Michael Voysey

Michael Voysey is a playwright and writer for TV programmes.

From his obituary:

From the age of four when his grandmother first took him to the Tivoli Theatre in Grimsby- she had to sit him on a ledge by the side aisle so that he was high enough to see the stage- Michael Voysey's main interest and preocupation was drama. The inspiration from these early formative years led him to his first job with the BBC Radio Drama unit immediately after the war, and a lifetime devoted to television, radio and the theatre. As a Captain in the Royal Indian Army Service Corps stationed in India during the war , Voysey was responsible for training soldiers for the Burmese jungle. During this time he set about producing plays for the army, and astonished everyone by his mastery of Hindi and Punjabi which he learned to speak fluently. He attributed his success in these languages to the disciplines of the theatrical training; indeed he invariably referred to himself as "a graduate of the theatre". A pioneer of television drama, and one of the main architects in the establishment of the second BBC channel, Michael Voysey's influence is still in evidence today. One might almost call him the godfather of the classic serial on television. His dramatisations of such works as Mrs Gaskell's wives and daughters and Cranford Colette's Cheri and the last Cheri the Father Srown series Jane Austins Imperial palace (which won him the screenwriters guild award for dramatisation) and many more, set the highest standard and earned him a special place in the history of television in this country . Voyseys original works, beginning with his play The Dance Dress produces in the mid-fifties, won him continuing critical acclaim. In his review of the play in the Sunday Times, Harold Hobson wrote: "He would be a dull playgoer who did not find in the Dance Dress suggestions of a rare and moving quality. This play has a feeling of innocence almost unique in the modern theatre." There has rarely been a time when one of his works was not playing in a theatre, on radio or television. My Astonishing Self, his one man stage play on the life of George Bernard Shaw, which was produced in London , New York and throughout the world, is currently a big success in Cape Town and Johannesburg. His television play The Honest Man although about London and Londoners, gained international popularity and was recently re-broadcast in its radio version in a series of "The best of the sixties". Voysey was engaged as a script editor on television series for the BBC ATV and Yorkshire television, and was recently commissioned by RTÉ to create a drama series by contemporary Irish Authors. He was always unassuming. When once introduced by an actor starring in one of his West End shows as "the man who gave me a little assistance", he did not demur or take umbridge . He was always seeking to pass on the benefits of his own knowledge and experience , considering it his duty to assist other new members of his profession in return for what he felt was his own good fortune at being able to earn his living entirely through his writing. Ever magnanimous, Voysey never mentioned the fact that, during his time in India, he had written a play called Upstairs Downstairs - which could have been a blueprint of the immensley successful television series of the same title, later produced without his involvement. His sudden death is a great loss to the profession. However his will be a continuing contribution to the theatre, not only through future productions of his works but also by the virtue of the Michael Voysey Bursary, which will be awarded annually through the National Youth Theatre to assist up and coming actors and actresses.

Michael Voysey Dramatist Born Grimsby 1920 Died Colchester 4th September 1987

As a TV writer he has written the following:

• "Father Brown" (1974) TV Series (adaptation)
• Cheri (1973) (TV)
• Cranford (1972) (TV)
• "Wives and Daughters" (1971) (mini) TV Series (adaptation)
• Imperial Palace (1969) (TV)
• "Middlemarch" (1968) (mini) TV Series (adaptation)
• A Place of One's Own , an episode of Mystery and Imagination (1968)
• The White Rabbit (1967) - a TV series adpted by Voysey from the novels by Bruce Marshall
• "Mr. John Jorrocks" (1966) TV Series (writer)
• The Old Wives' Table (1964) (TV)
• "Suspense" (1962) TV Series (writer)
• "Persuasion" (1960) (mini) TV Series
• "Barnaby Rudge" (1960) TV Series (writer)
• Hilda Lessways (1959) (TV) (adaptation)
• "The Royalty" (1957) TV Series (writer)
• The Present, an episode of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents (1956)

As a playwright he created My Astonishing Self from the works of George Bernard Shaw. He also wrote The Amorous Goldfish and adapted Marguerite by Armand Salacrou