About

Matthew Collins is a writer, speaker and voice coach who works with clients ranging from prisoners and business people to members of the Women’s Institute.

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Many moons ago, he was Special Assignments Man for BBC2’s The Travel Show – a curious low-budget-travel job that he did for ten years.

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Each week a stunned Matthew was given tickets, money and a surprise travel assignment – anything from spending a week in a French nudist camp to making a six-days-and-nights coach journey to Athens and back (with only a half-hour break in Athens).

 

He also presented on Wogan; Open Air; This Morning; Well Worth A Visit… And (his Alan Partridge moment) an Anglia TV quiz show - for sixth formers. He then brought up two sons alone, wrote books and articles about their travels (and their travails) and ran prison Fathers Workshops. 

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Once his sons were teenagers, he did an MA in Voice Studies at the Central School of Speech and Drama. There he met the RSC's, Cicely Berry, who changed his life: On learning he worked with prisoners, she invited him to her home for masterclasses and inspired him to run Speaking Shakespeare sessions in prison. 

 

His first session was Speaking Romeo and Juliet in Wormwood Scrubs. Afterwards, when one man said, "Cheers guv - you really got me out of myself" and another said, "Fair play to you mate - you got us through this s**t. Respect!" he knew he wanted to do more prison work.

 

He spent ten years in Scrubs and started doing voicework with other non-thespians – ex-prisoners, police officers, Women’s Institute members... 

 

Matthew runs online and in-person Voice Courses; and Explore Shakespeare by Speaking Him workshops. He also does online and in-person commercial work - which includes public speaking sessions for local authorities and law firms. 

 

School work includes a presentation about Language and Social Media for the London Oratory; a talk to Dulwich College about Teaching Shakespeare to Prisoners; and Speaking Shakespeare workshops for King’s Worcester and Lycée Charles de Gaulle. 

 

He also runs public Speaking Shakespeare workshops. These encourage participants to delight in speaking rich, powerful language that can take voices to unexplored zones. It's a fun, non-academic (and non-thespian) approach.

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Public workshops have included Valentine’s Day Speaking Romeo and Juliet workshops; Mother's Day Explore Shakespeare’s Mothers – by Speaking Them workshops; Halloween Explore Shakespeare's Ghosts (in Brompton Cemetery) sessions; and workshops on Shakespeare’s sonnets.

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Matthew's recent talks include a luncheon speech (Budget Travel, Borrowed Grannies, Tax-Free Cash from Yours Kids AND Shopping for Free In Supermarkets) for Cancer Research; and a speech to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’s Legal Department on Teaching Public Speaking to Prisoners.

 

Last year he was keynote speaker at the Brilliant Communicators conference in London. His speech, How Shakespeare Can Improve Your Public Speaking, was delivered to an audience of speechwriters for public figures such as the US Ambassador to London, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and a former Swedish prime minister.

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In March 2025 he gave a workshop on The Physicality of Shakespeare's Language for delegates at the European Speechwriters' Network conference at Oxford University. 

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