Housewife wins Channel 4 playwright reality show

Published Monday 19 June 2006 at 12:05 by Alistair Smith

Kate Betts’ On the Third Day has been chosen as the winner of Channel 4 reality TV series The Play’s the Thing and will open in the West End this month.

The work was chosen by producer Sonia Friedman and fellow judges literary agent Mel Kenyon and actor Neil Pearson from more than 2,000 entries from first time playwrights. It will open to press on June 22.

The production is directed by Robert Delamere and stars Maxine Peake, Paul Hilton and Tom McKay. It was originally conceived by director Stephen Pimlott, who was forced to pull out of the show at the last minute due to ill health.

Betts is a housewife, mother and associate lecturer in English at University College Chichester. She has acted in amateur dramatics and worked with the writers group at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton. She beat off compettion from fellow finalists Iain Wetherby, an advertising copy writer from London, and Steve Gardner, a supermarket worker from Manchester.

On the Third Day is booking at the New Ambassadors Theatre until September 2.