A BOLTON writer who failed English Literature at school is the man behind the latest lavish television adaptation of a classic novel.

But Martyn Hesford believes getting an "unclassified" in his O-Level does not hamper him when it comes to dramatising some of literature's greatest works.

His adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, Nicholas Nickleby, is set to hit the TV screens on Sunday night in a costume drama that boasts an array of stars, colourful costumes and lavish sets. His work had ITV and the BBC fighting for it!

The project began several years ago when he picked up the book out of boredom during a visit to a caravan in Wales.

Martyn, whose mother, Monica Stephenson, was landlady of the Bridge Inn, Horwich, and still lives in the town, said: "I read it not as a classic, but for pure pleasure. Once I had got through the problems with language in the first five pages, I found it was a cracking good read.

"It is a comedy, but also as relevant today as it was then. It is about values like money, how we are all striving for wealth, but underneath how love and tenderness are really the most important things."

Martyn left school to study drama, and achieved some success as an actor, working with names such as Richard Burton, Gary Oldman and Michelle Collins. But he began to realise that he no longer enjoyed performing in front of a camera or on stage.

He said: "I was always writing when I was young. I always did well at English, whereas in English Literature I found it was more about regurgitating what other people told you to."

Using contacts he had made as an actor, Martyn's first professional piece of work as a writer was a drama called A Small Mourning, which was not only accepted, but starred Alison Steadman and Stratford Johns. It was filmed in Horwich.

Interesting

Other dramas followed and, for his inspiration, Martyn always turned to his "home town".

He said: "I live in London, but my heart is in Horwich and Bolton. If ever I was writing something I would always come home for my inspiration. I would listen to people talking in the corner shop, or on Bolton Market. The characters in middle class London are nowhere near as interesting.

"All my stuff has been contemporary single drama, which unfortunately have started drying up on television.

"Television companies would never have asked me to adapt a classic costume drama for them. They are usually done by former Oxford or Cambridge people or someone famous like Bleasdale. I am no expert on Dickens, but I know it entertained me and wanted to get that across in the adaptation.

"I decided to give it a go and over five weeks the first episode came very quickly. I sent it off to George Faber, a producer I had worked with, and he sent it to the BBC and ITV. Both ended up wanting it and it eventually went to ITV.

"I am the same writer as I have always been, but people are now talking about me differently. Unfortunately, in London, if you have a Northern accent people do not think you are as bright as they are.

"That was one of the reasons I decided to do Dickens. I was fed up with the snobbery surrounding it. I have played them at their own game and showed you do not have to go to Oxford or Cambridge, you do not need to have read 50 million sheets dissecting it to understand it, or pass an exam.

"Dickens is a rare writer who reaches everyone."