William Burdett-Coutts first came across Edinburgh’s now-legendary Assembly Rooms by accident as a 25 year old producer. A quarter of a century on, it is thriving. The Assembly Rooms is one of the pre-eminent venues of the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Every year he is responsible for putting on over 60 different productions with an audience in the region of 120,000.

The exhibition will showcase an amazing collection of personal photographs by William-Burdett-Coutts. Many of British and Australian comedy royalty have been launched from The Assembly Rooms and within the exhibition you will come across youthful images of the Absolutely Fabulous gals, The Young Ones, Circus Oz, Lenny Hanry, Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo doing stand up comedy and much, much more...

William was Artistic Director of Glasgow's International Festival Mayfest between 1987 and 1990. Between 1989 and 1993, William was Head of Arts at Granada Television and was responsible for the network show Celebration,for which he made over a hundred arts programs. He also created Manchester's Festival of Arts and Television, which he ran between 1991 and 1993.

In 1993, William became Chairman of Faze FM that won the licence for Manchester's radio station Kiss 102 and for Yorkshire's Kiss 105 in Leeds.

William became Artistic Director of Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London in October 1993, a multi-complex arts centre comprising three studios, a cinema and gallery space. He also set up his own independent television production company, Assembly Film and Television, which is based at Riverside. Assembly Tv produced the cult sit-com Black Books which was written by and starred festival performer Dylan Moran.