Our History & Dedicated Team
How did it all begin and who are the people behind it all?
The story behind the world’s longest improvised story
How did it all begin? Back in 2011, 18 year-old Tom Brennan was inspired by the Canadian improvised soap opera Die Nasty and wanted to create a regular show for the new fringe theatre, the Wardrobe. A bunch of interested types turned up to a workshop at the White Bear, which became the home of the Wardrobe Theatre for its first years, and some of them upon hearing about the fact it would be a continuous story they would have to make up on the spot, ran away!
Luckily a few brave souls threw themselves into it, including our Artistic Director John Lomas – who still plays Big Dick Johnson in the show. John remembers that there, on that day in May 2011, in front of a tiny audience, he realised that there was something in this. He was right and 15 years later we are still going strong!
There have been many changes along the way of course – evolution was and is necessary to keep the show as fresh and funny as ever and the company to continue to grow artistically.
Closer Each Day Company became a limited company in 2016, earlier that same year the Wardrobe moved to its present home at the Old Market Assembly, and international impro legend Patti Stiles became our mentor.
Lindsey Garwood and John Lomas are now co-directors of the company, and their ambitions for the company and its brilliant members are limitless!
Meet Our Team
Our Other Shows
As well as the fortnightly improvised soap opera, the company has created or co-created many productions – such as:
Dial M for Menu,
No Expectations: The Improvised Dickens,
Steamed: A Dickensian Improvised Christmas Tale,
The Time Machine and the Steampunk Mistress,
Pilot Season: The Improvised Television Pilot,
Kristmas with the Kringles,
The Great American Storybook, and
Five 26-hour improv marathons at the Bristol Improv Theatre.
Now we are looking forward to December 2026 and a new partnership with Bristol Old Vic, who have invited us to bring adult Christmas fun to their studio theatre over 8 dates. We are really looking forward to a fun and festive season there – it is going to be an iconic coming together of the world’s longest improvised story at the world’s oldest continuously-working theatre in the English-speaking world, don’t miss it!
Meet the company
One of the things we are most proud of as a company is our cast. Over the years we have been the starting point for many careers, as well as training and working with a marvellous array of talent. Our current cast is no exception and are an incredibly skilled and delightful bunch of humans!
Mike Akers
Mike Akers (Roy Keen) is a performer, writer, dramaturg and educator from Bristol. He performs regularly with CED, Instant Wit and as his comic alter ego the Reverend Lemon. As a writer, he has had over forty plays commissioned including productions for Salisbury Playhouse, Tobacco Factory Bristol, Royal & Derngate Northampton and Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds. He recently adapted David Copperfield for Bath Theatre Royal and his next show is a new version of Treasure Island for Taunton Brewhouse. He works regularly with director Sally Cookson, including on two highly successful productions for Bristol Old Vic, Peter Pan and Jane Eyre – both later produced at the National Theatre.
Emile Clarke
Emile Clarke (Alex Ledecky) is a LIPA trained actor. Credits include: Murder She Didn’t Write; Closer Each Day (Wardrobe Theatre); Vault show of the week REMYTHED (BetnLev Theatre); Crimes On Centre Court (New Old Friends/ Bath Theatre Royal); A Christmas Getaway (New Old Friends/The Ustinov); UK Theatre Award–winning Little Mermaid, The Scarlet Pimpernel (Pins & Needles/The Egg); Love The Life You Live…Live The Life You Love (Leicester Curve); Shakespeare Undone (The Natural Theatre Company); Crooked Letter Crooked Letter (TNT theatre). Audio Credits include Stoma The Musical (BBC); First Steps (BBC/Elbow). Film and TV credits include The Cartographer (Berlin Short Film award winner); Two AM (by Loretta Fahrenholz).
Jack Drewry
Jack Drewry (Musical Director) is a composer, sound designer and theatre maker based in Bristol. He specialises in working on devised and collaborative work using music and sound to weave together theatrical stories. He is artistic director of Tremolo Theatre; musical director and show editor of Closer Each Day; composer and performer for The Seekers Podcast and plays Gammo in The Seekers stage shows. He is an associate artist of The Wardrobe Ensemble and The Wardrobe Theatre. Jack is delighted to be bringing Closer Each Day to the Weston Studio having worked on the show for the last 13 years.
