Dalesfolk: Richard Bickley

They don't write books like it these days: no sex, no violence and no deep politically correct message, just a tale about a group of disparate men and women who go on the road and, after many trials and tribulations, finally become a tight-knit group of successful thespians.

So dear old JB, who visited Upper Wharfedale whenever he could during his lifetime, will be smiling from his resting place this weekend at the success of the Craven Image Theatre.

This is a group of dedicated but disparate people who have been on the road - and are still undergoing those trials and tribulations to create, they hope, a successful touring theatre group taking new drama to places other plays can't reach.

And they do it for love.

"We are a professional company but no-one here is going to make a fortune," says author/artistic director/lighting electrician Richard Bickley at his home in Woodland View, Threshfield.

"We pay our actors about half the Equity rate and our audiences vary in number, to say the least. Sometimes we have 50, once it was as low as five. We work hard, travel a lot, do not see our families for days on end. The only reason we do it is for the love of the theatre."

Now these are the sort of words you would expect from a man who has already made a name for himself as a playwright. But not, perhaps, from a chartered accountant with a degree in mathematics.

Richard Bickley is, however, both, which is a somewhat unusual combination. That said, how he came from the City of London via computer industry to set up a drama group in the Yorkshire Dales is an unusual story.

The son of a steel works manager from Scunthorpe, he got his degree at Durham, by age 30 was a partner in an accountancy practice across the road from St Paul's, and then moved as finance director to a computer firm in the Thames Valley.

He had a wife from the North East, two young sons, a posh house and lots of money. But he was bored.

"I was doing work in my 30s which I knew I would still be doing in my 50s and 60s," he explains. "My only solace in London was the theatre. We went twice most weeks and I must have seen literally thousands of plays.

"I had long thought how wonderful it would be to become a playwright but that's not the sort of thing chartered accountants do. Then I saw a competition being organised by a London theatre company for new writers.

"They wanted a single act play for a single actor - a monologue, in other words - and I thought I might as well have a go. There was nothing to lose. In fact, I won and that set a whole series of things in motion."

That play, After Penny, about a man dreaming of a lost lady, was produced at the Edinburgh Festival and won the highly prestigious Fringe Award from the Scotsman newspaper.

For Richard, it was an epiphany. Should he take this chance, risk his family's future, and give up his llots of money existence - or continue being bored into his old age?

So they sold up and toured the north looking for a new home: Richard considers himself a quasi-Yorkshireman and his wife, Caroline is a Geordie from the posher end of Newcastle and they both wanted to get nearer their roots.

They looked at Ripon, liked it but not enough, and then came to Skipton, found Grassington and Threshfield, and fell in love with the area.

They admit that "their only true Yorkshireman" is their youngest son, Alex, who is 30 months old, but feel they have at last found their real home.

"There are a lot of people interested in the arts in Grassington and Threshfield," says Richard. "We have painters and writers, the arts festival and many knowledgeable music lovers. They have made us very welcome."

Since then, Richard has written eight more plays - all of them performed - and helped form the Craven Image Theatre with Dr Andrew Jackson, the local medic well-known for his love of the stage.

They all share jobs. If Richard has written the play, someone else directs it. Richard then directors other people's work, specialising in new drama. He is also the lighting director, setting up sometimes in church halls where there is only one plug - his constant fear is blacking out the village institute or, even worse, an entire village.

They have just finished a 15-performance tour with Richard's latest play, Laying the Axe - based around a mysterious happening in a Yorkshire mill-owning family - and are already planning a pre-Christmas show.

A few miles up the Dale, JB Priestley's ashes are interred in Hubberholme graveyard. He would just love the idea of bringing his beloved theatre into his beloved Yorkshire Dales.

Like his Good Companions, I hope the Craven Image players eventually find great success! Whatever happens, they will surely have a lot of fun.