Biography
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.
Many moons ago, he was Special Assignments Man for BBC TV’s The Travel Show – a curious low-budget-travel job that he did for over ten years.
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 travails) and ran prison Fathers Workshops.
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.
On learning he worked with prisoners, she invited him to her home for masterclasses and inspired him to run prison Speaking Shakespeare sessions.
His first was Speaking Romeo and Juliet in HMP 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...
Recently, he's also done community voice work with Breaking Barriers and The Longford Trust.
Matthew runs online and in-person Voice Courses; and Explore Your Voice by Speaking Shakespeare workshops.
His next workshop, open to the public, will be Speaking Shakespeare's Sonnets in the Brompton Cemetery chapel on the evening of 25th June 2026.
To book tickets for what will be a hugely enjoyable, educational session (£15pp) in a very special location, please see the Eventbrite link at the bottom of this page.
Matthew also runs 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
Speaking Shakespeare workshops for King’s Worcester and Lycée Charles de Gaulle.
All Matthew's Speaking Shakespeare workshops encourage participants to delight in speaking poetic language that can take voices to unexplored zones.
They are non-thespian, non-academic. And fun.
Public events have included:
Valentine’s Day Speaking Romeo and Juliet workshops
Mother's Day Explore Shakespeare’s Mothers sessions
Halloween Explore Shakespeare's Ghosts workshops in Brompton Cemetery
To book tickets for the next public session - Speaking Shakespeare's Sonnets in the Brompton Cemetery chapel on 25th June (5.45pm to 7.45pm - tickets £15pp) - please keep going to the bottom of this page!
Recent presentations on other topics include:
Budget Travel, Borrowed Grannies, Tax-Free Cash from Yours Kids and Shopping for Free In Supermarkets - a luncheon speech for Cancer Research
Teaching Public Speaking to Prisoners - a speech to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’s Legal Department.
How Shakespeare Can Improve Your Public Speaking - a presentation at the Brilliant Communicators conference delivered to an audience of speechwriters for figures such as the US Ambassador to London, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and a former Swedish prime minister.
A workshop on The Physicality of Shakespeare's Language at the European Speechwriters' Network conference at Oxford University.
WW2 Podcast:
In 2025, Matthew launched We Sons of World War Two Veterans, a podcast about men who fought in World War Two whose stories are told by their sons.
Matthew's father served with the RAF in the Middle East.
Despite starting smoking before the war when he was 12 (and not stopping - until two days before he died), his dad lived into his 90s.
After his dad's death, Matthew started comparing notes with other veterans' sons - about their fathers' distant pre-war childhoods and their fathers' war.
Conversations soon became poignant reflections by baby boomer sons on their World War Two veteran fathers.
And some interviewees later told Matthew that their interview was the first time they had reflected deeply on their relationship with their father.
The latest episode is an interview with classical music conductor, Robin Page, whose father arrived in Singapore on the day it fell to the Japanese. Ron was held in Changi Jail and forced to work on the "Death Railways".
In the previous episode, comedian Arthur Smith talks movingly about his dad, Syd, who was a POW in Colditz.
Hit one of the We Sons... tabs in the top-right-hand-corner of this page for more details about the podcast.
For information about Matthew's talks and speeches or Explore Your Voice by Speaking Shakespeare workshops (corporate or social), please complete the contact form at the bottom of this page.
And to book a place (£15pp) on Matthew's Speaking Shakespeare's Sonnets workshop in the Brompton Cemetery chapel on 25th June (5.45pm to 7.45pm), please visit Eventbrite here:
"Matthew blended the sacred and the profane, the high and the low brow. His speech sent me back to the sonnets…"
- Brian Jenner, founder of The European Speechwriter Network
“Within seconds of him walking onto the stage, I knew I'd booked the right person. Matthew had 1700 ladies nursing sore ribs from their laughter. The feedback from ladies can be summarised as: Matthew made us feel GOOD!
- Margaret Key,National Chairman, Townswomen's Guilds
For contact please complete form below.
And to find out about Speak Well With Willpower, a social enterprise Matthew founded with two colleagues that aims to level up public speaking skills, using Shakespeare, in disadvantaged communities, please click here: www.speakwellwithwillpower.co.uk