Brian Beacom.

STEVEN Dick picked up some great advice when he read a book about playwriting.

It suggested writing about the worst day in the life of the central character. And that’s exactly what he did.

Not so long ago, Steven’s 85 year-old gran took a bath, had some form of stroke or seizure, and as a result found herself trapped.

Mary Dick was in fact stuck in the bath for an incredible five days.

What’s even more incredible is the lady from Stirling, clearly a very special character, survived, despite being steeped in freezing cold water.

Now, Steven’s gran is alive and well. But the experience, was too good – or too bad – not to use it to form the basis of a play.

This week, Oran Mor present Hot Water. A story of “one woman, one bath, one radio.”

Steven, who is also a successful stand-up comedian, rewinds on his gran’s experience.

“We’re not sure if she had a stroke, or she blacked out, we still don’t know,” he recalls. “But we reckon just hours away from death.

“Thankfully, she recovered quite quickly. My gran is a tough woman with a great sense of humour.”

He adds, smiling; “She was making jokes with the ambulance crew on the way to hospital.”

Steven’s gran was saved by the fact she always carries a little flask of water around with her. When she came too, she couldn’t get out of the bath, but was able to take little sips.

But survival was perhaps aided by the fact she regularly swims in the freezing sea.

“I live in Troon and she comes down and swims here,” he says of the former legal stenographer. “She swims in Anstruther and Stonehaven.

“She’s tough, a very independent lady who more or less brought up my dad on her own.”

Steven has had to make some adjustments to his gran’s horrendous ordeal to transfer it into a play, in which Janette Foggo stars as the lady in the bath.

“We use the premise that she slips and falls and bangs her head and her hip.

“She’s unconscious for a while, and then comes around and can speak. Which is partly what happened with my gran.

“But my gran is big fan of radio comedy. And when she goes into the bath she takes the radio with her.

“We incorporate that, with snippets of radio coming through.”

He grins; “At one point she ends up playing I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue with herself.”

Steven’s stand-up work is on hold at the moment thanks to the development of his writing career.

“I’ve done five series of Have I Got News For You,” he says.

“It’s pretty crazy and I love it. We write for the host and I’ve written material for Alexander Armstrong and next week I think it’s Nick Clegg.

“It’s great to write for the biggest quiz show on the telly.”

Steven has also written for a new series Channel 5 24-7 Hospital, which is rather like Scot Squad set in a hospital and stars Richard E. Grant.

His writing career is blossoming in his garden shed in Troon garden. “I’d been to Troon twice,” he explains of the move from Glasgow, smiling. “Once to buy a house and the second time to move there. But my wife works in Ayr and it’s a great place to bring up two kids.”

But writing isn’t his focus at the moment. It’s his gran.

Steven hasn’t yet told her gran that she is the inspiration, and the central character in his new play.

“I haven’t,” he says. “She knows I’ve written a play and she’s coming to see it. But that’s all she knows.”

He adds, grinning; “And to write the play I’ve had to imagine certain things. I’ve taken a bit of artistic license.

“It will be really interesting to see how close I’ve come to the truth.”

Hot Water, Oran Mor, until Saturday.