Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon

They were head sketch writers on BBC Radio 4's Jo Caulfield Won't Shut Up and BBC1's Live and Kicking, and also wrote the TV comedy shows Slightly Filthy (LWT) and The Ornate Johnsons' Edwardian Spectacular (BBC4).

Their plays include Spy, Moonlight over India, Writ in Water, Metronome, Eurovision, Seven Studies in Salesmanship, The Opinion Makers, Those Magnificent Men and the multiple award-winning Big Daddy Vs Giant Haystacks.

Mitchell told Time Out that their aim was 'to bring back energy, drama and extravagant performances to the world of sketch comedy; and to do stuff that wasn't political or PC.

'[2] The original members of the Ornate Johnsons were Brian Mitchell, David Mounfield and Laurence Relton, and they first performed at the Marlborough Theatre Brighton, in January 1992.

They were later joined, at various times, by Glen Richardson, Paul Putner, Louise Law (née Judkins), Beth Fitzgerald, Jo Neary and Clea Smith.

'[2] For BBC Southern Counties, Matt McGuire reviewed an Ornate Johnsons show at Brighton Festival in 2007: 'The OJs did what they always do: deliver genuinely fantastic, original, playful, surreal and dynamic comedy sketches, including bribery on the Starship Enterprise; football commentators' on the drama of a man stuffing a pie down his face in seconds; Only Fools And Horses, the opera; and a man who always finishes his girlfriend's sentences.

The store is run by Harry, an artist at the soda fountain, whose greatest creation, which he calls 'Moonlight over India' is a 'Triple Chocolate – white, milk AND plain – Double Fudge, Chopped Walnut, Four Scoop Sundae.'

Moonlight over India was revived again in May 2019, at the Brighton Latest Music Bar, with a cast of Ross Gurney-Randall, Ian Shaw, Joshua Crisp, Amy Sutton, Penny Scott-Andrews and Nick Bartlett.

Lynne Mortimer reviewed the production in the East Anglian Times: 'This was a fabulously convoluted story about a Chingford based intelligence organisation and it required any number of paralyzing, knock-out and truth inducing drugs to be administered in the course of the action....Duncan Henderson is magnificent as Stroud, the hapless employee who has spent 15 years trying to avoid being noticed because he doesn't actually do any work.

And as if history and comedy were not enough, there are points where the characters step out of the action and era of the play to discuss the whole notion of biographical dramas, and shoot down in flames the recent trend for plays and films based on the lives of politicians, comedians and celebrities; works which twist the facts to make the story more interesting....This is a superb piece of theatre, beautifully written and engagingly acted, and it deserves to be widely seen.

'[1] Julie Watterson, in The Stage, wrote, 'The production is full of laughter, pathos and ingenuity, with strong direction from Daniel Buckroyd and creative design by Helen Fownes-Davies, who uses basic trunks for a variety of clever purposes and facilitates the quirky construction of an amusingly credible version of the Vickers-Vimy-Roils aeroplane.

Richard Perry, reviewing a Leicester performance in the Western Park Gazette, said 'If you ever want to see the Charge of the Light Brigade performed in your living room, Brian Mitchell and David Mountfield [sic] could probably do it with sticks, a cushion and a flared nostril apiece....It's a very funny, hands on hips, chin jutting out into the sunset look at old fashioned British heroism and epic boys' own daring do in the face of insurmountable odds and near certain death.

'[9] Mitchell and Nixon's 2011 play, Big Daddy Vs Giant Haystacks, is a comedy about the world of British wrestling, written for the actors Ross Gurney-Randall and David Mounfield.

In 2013, it went to the Assembly Rooms for the Edinburgh Festival, where Michael Coveney hailed it as 'a sharp and funny sketch show about the heyday (and Haystacks) of television wrestling, with some astute popular cultural referencing and more physical theatre than the entire dance programme at Summerhall (this year's seriously trending, and trendy, venue).

