SFMT 2026 is complete! Thank you, all our wonderful competitors and volunteers.

Jan is a long running star of BBC Radio 4’s Dead Ringers and close friend to the late producer Bill Dare, sponsor of the SFMT overall winners award for Creative Writing.

Her Theresa May impression achieved cult status, going viral on social media and with over 1 million views on YouTube. She is a regular contributor across BBC Radio 4, on programmes such as Just A Minute and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, and current affairs programmes such as Broadcasting House, The Week in Westminster and Today. Jan is a regular contributor across BBC Radio 4, on programmes such as Just A Minute and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, and current affairs programmes such as Broadcasting House, The Week in Westminster and Today. Jan has acted in countless R4 dramas and comedies including The Charles Paris Mysteries, Alexei Sayle’s The Absence of Normal, Jo Brand’s spoof obituary show V.I.P R.I.P. Her stage work includes seasons at Chichester Festival Theatre, playing Hoyden opposite Richard Briers as Lord Foppington, Birmingham Rep, as Viola in Twelfth Night, Sophia in Tom Jones and Talking Heads at Watford Palace Theatre, The Children’s Hour, 5@50 at Manchester Royal Exchange, and Pentecost and After Easter at the RSC. TV acting credits include Hebburn, Big Bad World, Skins, Carla Lane’s Luv and Janet Grimley in The Grimleys, ITV1’s Stand-up Sketch Show. And Midsomer Murders. Of course.Something of a game-show star, Jan has won Mastermind, two Pointless trophies, come first place on Richard Osman’s House of Games and beaten the Eggheads.

As well as her acting and comedy work, Jan has authored and presented several radio and TV documentaries.

Jan achieved rave reviews and broke box office records with her solo show Difficult Woman, followed by a sellout tour with Rory Bremner. She is currently in development with HatTrick for a new comedy drama series.

Marcia completed her training at Royal Holloway (University of London) where

she returned to start her PhD. She is a recognised Feldenkrais Practitioner

completing her graduating year with Sussex VIII (FITC); her specialism is in

‘tuning bodies’ for performance. Marcia is also Deputy Chief Examiner for the

London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), an Associate Artist with

National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and has her own theatre Companies,

Arts Outburst (formerly Impetuous Kinship) and Creative Blast, specialising in

making theatre with the Community and providing training in all aspects of

Performance including specialisms in delivery with SEN and young people.

Marcia is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has just achieved her

SFHEA. Her vocal training is in the classical and musical theatre voice.

As a performer Marcia has toured nationally and Internationally and has won and been

nominated for a number of awards:

William Pool comes from Penzance, Cornwall. He was educated at Blundells School, Tiverton, and at Birmingham University. He trained as an operatic tenor at The Royal Northern College of Music, and, finally at The National Opera Studio, in London. 

His professional debut was in 1979, as Jacquino in Fidelio on The Glyndebourne Tour, and then work followed for The Royal Opera, as well as various opera/concert projects, and significant work with the famous Monteverdi Choir  touring worldwide. Venues in Europe and USA include The South Bank, London, La Scala Milan, The Chatelet Theatre, Paris, The Lincoln Centre, New York, and Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. From 1985, William ‘crossed over’ to musicals and general theatre, performing in West End Shows (Chess, and Bernadette - original casts, and Les Miserables Royal Variety TV Performance) and in repertory theatre nationwide (Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, Frederick in Pirates Of Penzance, King Henry in Man For All Seasons, Marcel in Piaf, Eldest Magician in Just So, Tony in West Side Story, Nika Magadoff in The Consul, Pantomime, and many other roles). 

Since 1995 singing teaching has been a major part of his professional career, alongside his performing engagements. He has been a singing tutor at many of the London Musical Theatre Academies - including Mountview, Arts Ed, GSA, Central School of Speech And Drama, and Laine Theatre Arts. Many of his pupils have found success in The West End, on TV, and on prestigious cruise ships in Europe and USA. 

From 2003 to 2012, while living in Brighton - alongside his teaching work - he ran two very successful stage schools (Brighton Young Performers and The Theatre Workshop). 

Now, combined with his work as a singing tutor, William is busy managing and teaching on all the singing modules and the performance masterclasses in the Chichester University Conservatoire ‘Triple Threat’ musical theatre degree course. 

He now lives permanently in Cornwall, having resettled in St Erth in 2022. But he still enjoys working at Chichester University Conservatoire. He is very happy to return to his family roots. Supporting the new young generation of singers and actors is a very fulfilling role to be playing, and it is an honour to be asked to be an adjudicator on the Surrey Festival Of Musical Theatre And Art 2026.