Queer as Friends

A lovely, gentle, poetical look at queer friendship with two legends of the UK poetry scene. Dean Atta is a BAFTA award-winning screenwriter and Stonewall Book Award-winning author from London. Best known for his young adult novel in verse, The Black Flamingo, and the stop-motion animation, Two Black Boys in Paradise, his heartfelt storytelling draws on his Cypriot and Jamaican heritage as well as his queer identity. Dean is a patron of LGBT+ History Month and Chair of the Poetry and Spoken Word Group of the Society of Authors. He has published three young adult novels in verse, two poetry collections, two picture books, a memoir, and most recently his debut adult novel, Big Man. @deanatta Keith Jarrett’s poetry, fiction and essays have been widely anthologised. His work explores Caribbean-British identity, religion and sexuality. A multiple slam champion, he teaches at NYU London and holds a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London. His collection Hide Me Under the Blood and I Shall Be Satisfied (Bad Betty) was a PBS spring recommendation and is shortlisted for the Forward Prize 2026; his debut novel is forthcoming in spring 2027. @keithjlondon. Transcript and more information available on our blog. 

A delightfully deep and funny conversation with writer Rosie Wilby and therapist Ali Paton about the joys and quirks of queer friendship, especially in the lesbian and wlw community… everything from meeting via gaydar girls to grief and loss.  Rosie Wilby is an award-winning comedian, author, speaker and broadcaster. Her latest nonfiction book The Breakup Monologues, inspired by her podcast of the same name, combines humour, heartache and science to investigate how on earth to stay in a happy, healthy relationship in the modern age of ghosting and Tinder. It follows her debut Is Monogamy Dead? which was longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. She’s now working on a debut novel and new live show, both called Conversations We Should’ve Had and based on her experiences of working as a queer woman in the comedy industry.   Buy Rosie’s books: Is Monogamy Dead? And The Breakup Monologues (both available in all formats). Follow Rosie on X @rosiewilby | Insta / Threads @breakupmonologues | TikTok @rosiewilbyauthor  Ali Paton originally trained in acting at drama school, then spent some time on the comedy circuit as one half of the female double act, ‘Marshall & Paton’.  She later formed her own theatre company with her then late partner and performed a sell out show at London’s Canal Café Theatre before eventually hanging up her acting shoes and moving into the World of film, television and music where she worked for many years as an executive assistant.  A challenging period in her personal life was the catalyst to study counselling, to better understand relationships, communication and how we support one another, what started as a desire to understand and help grew into a complete career change and something she describes as one of the best decisions she’s ever made. She’s currently in her final year of study to become a psychotherapist.  Alongside all of that she works part time driving a big white van for COOK! delivering frozen food, mainly to elderly customers which has provided her with a whole other collection of characters and stories! Find the transcript of the episode and more on our blog.

We explore the role of friendship in creative collaboration and vice versa with theatre practitioners Emma Adams and Joshua Goodman. Emma is a queer, neurodiverse script writer from Bradford. She’s written plays to be performed in houses, libraries, swimming pools, graveyards and on stages too. Emma has worked with companies including: Leeds Playhouse, Red Ladder, Theatre 503, Paines Plough, Longboat Pictures, Shiny Button & CBBC. 3 of her plays have toured nationally and 2 (Ugly and Animals) are published by Oberon. Emma started Old Bird (a Bradford based theatre company) with Deborah Pakkar-Hull in 2025 and wrote the inaugural show Otherhood which premiered in the Bradford City of Culture 2025 programme. She’s currently writing a new queer musical The Dandy Lions with Josh Goodman and is an Artist in Residence at Bradford Pennine Gateway National Nature Reserve. Her new play, For One or a Hundred Voices, written in response to this residency, will be performed in woodland on Harden Moor and the St Ives, Estate, Bradford, on the 29th and 30th of October 2026. Emma is a core team member of The Writing Squad, mentoring young writers in the north of England.    Joshua Goodman is a multi-award-winning theatre maker, producer, composer, writer and performer whose career has taken him across pretty much every corner of the theatre world. He is currently Executive Producer at London's Park Theatre, where he helps bring an eclectic mix of stories to the stage. Over the past 15 years, he's made theatre in all sorts of places, from major stages to community halls, working across musicals, new writing, experimental performance and projects that put people and their stories centre stage. Joshua originally trained as a composer and can still occasionally be found moonlighting in a recording studio, orchestra pit or behind a piano. His creative work has been described as ‘genuinely euphoric’ (The Guardian) and ‘charmingly perfect’ (KulturFreak). He's particularly drawn to work that is playful, provocative, queer, collaborative and unafraid to get a little messy.   The episode transcript is available on our blog. 

