Don Webb (playwright)

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Don Webb is a playwright and script writer based in the UK. He has written for British TV and the West End and is currently working on a novel for children.

Biography

Don Webb started writing fairly early in life. His first ventures were into

radio plays produced in Manchester for BBC Radio 4 by Tony Cliff in the 1980s and he attracted comment and praise[citation needed] for the strong industrial plays drawing on his industrial background and experience. Centre Circle and Designing Alternatives were ahead of their time[citation needed
] and illustrated property developers preying on small town centre football clubs.

A Tentative Maybe exposed dubious industrial chemical manufacturing practices and The Chairman's Statement attacked the

Thatcherite
revolution and its effect on the industrial landscape, particularly in the North of England.

A change of tone produced Witch Water Green, an exploration of the

Golden Bough
legends and water shortages. September's here and I can't sing was a love story.

During the period in which the above plays were written, he attended the

Gulbenkian Foundation/Arts Council collaboration Theatre Course where he slept in the next bedroom to Anthony Minghella, met actors and directors for the first time and started to learn his trade properly. At this time he met and befriended the actor/director Tamara Hinchco, who directed his play about the Troubles, The Best Girl In Ten Streets, at the Soho Poly and later in the Cottesloe at the Royal National Theatre
.

In 1981, he won the

Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn
.

Soon afterwards, he wrote his second theatre play, Mindrape, which drew upon experiences as a guinea pig in the now notorious series of experiments held at

Secret Intelligence Service paid damages at the end of 2006.[1] This was again a controversial success, transferring to the Greenwich Theatre
.

Both Black Ball Game and Mindrape were directed by the then- up-and-coming young director Andy Jordan, who also directed his next play, LadyBird. This was an anti-Thatcher comedy presented at the Liverpool Playhouse. This play later toured throughout the country, featuring Karl Howman, Diane Keen, Kenneth MacDonald and Lynn Turner. It was produced by Bruce Hyman, later notorious for different reasons, and Harvey Kass.

His television work started with a single play commissioned by Brenda Reid for the BBC after seeing LadyBird.

Rockliffe's Babies, again for the BBC, and then created the chart topping sitcom Joint Account, starring Hannah Gordon and Peter Egan
.

Webb also wrote many of the opening episodes of the ground breaking children's series Byker Grove. This led directly to his being commissioned by the BBC and Screen First to adapt Elidor, a novel by Carnegie Medal-winner Alan Garner, into a six-part series for children. He also adapted the same story for broadcast on Radio Four Extra in April 2011.

Webb's work on

Yorkshire Television and a pilot, Ellington.[citation needed] He worked with Catherine Hewitt on Wirral2008, in conjunction with the Liverpool Capital of Culture
project, and a teenage time travel novel, "Limehouse Jack" which has just been published digitally on Amazon.

His most recent work includes "Right Place, Wrong Time" for Radio Four, broadcast in 2010 and produced in Manchester by Gary Brown. He is currently working on another commission for the same producer, "A Bobby`s Job". And "Boots On The Ground" a gritty S.I.S drama has just aired in Radio Four's Saturday drama slot. Also in development are "Dead Ending", a stage play and "Last Train To Nashville."

Television shows

Radio Plays

References

  1. ^ "MI6 payouts over secret LSD tests". BBC News. 2006-02-24. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  2. ^ "BBC Genome, 25 Dec 1985". Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  3. ^ "Genome: Radio Times 1923-2009: Edge of the wind". 25 December 1985. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  4. ^ "Right time, Wrong Place". BBC. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  5. ^ "A Bobby's Job". BBC. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  6. ^ "Boots on the Ground". BBC. Retrieved 8 February 2017.

External links

  • Don Webb at
    IMDb
  • Crime fiction review site by Don Webb [1]
  • Site of the book Limehouse Jack [2]
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