News, Interviews and Previews

Well, the 2026 Edinburgh festival can now be considered officially closed as the 16th Darkchat Awards have taken place.

The 2 biggest winners of the night were "On Some Far Shore" and "Dreamgirl" with 4 wins each, the latter gaining the coveted Best Show Award.

This year 24 different shows fought for awards across 16 categories with a total of 120 nominations.

Let's take a look at who the winners and other nominees were.

As well as loving all things Edinburgh Fringe Darkchatters David and Anne also love The Eurovision Song Contest and have been to many a Eurovision Song Contest down the years. Sso when we saw "Carys Should Be The UKs Next Eurovision Entry" in the brochure we knew this was absolutely getting a place on our spreadsheet.

We asked Carys what to expect from the show and why the BBC should make her the UK entrant for Eurovision 2027.

We have been big fans of John Robertson for many years, both his stand up shows and The Dark Room. After a gap of a few years we returned to see him in 2024 when he collected more comedy awards for his astonishing connection with his audience and his mind reading abilities by correctly guessing that we were the type of people who would listen to Pentangle the previous night.

He kindly took time out of his busy schedule to give us this interview.

We have been fans of John Otway for many years and are delighted that he is returning to the fringe with Cheryl - A Rock Opera, 35 years after it last was performed.

Not only do we get the chance to see Mr O again but we have the double pleasure of seeing the legend Attila The Stockbroker perform with him. Attila kindly gave us this interview.

In recent years Darkchat have been very impressed with the quality of youth musical talent in Edinburgh following "Kinky Boots" and "Moving On - A New Musical".

This year we are following Bare Productions version of "Next To Normal". Their director Dom Lewis took time out of his busy schedule to give us this interview.

We first fell in love with Jim Judges as Ian Crawford in his delightful "Accident Avoidance For Cutlery Users Training - Level 2, this year he returns with a show about bus stops.
To find out what to expect, read on.

With this year's Edinburgh festival already fading into the dim and distant past it is that time of year when we relive some of our favourite moments and hand out our annual awards. Yes, for the 15th time we have handed out awards to some of our favourite shows.

There were 17 categories featuring 29 different shows with a total of 113 nominations.

Whilst there were a total of 14 different winners, this year Ah-Ma topped the list with victory in three categories, but the Top Show accolade was taken home by old favourite Rob Auton for his show Can (An Hour Long Story).

One of our favourite shows this year was 'FLOP', a journey through 'the best songs from the worst musicals' with Australian singer Arthur Hull. Arthur took time out from a busy Fringe to let us know how things are going and reveals his own personal link with Edinburgh.

Whilst in Birmingham, primarily for some tennis, DarkChat David also took the time out to watch a new musical - "Scouts - The Musical". This is produced by Gigglemug Theatre, who are returning to the festival with last year's success "Jaffa Cake - The Musical". Artistic Director Sam Cochrane kindly gave us a lovely interview to whet our appetite.

A trip to the New Theatre, Cardiff to see Nick Mohammed - Show Pony (also on at this year's Fringe) gave us the opportunity to be impressed by newcomer Ben Pope who gave us this lovely interview about this year's show, and his history with the festival.

As we look towards August and this year's Fringe some of us have been taking the time to watch some of our favourites from previous Fringe festivals. DarkChat Dave took a trip to The Tabard Theatre in London to watch previous DarkChat Award winner Tim Marriott in A Special Relationship.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is over for another year which means one thing, Awards time! So before the Fringe fades completely from memory here are the winners and nominees for the 2024 DarkChat Awards?

From 17 categories, 19 shows were featured, with a total of 74 nominations. There were several big winners. Reves picked up 3 awards for Best Entertainment/ Music / Dance, Best Director and the coveted Best Show accolade.

DarkChat favourite John Robertson triumphed in the most categories, winning Best Moment, Best One Person Show, Best Comedy Show & Best Comedy Performance.

Congratulations to all of the winners and the other nominees. Until 2025!

Most people think the Edinburgh Festivals are just about seeing shows. Wrong, there is so much more. This year DarkChat made the effort to see a variety of exhibitions. One of our favourites was The Eric Liddell Exhibition at the Scottish Parliament so we were delighted when the CEO of the Eric Liddell Community, John Macmillan spoke to David Cox about the exhibition, and the centenary of Liddell's famous 1924 Olympic win.

DarkChat have been following the career of Luke Wright since 2007 and he has been getting better and better. His latest show "Joy" does what it says on the tin. His festival may be over but he kindly spared us some time for an interview.

We at DarkChat spend a lot of time working out what shows to go see. Content, time, venue and cost are all taken into account. Once we make our selections we start buying tickets or requesting press tickets for reviews. It is very rare to be told that the run is sold out, which is bad news for us but great news for the performers.

So, even though we won't be seeing "The Hundred Year Letter" we contacted Good Wolf People to try to find out the secret to their sold-out success, John Handscombe gave us this stunning and eye-opening interview.

Did you think think the Edinburgh festival was over. Wrong!
On Saturday 30th September the 15th Annual DARKCHAT awards took place. 36 shows were battling in 16 categories with a total of 137 nominations.
Who were our winners? Find out below.

Working out an Edinburgh festival schedule needs a balance of seeing the familiar with the new. DARKCHAT took a chance with " Cheekykita: An Octopus, The Universe 'n' Stuff". We are glad we did as this has proved to be one of the hits of the unexpected hits of the festival. Cheekykita ( Sonja Doubleday) took time out of her ridiculously busy schedule to give us this interview.

In 2019 Darkchat saw and enjoyed TS Crew perform at the Fringe, this year they are back with 3 shows, we caught up with the Andy Lo and asked what to expect from their link up with Hong Kong Soul.

Having seen the amazing 'A War of Two Halves' at last year's Fringe we couldn't wait to see what Two Halves Productions were bringing to this year's Festival. We spoke to writer Paul Beeson about their new show about Hearts legend Bobby Walker 'Never Trouble Trouble (Till Trouble Troubles You)' and his hopes for Hearts this season.

Despite not appearing in this year's Fringe Programme, thanks to an interestingly worded press release we liked the sound of Paul Connell and will be going to see his show "Ace In The Hole" at Boteco do Brasil on Lothian Street. Hopefully, after reading this interview you may join us.