Simon Reade

Simon’s current screenplay commissions include adaptations of Eric Ambler’s A KIND OF ANGER (Goldcrest/Qwerty Films, director Saul Dibb) and Noël Coward’s PRIVATE LIVES (Turbine Studios, director Damian Lewis.) Simon was Story Consultant on THE NIGHT MANAGER Series 2 (Ink Factory/BBC/Amazon.) 

The 2026 theatre season sees him direct Ken Ludwig’s DEAR JACK, DEAR LOUISE (Arcola, Dalston) and the UK touring revival of Simon’s acclaimed one-person adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s PRIVATE PEACEFUL – “as moving as the poetry of Wilfred Owen and as painfully memorable as white-hot shrapnel” Sunday Herald. His 5-star hit, “simply glorious” Guardian Top Ten Theatre 2024 version of Morpurgo’s PINOCCHIO is revived at the Watermill, Newbury this Christmas. In September his newly commissioned adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s TWENTY THOUSAND STREETS UNDER THE SKY premières at Southwark Playhouse.

Recent work includes the new play REBUS: A GAME CALLED MALICE co-written with Ian Rankin – “an entertaining thriller” The Stage. He produced and wrote the screenplay of JOURNEY’S END (Lionsgate/BFI) – “a powerful, vivid adaptation” Sight & Sound. His extensive theatre adaptations include PRIDE & PREJUDICE (Regent’s Park/Guthrie Minneapolis/Sheffield Crucible/Theatre Royal Bath) – “delightfully alert to the comic and ironic nuances of Austen’s sparkling prose” Mail on Sunday; ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (TMA Award winner) – “winningly witty” The Times; Salman Rushdie’s MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN – “handsome and fluent” Mail on Sunday; and Ted Hughes’s TALES FROM OVID – “an evening of rare dramatic power and verbal beauty” Daily Telegraph – both for the RSC where he was Chief Dramaturg. He was Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic and has worked as a TV Development Producer for Stolen Picture, Tiger Aspect Productions and BBC Drama.