born May 17, 1935, Berry Hill, Gloucestershire, Eng.
died June 7, 1994, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire
British dramatist.
Educated at Oxford, he thereafter devoted himself to writing, especially of television plays. His innovative serial Pennies from Heaven (1978) combined fantasy sequences and musical interludes in which actors lip-synched to old recordings of period songs. His best-known teleplay, the eight-part The Singing Detective (1986), an autobiographical account of his crippling bouts of psoriatic arthropathy, combined humour, pathos, and fantastic musical numbers. His other teleplays include the allegedly sacrilegious Brimstone and Treacle (1976, televised 1987) and Lipstick on Your Collar (1993). His movie screenplays include Gorky Park (1983) and Dreamchild (1985).