Episode 6 Show Notes   This is the second part of our brilliant conversation with BAFTA- and IFTA-nominated Irish actor & writer Robert Sheehan and acting pals Adonis Siddique and Adam Young. In Part One they discussed the intense bonds that can form in a rehearsal room, their preference for spontaneous get-togethers and how to film a self-tape at Stansted airport. Part Two brings the talk around to how friendships change as you age, JCBs and the Wednesday Waffle.   Best known for his starring roles in Misfits, Love/Hate and The Umbrella Academy, Robert Sheehan is not only a prolific stage and screen actor but also a writer - his debut short-story collection Disappearing Act and his memoir Playing Dead were published in 2021 and 2024 respectively. He is also a vocal environmental advocate, serving as an official ambassador for Project Zero , a global marine conservation nonprofit that works to protect and restore the world's oceans to fight the climate crisis. Robert is also a collaborator with Rewriting Earth and recently worked on Sea Shepherd’s whale conservation film The Last Trip.   Adonis Siddique is an actor of British, South Asian and Middle Eastern heritage and hails from Manchester. He has appeared in numerous TV shows, films & plays with theatre credits including Withnail & I playing ‘I’ (Marwood) at Birmingham REP, East Is East (National Theatre), The Crown Jewels (Garrick Theatre) & Alan Bennett's The History Boys. You can catch him in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice at the National Theatre, Dorfman from 2nd December 2026 and on the UK tour in 2027.    Adam Young is a British actor whose theatre credits include Withnail and I (Birmingham REP), Redlands (Chichester Festival Theatre), Call Me Vicky (Pleasance Theatre) & The Duchess of Malfi (The Globe). In 2026, Adam provided a short-story voiceover for a new exhibition at the Barbican entitled In Other Worlds created & directed by Liam Young. Adam’s screen credits include 2018 film drama Two for Joy and horror/thriller Don’t Breathe 2, and TV series Karen Pirie, Masters of the Air, The Witcher: Blood Origin, Rise of the Tudors & Sex Education. He was recently announced as a new series regular for Season 3 of the fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power which will air in November on Prime Video. Adam will also be appearing in Will B. Russell’s new play Tattooed on My Leg at the Drayton Arms Theatre in January 2027.    For more information and the full transcript visit the blog.   

BAFTA-nominated Irish actor Robert Sheehan, best known for roles in Misfits, Love Hate and The Umbrella Academy, invited acting pals Adonis Siddique and Adam Young into the studio for a conversation about meeting in a rehearsal room melting pot, spontaneous antics and not being hasslers.   To read the full transcript, visit our blog. 

Friends of over 25 years, Denise and Donna have navigated becoming part of the lesbian community in Coral Springs, Florida, starting a globally successful radio show and podcast - The Lesbian Lounge, a change in dynamic from close neighbours to being separated by an ocean when Denise moved to London and the ever increasing burden of health problems and family care, to still be besties in 2026. They are celebrating 20 years of their radio show with some anniversary specials (available on the Lesbian Lounge YouTube channel and Rainbow Remix podcast feed) and are about to launch a new podcast series called 'Between Two Fans'. They can be found on instagram @deniseanddonna. To read the full transcript visit our blog. 

