As part of TW Lit Fest 2025!

Interviewed by Clyde Holcroft.

Richard Ayoade will discuss his (fictional) quest to rescue Harauld Hughes – the almost mythical mid-century playwright – from obscurity. 

The gifted filmmaker, corduroy activist and amateur dentist, Richard Ayoade, first chanced upon a copy of The Two-Hander Trilogy by Harauld Hughes in a second-hand bookshop. At first startled by his uncanny resemblance to the author's photo, he opened the volume and was electrified. Terse, aggressive, and elliptical, what was true of Ayoade was also true of Hughes's writing, which encompassed stage, screen, and some of the shortest poems ever published.

Ayoade embarked on a documentary, The Unfinished Harauld Hughes, to understand the unfathomable collapse of Hughes's final film O Bedlam! O Bedlam!, taking us deep inside the mind of the most furious British writer since the Boer War.

Richard will discuss the story of that quest.

Richard Ayoade is a writer and director. He directed and co-wrote Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, and adapted Joe Dunthorne's novel Submarine for the screen, co-writing with Avi Korine. As an actor he is best known for portraying Dean Learner in Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and Maurice Moss in the Emmy Award-winning The IT Crowd.
 

'Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.'
Tim Key

'A brain-swirlingly funny quest.'
Robert Popper

'Absolutely miraculous.'
Jesse Eisenberg

Tunbridge Wells Literary Festival 2025 is proudly sponsored by:

Part of Tunbridge Wells Literary Festival 2025. TW Literary Festival 2025 will be running from May 5th to 11th. More authors to be announced very soon!