Wilfred Greatorex

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Wilfred Greatorex
BornWilfred Glyn Greatorex
27 May 1921
Liverpool, England
Died14 October 2002(2002-10-14) (aged 81)
Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
OccupationTelevision writer, Screenwriter, script editor, Television producer
NationalityBritish
Period1959–1982
GenreDrama

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 at the Top, 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Eighty-Four plus six".[6] Over its two series it portrayed "a Britain in which the rights of the individual had been replaced by the concept of the common good – or, as I put it more brutally, a consensus tyranny."[5] The same year he also devised (with Gerard Glaister) the BBC1 wartime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
  • "Tender Job" (1962)
  • "A Date with Janie" (1962)
  • "Not for Peanuts" (1962)
  • "Dover Relief" (1962)
  • "The Weekend Fliers" (1962)
  • "Not Wanted on Voyage" (1962)
 BBC1
Look at Life
  • "Look at Life: Men of the Woods" (1963)
  • "Look at Life: High, Wide and Faster" (1963)
  • "Look at Life: Europe Grows Together" (1963)
  • "Look at Life: Draw the Fires" (1963)
  • "Look at Life: Caught in the Cold" (1963)
  • "Look at Life: Back*"room of the Sky" (1963)
  • "Look at Life: The New Australians" (1964)
  • "Look at Life: Off the Sheeps Back" (1964)
  • "Look at Life: Men of the Snowy" (1964)
  • "Look at Life: Constant Hot Water" (1964)
  • "Look at Life: City of the Air" (1964)
  • "Look at Life: The Big Take*"Off" (1966)
  • "Look at Life: School for Skymen" (1966)
  • "Look at Life: Evening Paper" (1966)
  • "Look at Life: Eating High" (1966)
  • "Look at Life: Murder Bag" (1967)
 N/A
Taxi!
  • "Everybody's in: Goodnight!" (1963)
 BBC1
The Plane Makers
  • "A Question of Sources" (1963)
  • "Strings in Whitehall" (1963)
  • "The Island Game" (1964)
 ITV
Danger Man
  • "The Professionals" (1964)
  • "Fair Exchange" (1964)
 ITV
The Power Game
  • "Point of Balance" (1966)
  • "Late Via Rome" (1966)
  • "The Man with Two Hats" (1966)
  • "The Front Men" (1966)
  • "The Chicken Run" (1966)
  • "Safe Conduct" (1966)
  • "One Via Zurich" (1969)
  • "The Outsider" (1969)
  • "The Heart Market" (1969)
  • "The New Minister" (1969)
  • "Mergers" (1969)
 ITV
ITV Playhouse
  • "The Curtis Affair" (1968)
 ITV
Nobody Runs Forever
  • Feature film (1968)
 N/A
Man in a Suitcase
  • "The Boston Square" (1968)
  • "Property of a Gentleman" (1968)
 ITV
Battle of Britain
  • Feature film (1969)
 N/A
Big Brother
  • Television miniseries (1970)
 ITV
Hine
  • 13 episodes (1971)
 ITV
Love Story
  • "Night of the Tanks" (1972)
 ITV
The Man from Haven
  • "Pilot" (1972)
 ITV
The Frighteners
  • "You Remind Me of Someone" (1972)
 ITV
The Inheritors
  • 6 episodes (1974)
 ITV
Oil Strike North BBC1
The Mackinnons
  • "Whose Side Are You On?" (1977)
 BBC1
1990 BBC2
Airline
  • 9 episodes (1982)
 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]

  1. ^ a b c d e "Wilfred Greatorex". IMDb. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
  2. ^ "BFI Screenonline: Greatorex, Wilfred (1922-2002) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  3. ^ Purser, Phillip (17 October 2002). "Wilfred Greatorex". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  4. ^ a b Vahimagi, Tise. "Greaterox, Wilfred (1922–2002)". Screenonline. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
  5. ^ a b c Purser, Phillip (17 October 2002). "Obituary: Wilfred Greaterox". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
  6. ^ "1990 episode Guide". Action TV. Archived from the original on 9 May 2006. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
  7. ^ a b "Wilfred Greaterox obituary". The Times. London. 17 October 2002. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
  8. ^ "BFI Screenonline: Greatorex, Wilfred (1922-2002) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 6 February 2024.

External links[edit]

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