'[11] Philip Reeve reviewed the play for The Solitary Bee:'Actors Ross Gurney-Randall and David Mounfield don't just portray Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks, but an immense supporting cast of lesser wrestlers, managers, and TV executives; there are even walk-on parts for Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra and Princess Margaret....It's all as funny as we've come to expect from Mitchell and Nixon, but it's never just funny: they have a deep sympathy for the people they write about.

Ross Gurney Randall's Big Daddy is particularly impressive; reluctant at first, then half believing his own publicity; his unease at having to visit the bedsides of dying children as part of his brother's publicity schemes, and his grief and guilt about the death of an opponent, are exceptionally well-drawn; he's almost a tragic figure (albeit a 26 stone tragic figure in a spangly leotard)'[12] Scenes from the play were included in the recent BBC4 documentary 'When Wrestling Was Golden'.

The piece, featuring David Mounfield, Heather Urquhart, Jenny Rowe and Daniel Beales, was made up of seven short plays linked by the theme of selling.

Graham Duff, writer of Ideal and Hebburn, reviewed the Brighton show: 'Matching big laugh-out-loud gags with touching moments of genuine poignancy, Seven Studies in Salesmanship is a beautifully crafted portmanteau production.

The play, directed by Daniel Buckroyd, opened in October 2013 at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, with a cast including Mel Giedroyc, David Mounfield and Julie Atherton.

The Mercury Theatre website, which describes the play as 'Mad Men meets Carry On', provides this synopsis: 'When the utterly incompetent team at Fernsby Market Research find themselves facing the stiffest challenge of their professional lives – to report what the British Public really think of world famous 'Doctor Campbell's Lotion' in readiness for a re-launch – there's only one thing for it; make it all up!

Tom Locke, reviewing it in the Argus, wrote, 'Whether there will be a wittier, better crafted or more entertaining show at the Fringe this year remains to be seen, but Brighton boys Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon have set the bar high....This performance was sold out and the reaction at the end was unanimous – a hit!

According to Louise Schweitzer, in the Argus, 'Mounfield and Mitchell romped with minimum props and maximum gusto through Gilbertiana....It was a very clever show from two enormously talented and very funny actors.

The play told the story of Mansfield's 'human mole', Geoff Smith, who in 1998 was buried alive in a pub beer garden as an attempt to get into the Guinness Book of Records.

"[22] In Fringe Review, Lisa Wolfe wrote, "What starts out as broad comedy, in even broader Mansfield dialect...is subtly layered with universal themes of love and loss.

As with the Foundry Group's earlier plays, Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks and Those Magnificent Men, the shoddy morals and devious practices of news media has a profound impact on the real life characters being portrayed.

Here it's Geoffrey, in a warm and heartfelt performance by Murray Simon, who is hounded by the press but doesn't have the skin tough enough to bear it...Duncan Henderson's Spike commands the stage; a beady-eyed chancer who narrates direct to the audience....Emma Wingrove, formidable as landlady Pearl, shows her comedy chops across six female roles.

[25] It was first performed at the Latest Music Bar, Brighton, with Murray Simon as McGoohan, Ross Gurney-Randall as Lew Grade and Nigel Stock, and Robert Cohen and Brian Mitchell in multiple roles.

"[29] For Susanne Crosby, Mitchell and Simon's double act was "an effortlessly easy partnership where the fun they are having performing is cracklingly infectious to the audience...they have succeeded in bringing classic British comedy up to date, which is an amazing feat.

The guide to Brighton has gone through five editions, in which Mitchell has gradually documented the loss of the town's old fashioned caffs: 'I have felt like a latter-date Canute, trying to resist the tide of coffee chains, gastro pubs and juice bars.

'[31] In a typical review, of the Corner Cafe, Hove, Mitchell writes, 'I particularly recommend the homemade bacon pudding, which once moved my colleague David Mounfield to tears and has certainly brought me close to the condition known as Stendhal syndrome.