Arthur Toomey's Christmas in Tooting is a spin off of a play by Nick Garrett and Daniel O'Flaherty called Swallow No Hole. The play was written as a lampoon of the 'gritty urban realism' long favoured in subsidised theatre up and down the land, and especially at the Royal Court in Sloane Square, where it was pioneered. Its authors felt no animosity towards that dramatic style; they did however feel that it had become an excuse to produce unimaginative work whose content ('gritty urban realism') pleased the funding bodies. They set about their task in a sardonic and mischievous mood with an idea to produce something satirical, foul, incendiary and amusing.

The play was submitted to a few of the London theatres, including the Royal Court- all rejected it but with many compliments to the energy of the piece.

 The play had been written quickly but one character, from an earlier O'Flaherty lampoon called 'Where's Yer Culture Now, Shoeshine Boy?' called Cunt Number One, piqued Garrett's imagination and towards the end of 2002 one evening, he wrote Arthur Toomey's Christmas in Tooting as a spin-off and as an experiment in writing, directing and acting in a radio play. It was recorded in November 2002 at Eccles Studios, South London.