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 BBC TV’s The Travel Show – a curious low-budget-travel job that he did for over 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/Nicholas Parsons moment) an Anglia TV quiz show.

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He then brought up two sons alone, wrote books and articles about their travels (and 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.

 

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.

 

He 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

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A talk to Dulwich College about Teaching Shakespeare to Prisoners

 

Speaking Shakespeare workshops for King’s Worcester and Lycée Charles de Gaulle. 

 

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He also runs Speaking Shakespeare workshops open to the public. These encourage participants to delight in speaking poetic language that can take voices to unexplored zones.

 

His approach is non-thespian, non-academic. And fun.

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Public events have included:

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Valentine’s Day Speaking Romeo and Juliet workshops

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Mother's Day Explore Shakespeare’s Mothers sessions

 

Halloween Explore Shakespeare's Ghosts workshops in Brompton Cemetery

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​​Recent presentations on other topics include:

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Budget Travel, Borrowed Grannies, Tax-Free Cash from Yours Kids and Shopping for Free In Supermarkets - a luncheon speech for Cancer Research

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Teaching Public Speaking to Prisoners - a speech to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’s Legal Department.

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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.

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A workshop on The Physicality of Shakespeare's Language at the European Speechwriters' Network conference at Oxford University. 

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WW2 Podcast:

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In 2025, to coincide with the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Matthew launched We Sons of World War Two Vets, a podcast about men who fought in World War Two whose stories are told by their sons.

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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 about their fathers' war.

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Their conversations turned into interviews which became a series​ of poignant reflections by baby boomer sons on their World War Two veteran fathers.

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Some interviewees have told Matthew that their interview was the first time they'd reflected on the culture that their dads grew up in and on the war's effects - on their father and on their relationship with him.

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The latest episode is a funny and moving interview with comedian Arthur Smith​ about his father, Syd, who became a prisoner of war at El Alamein and ended up in Colditz.

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Hit one of the We Sons... tabs at the top of this page for more details about the podcast.

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And 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.

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