Catherine Johnson: podcast appearances and interviews

Catherine Johnson is a British playwright and television writer who is known for her work on the musical Mamma Mia! and its film adaptation. She is credited with writing the book for the popular ABBA-inspired musical, which became the highest-grossing British film in the UK and the biggest selling UK DVD of all time as of January 2009. Johnson also co-wrote the sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, in 2018. Growing up near Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire, she attended Katharine Lady Berkeley's School in Wotton. After being expelled from school at 16, Johnson married at 18 and experienced divorce by age 24. Facing unemployment in Bristol with two children, she entered a playwriting competition organized by Bristol Old Vic and HTV West, winning with her play Rag Doll, which tackled themes of incest and child abuse and was staged by the Bristol Old Vic. Her subsequent work includes plays for the Bush Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, and Show of Strength, alongside television scripts for series such as Casualty, Love Hurts, and Byker Grove. In 2007, she founded The Catherine Johnson Award for Best Play, supporting emerging playwrights through the Pearson Playwrights' Scheme, of which she was a bursary recipient in 1991. Johnson is also a patron of the Wotton Electric Picture House, Bristol's Myrtle Theatre Company, and Arts and Community in Thornbury.