He founded the Hull Truck Theatre[1][2] in 1971 and directed all of their shows for ten years including his own devised plays The Knowledge, Oh What!, Bridget’s House, A Bed of Roses and Still Crazy After All These Years.
Hull Truck was the first British Fringe Company to be invited to play the National Theatre and to create new drama for BBC Television.
He played Norman in Mike Leigh's award winning film Bleak Moments and worked as an underwater escapologist and fire eater with Hirst's Charivari and as an Actor/Musician with the Ken Campbell Roadshow.
These include Hard Feelings by Doug Lucie, Unsuitable For Adults by Terry Johnson, The Fosdyke Saga by Bill Tidy and Alan Plater, Love And Understanding[4] by Joe Penhall, Dogs Barking by Richard Zajdliz, Dead Sheep, Shang-a-Lang[5] and Little Baby Nothing by Catherine Johnson, Howie The Rookie by Mark O'Rowe, Normal by Helen Blakeman, Flamingos by Jonathan Hall, Blackbird by Adam Rapp, Resident Alien by Tim Fountain, Airsick by Emma Frost, When You Cure Me[6] by Jack Thorne, Adrenalin-heart by Georgia Fitch, The Glee Club by Richard Cameron, The Girl With Red Hair by Sharman Macdonald, Crooked by Catherine Trieschman and Pumpgirl by Abbie Spallen[7] Other work includes Mrs Gauguin and Mrs Vershinin by Helen Cooper (Almeida, Riverside and Kampnagel, Hamburg), Tuesday's Child by Terry Johnson (Stratford East) The Cochroach Trilogy by Alan Williams (National and international tour), The Dalkey Archive by Flann O’Brien (Long Wharf Theatre) and Queen of the Nile by Tim Fountain[8] Bradwell has directed productions at The Tricycle Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, King's Head Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, The Science Fiction Theatre Of Liverpool, The National Theatre Of Brent, The Rude Players of Manitoba and The Royal Court Theatre.
Bradwell has also has written and directed for film, television and radio including The Writing on the Wall, Games Without Frontiers, Chains Of Love, Happy Feet, and I Am A Donut.