Top TV writer joins Sunderland University
Top television writer David Quantick has taken up a visiting professorship with the University of Sunderland.
Quantick, 58, has honed his skills on some of the biggest programmes to grace our screens – including The Thick of It, The Day Today, Brass Eye and TV Burp – and students at the university will get the opportunity to learn firsthand from a writer who has been at cutting edge of comedy, television, music, fiction and non-fiction writing for a generation.
His career seems a long way from the law degree he studied at University College London.
He said: “I suppose like many students of my generation, I went to university not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t set out to be a writer, it just happened that way. I just started writing stuff then discovered I felt happier afterwards.”
David sold a short story to a magazine and, after writing to NME telling them he didn’t think much of their publication, he was offered the chance to write some reviews.
So began a long association with the paper which continued until 1995.
Alongside music journalism he was also submitting gags and sketches to British comedy TV shows such as Spitting Image.
Lee Hall, Sunderland University’s head of school of media and communications, said: “David Quantick is a wordsmith, an innovator and a genius.
"He has challenged authority, lampooned political buffoonery and pushed the boundaries as a satirist and humourist.
"The University of Sunderland hopes to mould a generation of 'boundary breakers' and David absolutely embodies that spirit."