Ffeil / File 28/13/15 - Alan Plater: General material

Alan Plater, playwright and screenwriter, was born in Jarrow in the north-east of England in 1935 and brought up in Hull. He became a full-time writer in 1961, writing firstly for radio then subsequently expanding to include television, film and theatre. His 1982 radio play The Journal of Vasilije Bogdanovic won the inaugural 1983 Sony Radio Award. His television credits includes the Z Cars series (1962-1978), The Barchester Chronicles (1982) and The Beiderbecke Trilogy (1985-1988). In 1970 he adapted D H Lawrence's novel The Virgin and the Gypsy for the big screen, while his theatre work includes the 1968 musical Close the Coalhouse Door, alongside songwriter Alex Glasgow and writer Sid Chaplin. Plater won numerous awards, including BAFTA, the International Emmy and the Screenwriting Awards of the Biarritz Festival. He was President of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain from 1991 to 1995 and was awarded a CBE in the 2005 New Year's Honours List. He died in 2010.