A DRAMATISATION of a Bewdley author’s short story will be shown on Sky TV as part of a series of original dramas.

Ian R Macleod’s Snodgrass features a different version of the Beatles story and sees John Lennon quitting the band just before they became famous.

He ends up living a life of obscurity and a rich and successful Paul McCartney attempts to make contact with his old friend.

Snodgrass will be shown on Sky Arts 1 as part of the UK Sky Playhouse series of original dramas.

Ian said: “I’m not a great Beatles fan, although my sister was very much part of Beatlemania, but I’ve always been fascinated by those people who left big bands just before they became famous.

“To put John Lennon in this situation, and see how he got on, seemed like an interesting and amusing way of examining ambition, talent and failure.”

The script was written by David Quantick, best-known for his work as a writer for In the Thick of It and Harry Hill’s TV Burp.

Snodgrass is billed as a comedy drama. The production only covers the first third of the story and it’s hoped that adaptations of the rest of Ian’s story will follow.

The title, Snodgrass, comes from a character in Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers and was a term John Lennon used for people he thought were boring.

Ian’s most recent novel, Wake Up and Dream, won the Sidewise Award for best alternate history, and he also runs a writing workshop for young people in the Kidderminster area called The Writing Squad.

Snodgrass will be shown on Sky Arts 1 on Thursday, April 25.