Folkestone-based award-winning drag scene queens and creative practitioners, Erin and Sid share insights about how drag performances, trans allyship and creativity can help forge chosen family no matter how long they've known each other or how big the age difference as long as there's honest and open communication and kindness involved.  Erin can be found on instagram as @eryberrie_ and @dragjessicas, while Sid is there as @sidney.spong, frontman of @oscar.the.band and maker of @lowtide_events.    To read the full transcript visit our blog. 

Friends of over 10 years, James Robert Moore (author of Not Good Enough, Muswell Press 2025, and associate director on The Hunger Games on Stage, Shirley Valentine starring Sheridan Smith, and 2:22 A Ghost Story) and Alex Pritchett (Director on Remember, Remember currently playing at the Pleasance Queen Dome in Edinburgh at 5.15pm daily )  talk about what’s in the arsenal of sustaining a happy, joyful friendship through significant life changes.   To read the full transcript visit our blog.   

We decided to launch the Queer as Friends series with a conversation we recorded of just the two of us… partly because it gives a real flavour of us and our friendship and partly to put ourselves under the same spotlight of reflecting on our friendship as we are asking of our guests. To see what it feels like, and what comes to the surface when we ask a few simple questions.   For more information about us:   Tanith Ilsley (she/her) is a producer and stage manager based in Northampton. She has over 20 years’ experience working on productions for a vast range of theatre companies including the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Birmingham REP and Royal & Derngate, and on shows in London’s West End. Tanith is currently producing Improbable Sessions, an evening of improvised live music for award-winning company Improbable and Five Pianos, a one-man show by actor, comic improviser and writer Niall Ashdown. Tanith is also training through the CPCAB to be a qualified therapist. She whiles away the rest of her time parenting her 6-year-old daughter, Frances and being married to Ed. @tanith.ilsley   Katie Hall (she/they) is a London-based writer and producer. She co-founded and edited the queer women’s lifestyle platform Planet London. She created and wrote the UK’s first queer women’s web series, the award-winning ‘She’s In London’. Katie produced queer indie thriller feature film ‘Under the Influencer’ which completed a very successful festival tour.  Her writing has featured in numerous anthologies, and she has been a finalist in several national and international writing prizes. Her debut novel ‘To Autumn’ was released in 2025. Most recently, she completed her research-by-practice PhD which explored the role of queer friendships via memoir. www.katiemhall.com @katiemargarethall   To read the full transcript of the podcast, visit our blog. 

This is the start... Queer as Friends: Brilliant conversations on the beauty of friendship is launching on Tuesday 4th August and do we have some incredible guests lined up for you in the weeks ahead, including Robert Sheehan (Umbrella Academy), Adam Young (The Lord of The Rings, The Rings Of Power), Denise Warner and Donna Solomon Carter (My Lesbian Radio) and James Robert Moore (The Hunger Games on Stage, Shirley Valentine and 2:22 A Ghost Story). Ride or die? Enemies to friends? Fast and firm, or a slow burn? Perhaps you’re friends who lost touch and then rekindled or maybe you maintain a friendship long distance? Whatever your friendship journey, there’s a brilliant story about its beauty waiting to inspire others. Join Dr. Katie Hall and Tanith Ilsley for a new podcast Queer as Friends – brilliant conversations on the beauty of friendship and go deep about the most important relationships you’ll ever have. Best friends of nearly 30 years, Katie and Tan interview pairs of friends for an in-depth look at why their friendships have gone the distance and what we can learn from these often-underestimated relationships and their impact on our lives. With gentle humour and authenticity, Katie and Tan want to get to the bottom of why friendships matter, sometimes more so than romantic or family relationships, and celebrate the variety of forms incredible friendships can take. Queer as Friends opens up conversations about friendship and allyship with people who are part of, or who impact, the queer community in all fields… although when it comes down to it, queer doesn’t have to be your identity, because it’s ours. Without queerness, we don’t think we would have even met! www.queerasfriends.uk @queerasfriends Transcript available on the QaF blog.