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Allan Prior wrote and adapted quite a lot for
radio, though was primarily a television writer and novelist. He
wrote twenty novels, about thirty plays for television, and some
serials. He wrote some of the first episodes of "Z-Cars" and did 136
police stories "Z-Cars" and "Softly, Softly". Details of his radio
work, so far as I have them, are given below:
UPDATE: a short summary based on the TIMES obituary of Allan Prior, 2006
Allan Prior was the author of 300 television scripts,
30 radio plays and about 20
novels. His
work was distinguished by fluent storytelling and
lively dialogue.
His most original and enduring contribution to
television was as a founder writer of Z Cars. His other big popular
success was the
soap opera Howards’ Way, which he created with
Gerard Glaister.
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, he spent much of his
early life in and around Blackpool, where he attended
the grammar school.
His career as a writer started in 1943 when, as a 21-
year-old, he was stationed with the 130 Spitfire
Squadron at Ballyherbert in Co Down. A fellow air-man
had shown him a story he was sending in to a
competition. Prior read it, was impressed, but
thought he could do as well if not better. The
squadron was taking a break from flying so Prior tore
two pages out of a log-book and wrote the story of
the son of a Co Down farmer who leaves the land to
join the RAF. He won the competition.
During the 1950s he wrote two or three radio plays a
year and moved into television.
He wrote 37 episodes of the Z Cars spin-off,
Softly Softly, which ran for ten years from 1966.
Allan Prior, 1922 - 2006
ALLAN PRIOR RADIO PLAYS: BBC BROADCASTS
20.10.56 The Gorgio Girl
21.01.61 The Girl Richards
18.10.61 Family Business
26.09.62 The Campbell Curse
15.02.64 Crack-Up
29.01.66 The Joy Ride
01.10.75 Paradiso
20.03.76 The One-Eyed Monster
08.01.77 Aaros In Winter
09.10.77 The One-Eyed Monster,rpt.
10.09.77 The Chief
06.01.79 Pity the Poor Potters
14.06.80 Girl At Risk
21.06.80 The Takers
27.10.83 Industrial Inaction*
29.03.84 Four Legs, One At Each Corner
12.05.84 Burglars*
30.03.85 Muggers*
07.03.87 The Chancer*
30.06.90 Nosey!
29.04.95 Fuhrer(part 1 -"Adolf")
12.08.99 Tower to the Sun*
compiled from info. supplied by Roger Bickerton
Asterisked items known to exist within VRPCC.
NOTES
PARADISO 1975
With Barry Foster, Carole Hayman, Rudolph Walker.
THE ONE-EYED MONSTER 1976
With Dinsdale Landen, Joanna Wake, Jill Balcon, Leslie Sands.
AAROS IN WINTER 1977
With William Eedle, Mary Wimbush, Karin Fernald
THE CHIEF 1977
With Malcolm Hayes, Elizabeth Bell, Hector Ross
THE TAKERS 1980
With John Bott, Henry Knowles
GIRL AT RISK 1980
With John Bott, Henry Knowles
INDUSTRIAL INACTION 1983
Jack has spent ten of the last seventeen years in various of Her
Majesty's prisons...and no employer has seen fit to employ him in
all that time...but the Employment Exchange is determined to change
all that...With Arthur Mullard as Jack (Dad Potter), Pearl Hackney
as Ma, Diane Langton
as Carla and Graham Chinn as Darren, Mark Straker as Simon, Ronald
Baddeley as his father, William Eedle as Comrade Fred, James Kerry
as the senior gateman, Clive Panto as the official; play directed by
David Johnston.
BURGLARS 1984
With Leslie Sands, Sean Barrett, Don Henderson
MUGGERS 1985
With John Bott, Sean Barrett
THE CHANCER 1987
With Mark Straker, Thereas Streatfield, John Hollis
NOSEY 1990
With John Rowe, Sue Broomfield. Interesting biographical play about
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. Also stars Denys
Hawthorne as his father, Elizabeth Proud as his mother,
Michael Cochrane is his brother Richard and Helena Breck as
Catherine. Music - songs selected and performed by
Maddie Prior and Rick Kemp.
FUHRER 1995
Serial, with Michael Maloney, Nigel Anthony, Maureen O'Brien.
THE WEST PIER 1998
Two-part dramatisation by Allan Prior of the Patrick Hamilton's story, broadcast as
"Classic Serial". Three young men, ex-schoolfriends, return to Brighton
in the summer of 1925. Are they after a holiday romance, or something
more sinister? And what about the odious Gorse? With Michael Sheen,
Alison Petitt, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Emilia Fox, David Threlfall, Brigit
Forsyth. Directed by Richard Wortley.
TOWER TO THE SUN 1999
............... was the
true story of the building of Blackpool Tower. Inspired by the
Eiffel Tower, John Bickerstaffe dreams that a similar construction
in Blackpool could bring the town fame and money, but influential
people in the town do not agree. Peter Gunn was Bickerstaffe and
Stephen Thorne Mr. Ridings in this excellent dramatisation. (VRPCC
newsletter Sep99)
Nigel Deacon
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