Interview with Robert & Fran Iles owners of “UK Theatre Web” (UKTW)
WHAT MADE YOU COME TO BOSCASTLE
Luck really. We met in Oxfordshire but had been moving further west with each change of houses and had always wanted to be somewhere on the North Cornwall coast. For a few years we had an apartment in Newquay but during covid we were unable to visit which made us miss Cornwall so much we decided to move. When we found the house in Fore Street we simply fell in love with it, the village and the area.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR BUSINESS
We run an online business which runs the UK Theatre Web website and provides web and database development. Our website lists what’s on at theatres across the UK and provides reviews and links to a number of ticket suppliers. At any one time we may have up to 15,000 events listed and our searchable archive now contains some 1.2 million listings going back to the mind-1990’s. On the development side, we continue to undertake projects for theatre-related companies and on ticketing systems.
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START IT
We have both always been involved in drama, amateur, competitive and pub theatre. Back in 1994, both working for a scientific software company, Robert started experimenting with providing a company web service. Our initial service was just “What’s on in the West End” but even then it started to attract attention from all over the world. After a while we proposed starting a service covering the whole UK which we launched on Valentine’s Day 1995.
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF YOUR BUSINESS IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
Although our business is national, the skills and contacts it has given us over the years are what we try to bring to the local community.
We have many decades of experience performing, writing, directing, producing and stage managing shows in venues from London pubs to the RSC’s Swan Theatre and Lincoln’s New Theatre Royal and we hope to use that to help bring more theatre to Boscastle audiences. Our first few evenings, a mix of professional touring shows, shows we’ve put on ourselves and shows using local actors, has shown that there is an appetite in the village for ‘theatre’. In the future, we plan on producing more events, or supporting others who want to bring shows of their own to the Village Hall.
Of course, the Boscastle Panto is a major annual event here and we love being involved. When we first came to the village it was an excellent way of meeting lots of people and having fun. We can honestly say, in our experience, Boscastle has pantos like no other!
WHAT ARE YOUR SUCCESSES IN THE BUSINESS
Surviving! This February is our 30th anniversary, which makes us very old in terms of online businesses – we are even older than Google! We, along with internet and theatre based companies, have gone through some real peaks and troughs over the past 30 years and so much has changed – but over those years we have worked with many organisations and built a reputation for providing reliable content and theatre-related development.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BEING HERE
Without doubt, the Boscastle community. We have felt accepted and welcome from the moment we arrived and have made so many new friends. It is also interesting that there are so many people in Boscastle with a background in the arts.
WHEN YOU ARE NOT RUNNING THE BUSINESS WHAT KEEPS YOU OCCUPIED
As there are only two of us in the business, if you ignore the four cats, we are kept reasonably busy but try to work only half-days. As it is our own business and entirely on-line, we can work from home which makes for a better work/life balance.
Outside UKTW we love spending time with family and friends, both old and new from the village. We have a large garden to keep in check and, during the summer, we dance out with Boscastle Border Morris. We go to the theatre as much as we can and we also enjoy scuba diving, though have now become warm-water only divers!
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE PRODUCT
Theatre Reviews! As we publish reviews we get to see a lot of theatre; plays, musicals, opera and dance. We are on several press lists so get invited to press nights though we will also buy tickets for something we are passionate about, even travelling to London and back for a show. We are probably at the theatre 40 or so times a year, if you include the Edinburgh Fringe (where we sometimes see up to 6 shows a day) but we still find it exciting every time the lights go down.
