Wilfred Greatorex
Wilfred Greatorex | |
---|---|
Born | Wilfred Glyn Greatorex 27 May 1921 Liverpool, England |
Died | 14 October 2002 Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom | (aged 81)
Occupation | Television writer, Screenwriter, script editor, Television producer |
Nationality | British |
Period | 1959–1982 |
Genre | Drama |
Wilfred Glyn Greatorex (27 May 1921 – 14 October 2002[1]) was an English television and film writer, script editor and producer.
Early life
[edit]Born in Liverpool, he was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn. After wartime service with the RAF, he became a reporter on The Blackburn Times, The Lancashire Evening Post[2] and Reynold's News. He began his television career at Associated Television.[3]
Career
[edit]He was creator of such series as Secret Army, 1990, Plane Makers and its sequel The Power Game, Hine, Brett, Man From Haven and The Inheritors.[4] He also wrote the screenplay for the 1969 film Battle of Britain.[1] He was described by The Guardian newspaper as "one of the most prolific and assured of television script-writers and editors from the 1960s into the 1980s".[5] Starting off as a journalist, he got his big break as a TV writer on Lew Grade's ATV service writing dramas about journalism, such as Deadline Midnight and Front Page Story.[5] He wrote a number of books, including one about the Battle of Arnhem as ghostwriter for Major General Roy Urquhart.
As a TV script editor he also worked on series such as Danger Man[1] and was also creator/producer of The Inheritors, Hine and The Power Game.[1] Papers discovered at a Norfolk auction house in 2011 reveal that 'Hine' had a budget of £84,000, the equivalent of close to £1m some forty years later.
In 1977, he came up with the dystopian drama series 1990 for BBC2, starring Edward Woodward. Greatorex dubbed the series "Nineteen Eighty-Four plus six".[6] Over its two series it portrayed "a Britain in which the rights of the individual had been replaced by the concept of the common good – or, as I put it more brutally, a consensus tyranny."[5] The same year he also devised (with Gerard Glaister) the BBC1 wartime drama Secret Army. The show later inspired the sitcom parody 'Allo 'Allo!.[7]
When talking about his writing style he said "I am opposed to soft-centred characters, which is why I don't create a lot of Robin Hoods. The world's full of hard cases, real villains. And they need to be confronted with other characters just as hard."[4]
His last series for television was Airline in 1982 (starring Roy Marsden).[7] He died in of renal failure in Buckinghamshire in 2002.[1]
Writing credits
[edit]Production | Notes | Broadcaster |
---|---|---|
The Net |
|
BBC1 |
Look at Life |
|
N/A |
Taxi! |
|
BBC1 |
The Plane Makers |
|
ITV |
Danger Man |
|
ITV |
The Power Game |
|
ITV |
ITV Playhouse |
|
ITV |
Nobody Runs Forever |
|
N/A |
Man in a Suitcase |
|
ITV |
Battle of Britain |
|
N/A |
Big Brother |
|
ITV |
Hine |
|
ITV |
Love Story |
|
ITV |
The Man from Haven |
|
ITV |
The Frighteners |
|
ITV |
The Inheritors |
|
ITV |
Oil Strike North |
|
BBC1 |
The Mackinnons |
|
BBC1 |
1990 |
|
BBC2 |
Airline |
|
ITV |
Books
[edit]- Greatorex, Wilfred; Fleming, William Ernest (1 January 1957). Diamond Fever, an account of the experiences of William E. Fleming as a diamond prospector in British Guiana. Cassell.
- Urquhart, Major-General Robert Elliott; Greatorex, Wilfred (May 1958). Arnhem. Cassell.
- Greatorex, Wilfred (16 October 1975). The Freelancers. Littlehampton Book Services. ISBN 978-0297770145.
- Greatorex, Wilfred (9 September 1976). Crossover. Littlehampton Book Services. ISBN 978-0297771616.
- Greatorex, Wilfred (February 1977). Three Potato Four. Putnam. ISBN 978-0698107649.
- Greatorex, Wilfred (1977). 1990: Book One. Sphere. ISBN 9780722140093. Based on the BBC television series.
- Greatorex, Wilfred (23 March 1978). 1990: Book Two. Sphere. ISBN 978-0722140017.
- Greatorex, Wilfred (1979). Quicksand. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0297774549.
- Greatorex, Wilfred (1 January 1982). Airline, Take Off. Futura Publications. ISBN 978-0708821411. Based on the Yorkshire Television series.
- Greatorex, Wilfred (25 February 1982). Airline, Ruskin's Berlin. Futura Publications. ISBN 978-0708821695.
- Greatorex, Wilfred (4 March 1986). The Button Zone. Signet. ISBN 978-0451141521.
- Greatorex, Wilfred (30 August 1990). Eminent Persons. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0297840343.
Quotes
[edit]I am opposed to soft-centred characters, which is why I don't create a lot of Robin Hoods. The world's full of hard cases, real villains. And they need to be confronted with other characters just as hard. (The Sunday Times, 1972).[8]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e "Wilfred Greatorex". IMDb. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
- ^ "BFI Screenonline: Greatorex, Wilfred (1922-2002) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
- ^ Purser, Phillip (17 October 2002). "Wilfred Greatorex". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
- ^ a b Vahimagi, Tise. "Greaterox, Wilfred (1922–2002)". Screenonline. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
- ^ a b c Purser, Phillip (17 October 2002). "Obituary: Wilfred Greaterox". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
- ^ "1990 episode Guide". Action TV. Archived from the original on 9 May 2006. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
- ^ a b "Wilfred Greaterox obituary". The Times. London. 17 October 2002. Retrieved 2 March 2008.[dead link]
- ^ "BFI Screenonline: Greatorex, Wilfred (1922-2002) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 6 February 2024.