Sean Duffy
Sean Duffy (Reginald Simpkins III), the man who pretends to be Simpkins, spent most of his adulthood (and part of his childhood) living at sea as a faux pirate. No cutlass was drawn, no treasure was buried, but he can climb rigging at super speeds. He is a lubber now but can be spotted wearing piratical attire and talking to exotic birds on the weekends.
Leah Fletcher
Leah Fletcher (Vicki Entwhistle) trained at Middlesex University and the Lecoq School of theatre in Paris. On graduating she co-formed Parti-Pris Theatre Company with Toby Jones and toured extensively for a few years. She has since worked in London and regional theatres, and appeared in the TV shows: Doctors, The Bill, Genie in The House, The Railway Killers, Shameless and as Lady Mountbatten in Hutch: High Society’s Favourite Gigolo. Leah performs regularly with improvised comedy company Instant Wit and loves playing Vicki Entwhistle in Closer Each Day.
Lindsey Garwood
Lindsey Garwood (Constance Sugar) is co-director of Closer Each Day Company and has played Constance since 2013. She trained at the BRIT School and at East 15 Acting School. Theatre credits include Dracula, The Cherry Orchard (London), Cardenio, y Otras Obras de Shakespeare y Cervantes (Spain), The Wall (Tobacco Factory Theatre, Bristol), various shows with Show of Strength Theatre Company including The Mansion Through Time at Ashton Court, co-directed with John Lomas. Among many other things, Lindsey has also been a dancer, a pirate radio host in Spain, and the voice of the Tiny Tears Doll.
Neil Haigh
Neil Haigh (Dr Aaron Tempest) is an actor, writer & director. For 15 years he was Associate & then Co-Artistic Director of award winning Cartoon de Salvo Theatre Co. His many theatre credits include: A Christmas Carol (Bristol Old Vic); The Summer House (GATE London – co-written, the play published by Oberon books in 2012), Angels of the Universe (Edinburgh / Reykjavik / Budapest / GATE London). TV includes; The Bill (ITV), Dalziel and Pascoe, Casualty and Doctors (BBC) for which he was nominated as Best Villain at the British Soap Awards 2014.
Simon Hembra
Simon Hembra started musically accompanying Improv shows in 2017 with the Improv Musical “Some Sing About Mary”. Since then he has played the Edinburgh Fringe, toured with Degrees of Error’s show “Muder She Didn’t Write” and is now a main musician for The Delight Collectives, “Bish Bosh Bash” at the Bristol Improv Theatre. He balances the improv evenings with a perfectly normal 9-5 in insurance and one day hopes to be a real piano player.
Tara Judah
Tara Judah (Janelle Pollock) is a British-Australian writer and improviser. Tara performs in and co-directs the Bristol Improv Theatre’s short-form comedy game show The Bish Bosh Bash, is a regular at the Hen & Chicken’s monthly Wednesday Night Improv, has performed with The Pretend Company’s Ensemble when in London, and is one half of Kiwi-Australian two-prov G&T. Tara co-runs Improv Cinema Club with Chris Mead and her words can be found in various film journals including Senses of Cinema, Screen International and Sight & Sound.
Rob Kershaw
Rob Kershaw is a show editor, actor, writer and tech who has been involved in Bristol’s improv scene since 2013. He joined Closer Each Day in 2020 as show editor and can also be found touring the UK with Murder, She Didn’t Write: The Improvised Murder Mystery. Outside of improv, he has performed in productions of The Nether, Dinner, The Comedy of Errors, and Blue Stockings, and runs and writes for a video game journalism site.
John Lomas
John Lomas (Big Dick Johnson) John is an actor, writer, director and teacher from Bristol. He is the Artistic Director of Closer Each Day: the Improvised Soap Opera and has appeared since the very start in 2011. He is the founder of The Unscripted Players and has toured with Murder She Didn’t Write and Impromtu Shakespeare. Recent acting credits include The Outlaws (BBC), The Fence (FilmFour), The Interrogation of Tony Martin (C4), Meet the Humans (BBC) and Daniel Morgan (C4). His writing credits include The Bristol Hum (Bristol Old Vic), The 24 Hours Plays and Thy Name Is Woman (Bath Theatre Royal) and Mantelpiece Theatre (BBC Radio).
