TWO stage shows by Edinburgh Festival favourite John Osborne will be performed in Otley this month.

The writer will bring his John Peel’s Shed and Circled in The Radio Times productions to the Courthouse on Saturday, April 20.

John Peel’s Shed relates back to 2002 when Osborne won a competition on the late DJ’s BBC Radio 1 show. His prize was a box of records that took him eight years to listen to.

Described as an ‘ode to radio’, the show feature a selection of those former Peel-collection records including some very rare recordings by obscure and now defunct bands.

It was also partly inspired by the writer’s acclaimed debut book, Radio Head: Up and Down The Dial of British Radio, which tells the story of what happened when he decided to listen to a different radio station every day. His journey took him from data entry at Anglia Windows, via interviewing radio greats such as Nicholas Parsons, Tommy Boyd, Stuart Maconie and Mark Radcliffe; to presenting his own local radio show.

Circled in the Radio Times, meanwhile, concerns the habit that for many is a weekly ritual - leafing through a new copy of the TV listings magazine and marking out the programmes they want to watch.

The show considers the question of what a collection of all of an individual’s past issues could reveal about their life, while also delighting in television’s ability to bring us closer together.

It also contains a gentle exploration of grief and loss. The story begins with John receiving a phone call from a woman called Daniella, who lives in the town where his late grandfather lived. She has some of his granddad’s possessions and asks if John would like to collect them.

Soon, he is in the shed at the bottom of Daniella’s garden, mesmerised by a collection of Radio Times magazines which stretch back to the early 1980s, each with shows highlighted in the cheap biros his grandfather used.

As John’s fond memories of childhood days perched on his granddad’s armchair watching TV mix with his exploration of the collection, we learn more about his granddad’s life - such as why Inspector Morse was always marked with a heart, while the crosswords were filled with a mixture of capital and lower-case letters.

The shows - presented in one performance - begin at Otley Courthouse at 8pm and tickets cost £12. Places can be booked by visiting www.otleycourthouse.org.uk, calling the box office on (01943) 467466 or popping into the Courthouse, on Courthouse Street.