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Glenn Chandler

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Glenn Chandler
Born (1949-03-12) 12 March 1949 (age 75)
Edinburgh, Scotland
OccupationPlaywright, screenwriter, novelist
NationalityScottish
PeriodModern
GenreCrime fiction
SubjectMurder
Notable worksTaggart
Notable awardsBAFTA
1991 best drama series award – Taggart

Writers' Guild Award
1993 best original drama series – Taggart

Glenn Chandler (born 12 March 1949) is a Scottish playwright and novelist. He has written plays for theatre and radio, original screenplays for television and films, television series, and novels.[1] His best known work is the Scottish television detective series Taggart, which is broadcast around the world.[2]

Biography

Glenn Chandler was born in Edinburgh in 1949, and educated at the Royal High School in the city. He moved from Scotland to London and began writing for the Soho Poly, where his early plays were produced.[3] He went on to write for BBC Television and Radio, and for Granada Television (including its series Crown Court) before creating and writing his own series Taggart for STV Productions (ITV Network).

Chandler created Taggart for STV's Controller of Drama, Robert Love, who wanted to set a police series in Glasgow. Chandler was inspired by true crime and real life, and even lifted the names of characters for the series from gravestones in Maryhill Cemetery in Glasgow.[2] The series continued even after the death of the actor Mark McManus, who played the lead role of Jim Taggart, and became the longest-running police drama on British television.[2]

Chandler has continued to write for his first love, theatre, and has also written a series of books featuring a Brighton detective, DI Madden.[1] In 2008, Chandler took two plays to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a producer. These were Boys of the Empire, a satirical play written by Chandler himself, and What's Wrong With Angry?, a drama set in 1992, when the age of consent for homosexuals was 21.[4] Both shows were directed by Patrick Wilde, with whom Chandler shares a literary agency, MBA.[1]

Since then, Chandler has worked almost exclusively in theatre. After transferring Boys of the Empire to the Kings Head Theatre in Islington, he wrote and produced Scouts in Bondage for the same theatre in 2009. His next production was the successful Cleveland Street: The Musical in 2010, which he wrote and produced for the Above The Stag Theatre, which was at its original location in Victoria. He made his directing debut with the award-winning The Custard Boys which he adapted from the novel by John Rae, and this was produced at the Tabard Theatre in 2011. He followed that up at the same theatre with The Lamplighters in 2012, a murder thriller with a supernatural edge, which he wrote, produced and directed. In 2013, he took two productions to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Sandel and Killers. Sandel, which he directed, was his controversial adaptation of Angus Stewart's novel of the same name, about a love affair between a student and a choirboy. Killers was a study of the correspondence of serial killers Dennis Nilsen, Peter Sutcliffe and Ian Brady, and was directed by Liam Rudden. In 2014, he transferred Sandel to the Above The Stag Theatre at its new premises in Vauxhall with a largely new cast.

In 2017, Chandler adapted the 1967 novel Lord Dismiss Us into a play for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in order to mark the 50th Anniversary of the partial legalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales.[5][6] The play received positive reviews,[7][8][9][10] and subsequently transferred to the Above The Stag Theatre in London later that year.[11] The play was once again reviewed positively,[12][13][14] and received four Off West End Award nominations, including 'Best Production' and 'Best New Play'.[15]

Television writing

Films

Theatre writing

BBC Radio

Schools Radio

  • Inquiry 7 scripts
  • Life Time 2 scripts
  • Teenage Plays: Job, Which Job?

Radio Drama

  • A Little White Lie 30'
  • Rough Play 60'
  • Laddie Time 45'
  • Another Gaff, Another Night 45'
  • The Horseman's Word 30'
  • Wallace's Warblers 30'
  • Green Street Revisited 30'
  • Fisherman's Tales 30'
  • Wayfarers 30'

Books

DI Madden series

  • Dead Sight (Hodder & Stoughton, October 2004)
  • Savage Tide (Hodder & Stoughton, July 2003)

Horror fiction

  • The Sanctuary (Hamlyn)
  • The Tribe (Hamlyn)

Non fiction

  • Burning Poison (Lea Valley Press)
  • Killer (Mainstream)
  • Taggart's Glasgow (Lennard Publishing)
  • “The Sins Of Jack Saul” (Grosvenor House Publishing)

Awards

  • BAFTA (1997) Taggart nominated for Best Drama Serial Award[16]
  • BAFTA (1995) nominated Best TV Writer[1]
  • Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award (1993) winner of Best Original Drama Serial[16]
  • BAFTA (1991) Taggart winner of Best Drama Serial Award[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "MBA official bibliography and full list of writing credits for Glenn Chandler". Retrieved 9 June 2008.
  2. ^ a b c "SMG productions official history of Taggart". Retrieved 9 June 2008.
  3. ^ "Soho Poly info about writers". Retrieved 9 June 2008.
  4. ^ ""There's been a murder, Well, quite a few.." Edinburgh Evening News". Retrieved 26 June 2008.
  5. ^ "Taggart writer Glenn Chandler opens up about his new play marking 50 years since homosexuality was legalised" Daily Record Retrieved 18 November 2017
  6. ^ "Taggart creator Glenn Chandler reveals his dad spoke to a doctor to find a CURE for him being gay" Scottish Sun Retrieved 18 November 2017
  7. ^ "Lord Dismiss Us Five Star Review, BroadwayBaby" BroadwayBaby Retrieved 18 November 2017
  8. ^ "Review: Lord Dismiss Us, theSpace at Surgeon’s Hall" A Younger Theatre Retrieved 18 November 2017
  9. ^ "Edinburgh Review: Lord Dismiss Us at The Space @ Surgeons Hall" Theatre Weekly Retrieved 18 November 2017
  10. ^ "Michael Campbell’s 1967 novel Lord Dismiss Us has been skilfully adapted by award-winning playwright Glenn Chandler." British Theatre Guide Retrieved 18 November 2017
  11. ^ "Lord Dismiss Us – The darkly funny new play at the UK’s only LGBT theatre." QX Magazine Retrieved 18 November 2017
  12. ^ "REVIEW: Lord Dismiss Us, Above The Stag ✭✭✭✭" BritishTheatre.com Retrieved 18 November 2017
  13. ^ "Lord Dismiss Us, Above The Stag Theatre – Review" Everything Theatre Retrieved 18 November 2017
  14. ^ "Review of Lord Dismiss Us at Above The Stag Theatre" LondonTheatre1 Retrieved 18 November 2017
  15. ^ "The Offies (The Off West End Theatre Awards)" Archived 24 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine The Offies Retrieved 18 November 2017
  16. ^ a b "IMDB Award page for Glenn Chandler". Retrieved 9 June 2008.
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