Personal Details Name   James "Bas" Dickson Leach Nationality   British Place of Birth   Hong Kong Date of Birth   3rd September, 1981       Contact   Click to email

Biography   |   Purple Credits

Bas was born and grew up in Hong Kong (where he was called James), so he really likes Chinese food and living in small confined spaces. He was sent back to England for schooling on the basis that, like many things, schooling in faraway places always seems better than that on offer locally. The school bus no longer being an option, and due to this being before the invention of the teleporter (scheduled for 2004, builders estimates are that it will be ready very soon really), he was forced to board at the school. This was actually really fun, as it combined sleepovers with visiting your mates every day, plus there were woods and fires and streams and things. Due to most of the school liking to run around of an afternoon pretending to be anything that came to mind, the school had a very active Drama department, who realised they could focus this energy, and then give them costumes, makeup and decent props on afternoons when it was too rainy to be out. This drama department was mainly based upon the untiring energy of one particularly mad teacher, who amazingly disappeared off around the world in a boat he’d been making in his garden for ten years in Bas’ (still James) final year.

From the age of eight Bas (still James at this point) acted in several different shows, a small and slight boy, highlights included: Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol, The Cripple Boy in Ratz (a retelling of the pied Piper of Hamelin) and Big Olga in a Star Trek parody musical (the only one he didn’t have to limp and cry in).

Secondary School came as a surprise to Bas (for a start, they named him Bas when he arrived, as apparently names given by parents just don’t cut it anymore). He found out that he had to wear a slightly odd uniform, give up rugby for an incomprehensible game involving nets, posts and worms and learn to speak a very odd new language particular to the school. Drama however was still about, and now with much more serious, but once again, the constant presence of an energetic mad teacher allowed everyone some much needed familiarity. Apart from silly things like exams and sports and so on, Bas spent his time performing, venturing from comic to tragedy, Guys & Dolls, Damn Yankees, Hamlet, Our Country’s Good, some weird middle ages play about a saint, Lord of the Flies. And he didn’t have to limp or cry in any of them!

University beckoned, and with it, the doldrums of Bas’s theatrical endeavours. A simple two-night run of Bugsy Malone being the only thing he could manage. Despicable really. I apologise.

Having moved to London, Bas threw himself into his work. Then he realised how boring his work was and decided to do something better about it. He found Purple two days before an audition, went along, and has been hanging about ever since. His limping has made an appearance, and he’s even tried to follow in the footsteps of his mad old drama teachers by trying his hand at direction. If you buy him a drink he can tell you why the sun is yellow and the sky blue. Or you can buy him two and he won’t.