Ian Donald Cochrane Hopkins

Ian Donald Cochrane Hopkins (also known as IDC Hopkins or Ian D. C. Hopkins or Ian Hopkins) is a Scottish comedy writer[1][2] and management consultant.

Born in Darvel, Ayrshire on 16 July 1943, Hopkins attended Kilmarnock Academy before pursuing a career in Industrial Engineering.[2]

Hopkins undertook a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics at London University, following which he became a lecturer in Management at the University of the West of Scotland.[2]

Hopkins comedy writing career began as a contracted writer for Naked Radio, Six of the Best, Not the Nine O'Clock News,[3][4] Three of a Kind,[5] Naked Video[6] and Spitting Image.[7][8]

Hopkins has had three stage plays performed. Albatross Soup (co-authored with John Duignan),[9] Citizen Singh (co-authored with Gurmeet Mattu) and Every Bloody Sunday (co-authored with Gurmeet Mattu).

Hopkins has also had three satirical novels published, each co-authored with John Duignan: Skelp the Aged[10][11][12] in 2016; The Buick Stops Here[13][14] in 2017; and The Lambshank Redemption[15][16] in 2019.

Hopkins and Duignan began writing Skelp the Aged as a play, before deciding to make it a novel.[10] The three novels in the trilogy by Hopkins and Duignan follow hapless anti-heroes Mungo and Ethel Laird, in and out of trouble - and jail - as they struggle to maintain a living as bookies.[17][2]

Hopkins also co-authored Shit Yourself Laughing[18] with Frank Muir.

In 2020, Hopkins' satirical novella, A Glutton-Free Diet, was published by Pegasus Publishers.[19][20] The story takes place on the Isle of Arran and is set against the background of the New Labour government unveiling its proposals for a Scottish Parliament. The protagonists, in their own ways, represent the major contemporary influences in the 1997 Scottish devolution debate.