020 8914 8966
020 8914 8966
Yours was the best after dinner speech I have ever heard. You did a vast amount of homework on the issues and personnel that are key to our business, and were extremely funny about all of them. Thank you Clive.
Steve Austin, Philips Lighting.
Clive Coleman is a speaker, journalist, a former barrister who used to be the BBC’s legal correspondent up until 2020. He was called to the Bar in 1986. His practice has covered both criminal (defence and CPS) and civil law (medical negligence, property and insolvency). His career started in spectacular fashion. This was when he managed to get his first client off with a mere six month prison sentence. That was for a parking offence…though, to be fair, he had just parked on top of his social worker!
From 1990-99 Clive was a Senior and then Principal Lecturer in Law on the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law. This is where he helped to pioneer skills training for barristers. Clive has lectured and written on a wide range of legal subjects, including contract, evidence and civil litigation. Also he has covered negotiation, advocacy, communication and the art of persuasion.
During this period, Clive Coleman started to develop his writing career. In 1992, he won the prestigious BBC Radio Light Entertainment Contract Writers Award. Previous winners include Angus Deayton and Rory McGrath. Clive regularly contributed to Weekending, The News Huddlines and wrote the sit-com Hair In The Gate, starring Allistair McGowan.
Clive’s television comedy work includes Spitting Image, Smith and Jones, and Clive Anderson Talks Back. He is perhaps best known for Chambers, his hit Radio 4 and then BBC1 sit-com about barristers, starring John Bird, James Fleet and Sarah Lancashire.
More credits include the hit play ‘Young Marx’, about the young Karl Marx, starring Rory Kinnear and directed by Sir Nicholas Hytner which opened London’s new Bridge Theatre in 2017. His film ‘The Duke’, about the 1961 theft of Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery, starring Dame Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent was released in 2020.
In 1998 Clive won the BBCs inaugural Frank Muir Award, for outstanding comedy writing. He is currently working with Tiger Aspect Productions and Verity Lambert on two new comedy drama projects. 
Clive Coleman’s television drama work includes The Bill (for whom he has also acted as legal consultant on court based storylines), Heartbeat and Crossroads.
In between writing for television and radio, Clive has also written an occasional column for The Independent. This was in the guise of John Fuller-Carp, the character played by John Bird in Chambers.
Clive has performed character-based sketches for Channel 5s Exclusive show. For many years, he has regularly performed on radio with credits including co-writing and performing in Radio 4’s Control Group 6 (nominated for the 1996 Writers Guild Award for Best Radio Comedy), Radio Five Lives The Games Up, with Allistair McGowan and You Cannot Be Serious, with Kevin Day. Other regular guest appearances include Radio 4’s The Motion Show and Loose Ends.
In May 2004 Clive Coleman took up the role of presenter of the BBC Radio Four flagship legal analysis programme, Law In Action.
TESTIMONIALS:
“Your after dinner speech was a great success. You hit just the right level of humour required and the committee has received excellent feedback”
Colin Townsend Green, Divisional Branch Chairman, The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
“Clive’s razor sharp wit and fund of hilarious stories, meant that our annual Christmas dinner was a really wonderful evening, full of warmth and laughter. The ecstatic comments received from our members led us to swiftly re-book him for our next function.”
Grant Ebatt, President Bournemouth University Law Society
“Clive was an excellent speaker and much enjoyed by all of the members. Please pass on my thanks for such a well prepared and witty speech I shall certainly recommend him to other event organisers,”
Gil Graham, Luncheon Co-ordinator, The Fleet Street Club.
“Perhaps it is because barristers are so used to thinking on their feet that some of Clive’s best material seemed to be completely off the cuff. His quick wit and ability to tailor his speech to the requirements of our brief made for a marvellous evening”
Dr Richard Wiseman, MD Schering Plough.
“Excellent. Clive came early, researched key people at the conference and played them into his speech. He took time to ensure that his speech was relevant to the audience. He was well received and many continue to favourably comment.”
Commander Andy Baker, Metropolitan Police.
