC 3 sitcom Swiss Toni (a spin-off of The Fast Show ).

Higson published many novels through the early to mid-1990s which take a slightly dystopian look at everyday life. Titles include: King of the Ants (1992), Happy Now (1993), Full Whack (1995), Getting Rid of Mister Kitchen (1996), Monstroso (2010).

Higson is author of a series of Young Bond novels, aimed at younger readers and concentrating on James Bond's school-days at Eton. These novels are: Silverfin (2005), Blood Fever (2006), Double or Die (2007), Hurricane Gold (2007), By Royal Command (2008). Silverfin: the graphic novel was published in 2008. Higson also wrote a series of post-apocalyptic, zombie-horror novels for young adults. Titles include: The Enemy (2009), The Dead (2010), The Fear (2011), The Sacrifice (2012), The Fallen (2013), The Hunted (2014), The End (2015). In June 2013 Higson wrote a television adaptation of Agatha Christie's A Caribbean Mystery . In 2015 Higson adapted the novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson for ITV Studios into a ten part adventure series set in the 1930s titled Jekyll and Hyde .

The collection is one of many individual deposits forming part of the wider British Archive for Contemporary Writing, est. 2015.

Available for private, non-commercial research. Digital and audio-visual content are not immediately available for consultation and may need to undergo processing. Requests are considered on a case by case basis.

The papers were deposited on loan with the British Archive for Contemporary Writing, University of East Anglia by Charlie Higson. The papers were delivered to the Archives in May 2016. A further deposit was made in March 2017.

UEA Archives catalogue

Relevant copyright permissions must be obtained before any reproductions of documents can be made. The University of Anglia does not hold copyrights for any material in this collection.