So there I was, sitting in the CID office of a North London Police Station pondering the question that had just been asked. Not 'Did you do it?' or 'Why don't you confess?', it was more tricky. And it wasn't a question asked by an overweight doughnut-eating cop from the Sweeney. The person across the desk was a good friend, an actor who wanted to try his hand at directing a musical. The question was 'Will you produce it with me?' The answer was - eventually - yes.

The overweight doughnut-eating cop was me, and the conversation took place in my office on a summer evening in 1999.

I wasn't about to give up 11 years of 'career' and an early retirement date lightly, so I thought I'd try and juggle the two jobs side by side and produce the show in my spare time. It can't be that hard, I thought. Things started ok but I soon found myself working long hours in my day job and even longer ones in the new-found hobby.

Then, a quirk of fate. A few years earlier, I had broken my wrist while restraining a mentally-ill man on the streets of Hackney, and the break had never healed properly. After an innocuous collision with my car door on the way to work, I found myself in A & E with another break and 8 weeks off.

With an arm in plaster, I began to invest more time into the show - The Wiz at the Hackney Empire. Looking back, it was the most ridiculous place to start a producing career, but I wouldn't change it for the world. We spent (lost) a lot of money, but the show was a success and the venue enjoyed it so much they asked us to come and do it again a year later. This sounded great in theory, but it meant I had serious decisions to make about my job. The wrist had healed fine, and I'd been seriously bitten by the theatre bug. I wanted to explore further, but I couldn’t afford to lose more money.

For the next production, I managed to juggle both jobs, and in July 2001 our second production of The Wiz was the final show at Hackney Empire before it closed for its makeover. We made back some of the losses from the previous year and everyone was happy. There was talk of a West-End transfer. I found myself trying to crowbar meetings with producers in around night shifts and police operations. It was just about manageable and I knew I needed to think seriously about what to do if it happened. Then the bombing of the New York Twin Towers happened, and everything was shelved.

For a while I resigned myself to sticking with my 'sensible' career - and transferred from the CID to a specialist unit at Scotland Yard where it felt like being a real-life James Bond. But though on paper this might have been exciting, all I really wanted to do was work in the theatre. For the next 12 months I worked as much overtime as I could and saved as much money as possible to go back to college. On 23 July 2004 I resigned from the force, applied for a place at Central School of Speech & Drama, London. I started two months later.

Central was - an experience. Before I knew it I was 'officially' a theatre producer.

It might seem an odd career-change, but there was certainly a crossover of skills. Organisation, communication and no shortage of diplomacy are needed in both jobs. In theatre, people can be wonderfully creative, desperately insecure, flamboyant, egocentric, generous, just the same as the people I met over the years working in Hackney & Haringey in the police.

I started looking for new musicals to produce. I wanted to find something that people were seeing for the first time. I've always been a big fan of musicals, right throughout my police years - much to the amusement of colleagues - but I wanted to find newer, more relevant shows. So I advertised for writers of new musicals to send in their work. Wrong move! I ended up with a hundred shows to read.

They were certainly mixed. Some had been circulating round producers for years, others were about topics you may not want to talk about let alone see on stage. A few had potential - the word everyone uses when they like an idea but want someone else to put the work in. I picked 12 the potentials, and showcased them at Upstairs At The Gatehouse under the name Perfect Pitch. Some went down well, some didn't, but the main thing was - people were excited by being able to see new musicals. We did it the following year with a stronger line-up, and people liked it again.

The biggest problem continued to be potential. Many of the shows offered it, but there was still that bit of development needed before they could work on a bigger scale. So I decided to set up a way of helping writers develop their work through a network of development opportunities offered by partners. Partners included regional theatres, fringe venues, theatre companies, agents, and individuals - all of whom want to contribute to the development of new work. The Arts Council funded a pilot scheme, and the first couple of shows are now being developed in the network. Later this year we're doing a showcase in the West End. At Edinburgh Fringe 2008, we premiere Departure Lounge - which featured in our first-ever Perfect Pitch in 2006 - and we're staging a one-off concert of songs from lots of the other shows.

I'm inundated with new musicals. I still wonder about changing from cop to producer. Less money, longer hours, probably won't retire ever, let alone early. But if my friend asked me the same question again – I'd say yes!

END

(c) Andy Barnes 11 July 08

Perfect Pitch - In Concert, Mon 11 August 2008, 18:00, Musical Theatre @ George Square, Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Departure Lounge, 4-25 August 2008, 21:00, Musical Theatre @ George Square, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008