Rebecca MacMillan
Rebecca MacMillan (Krissie Johnson) has been improvising for over 20 years. As well as being in Closer’s cast she’s a co-founding member of both The Maydays & Impromptu Shakespeare, and she performs the Library of Forgotten Books with Andel Sudik. She’s performed & guested in a huge range of other shows over the years including on the mainstage at iO Chicago. She was one of the cast of improvised radio comedy show Dead British, and features (uncredited) as a ghost in Bridget Christie’s The Change Season 2. When not improvising she dances with folk-famous Morris side Boss Morris.
Holly Meechan
Holly Meechan (Tracey Fish) has a background in devised theatre and clowning and is a playful actor and improviser who can be seen regularly in Bristol Improv Theatre’s flagship show The Bish Bosh Bash as well as playing Tracey Fish in Closer Each Day. Other performance work includes numerous characters in immersive theatre shows for Gingerline and Cat & Mouse Theatre; walkabout acts at festivals including Glastonbury and Boomtown; and playing several roles as understudy in The Wardrobe Theatre’s production Notting Hell. Holly is also a facilitator, a director, and a Giggle Doctor for Theodora Children’s Charity, bringing laughter and play to children in hospitals.
I had heard about this show for a long time before I finally went to see it. It went far beyond what I expected of it, and my expectations were high after hearing so many people going on about it for years! It felt like just what we need in this world right now – high quality entertainment which makes you laugh so much everything hurts afterwards, in a good way. But the actors are not afraid to have tender moments too, and I have gone ‘Aww!’ and sighed and gasped along with the rest of the audience. It is so incredible the way they keep the story flowing, they really are on the top of their game and I am really proud to live in the city where a show like this could happen. Anarchic. Hilarious. Flipping amazing.
Bianca Williams, audience
I was able to see Closer Each Day: The Improvised Soap Opera when I was visiting Bristol, and it blew me away. I live in the USA and so am really pleased they are now on Patreon and I can watch them online from all the way over here. It feels like a part of me can still be in Bristol, laughing my socks off, surrounded by people having a good time. And that is a very nice feeling.
Nola Bobsin, Patreon supporter
It has been a joy to be a part of Closer Each Day. It is fast moving, unpredictable and the best fun. The insanely talented cast welcomed me into the fictional world that is Newtown and have encouraged me to play. With fortnightly workshops to practice and develop our skill base, to hone our creative craft ready to present to our audiences, audiences who whoop with delight at the audacity of the storylines and plot twists. Each show is a surprise and a treat.
Leah Fletcher, new cast member
It’s an incredibly rare thing in the theatre world to get to really live and breathe a character – to find out who they are and what makes them tick for more than just a couple of hours. Guesting and then joining the super talented and wonderfully warm cast of Closer Each Day has been the biggest performing highlight for me to date. The show is equal parts genius, joyous, bonkers and heartfelt: everything you could want from a soap and so much more. Mondays have since become my favourite day of the week.
Tara Judah, new cast member
A huge thank you!
We could not have been going for 15 years (and planning to continue for at least 15 more, or until the end of time, whichever comes first!), weathering Covid, global economic turmoil, and various bumps in the road, without the commitment and dedication of so many wonderful people. We are so grateful for them all.
Our Cast and Company Members
We would like to thank all of the cast, company members and guest stars we have had over the years – all of them have made a unique and important contribution and we appreciate all that they have given us so much. We are so proud of this incredibly talented bunch!
The Wardrobe and the Old Market Assembly
We started with the Wardrobe in 2011, and moved with them to Old Market in 2016, and we cannot thank all of the team at the OMA and at the Wardrobe enough, particularly Matt and Chris, as well as all of the brilliant volunteers who make putting on our show possible. You are all amazing!
Our Wonderful Team
We would also like to thank those that continue to help us in numerous ways, and without whose talents and support we would be severely lacking – including the inimitable Patti Stiles, Alex Davey, Daisy Tian Dai, Jerome Beckett, Annette Chown, Tom Rolfe, Titch Photographic and Oli Haslam. What stars they are!
Our Supporters
Lastly, we would like to thank all of our supporters on Patreon and all the people that come to watch our shows – especially the ones that have got hooked on our soap and who come time and time again. We cannot thank you enough – you have kept us going all this time and we intend to keep entertaining you for years to come!
Get in touch
Do not hesitate to get in touch to find out more about our company, our shows, and how to arrange interviews, masterclasses, or how to guest star with us.
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