A one-woman show founded in Liverpool is heading to the iconic Edinburgh Fringe Festival after experiencing success on the BBC.
'Val from Anfield' is the brainchild of Claire Bryan, a broadcast assistant and producer at BBC Radio Merseyside, who came up with the eponymous Val in her bedroom back in 2021. Asked to create a radio character for presenter Paul Beesley's show, Claire drew on her experience of "all the tough, loving, witty Scouse women" in her life to devise the character, who went on to become a regular 'phone-in caller' on air.
The character's popularity led to the development of a full show, which will hit the world's largest arts festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, this August. Claire and long-time friends and collaborators, co-writer David Catterall and producer Thomas O'Kane, had originally planned an entirely different show for 2020's festival but their plans, like many others, were scuppered in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
