Mary Evans

Journalist Mary Evans discovered her love of writing aged 17 (her first work at four years old, The Ladyberds in My Bathroom, gathered only a niche blood-relative following) when she penned a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing for the Bryanston Arts Centre, Dorset. The show enjoyed a sell-out run, which did wonders for Mary's writing confidence, if little for her A-level results.

An English Literature degree at University College, London and a few years' hard work as a PA quickly persuaded Mary that she never wanted to do a proper day's work again, so she decided to retrain as a journalist.

After three years as a feature writer for TV Times magazine, Mary went freelance in 2005. She is now a writer and TV critic for The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Sun, She, First, TV Times and acts as a general TV rent-a-gob for BBC Radio Five Live, where she can most regularly be heard on Simon Mayo's TV panel, debating the finer (or not) points of the week's television.

In 2006, Mary graduated from De Montfort University with an MA in Television Scriptwriting. She is now embarking on a new career as a scriptwriter, hoping to give her fellow TV critics the chance to tear her work apart.

Mary is a third wife, a stepmother and a half-sister. It might make Christmas a bit awkward, but she's certainly never short of material.