British screenwriter and novelist (born 1936)
Andrew Davies
|
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Davies in 2019
|
Born
| Andrew Wynford Davies
(
1936-09-20
)
20 September 1936
(age 87)
Rhiwbina, Cardiff
, Wales
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Occupation
| Writer (TV and print)
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Alma mater
| University College London
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Period
| c.
1964?present (as a writer)
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Genre
| Audio and
screenplays
,
novels
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Notable works
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Notable awards
| Guardian Prize
1979
BAFTA Fellow
2002
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Spouse
|
Diana Huntley
(
m.
1960)
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Children
| 2
|
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Relatives
| Thomas Doogan (Grandson)
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Andrew Wynford Davies
(
; born 20 September 1936) is a Welsh
screenwriter
and
novelist
, best known for his television adaptations of
To Serve Them All My Days
,
House of Cards
,
Middlemarch
,
Pride and Prejudice
,
Bleak House
,
War & Peace
, and his original serial
A Very Peculiar Practice
.
[1]
He was made a
BAFTA Fellow
in 2002.
Education and early career
[
edit
]
Davies was born in
Rhiwbina
, Cardiff, Wales. He attended
Whitchurch Grammar School
in Cardiff and then
University College, London
, where he received a BA in English in 1957. He took a teaching position at
St Clement Danes Grammar School
in London, where he was on the teaching staff from 1958 to 1961. He held a similar post at Woodberry Down Comprehensive School in
Hackney
, London from 1961 to 1963. Following that, he was a lecturer in English at
Coventry College of Education
(which later merged with the University of Warwick to become the Faculty of Educational Studies and later the Warwick Institute of Education), and then at the
University of Warwick
.
In 1960, Davies contributed material to the
BBC Home Service
's
Monday Night at Home
strand, alongside
Harold Pinter
and
Ivor Cutler
. He wrote his first play for radio in 1964 and many more were to follow. In 1960, he married Diana Huntley; the couple have a son and daughter. He is resident in
Kenilworth
, Warwickshire.
[
citation needed
]
Writer
[
edit
]
Davies' first television play,
Who's Going to Take Me On?
, was broadcast in 1967 as part of BBC1's
The Wednesday Play
strand. His early plays were written as a sideline to his work in education, many of them appearing in anthology series such as
Thirty Minute Theatre
,
Play for Today
and
Centre Stage
. One of his London stage plays,
Rose
, played on Broadway in 1981, with
Glenda Jackson
and
Jessica Tandy
. His first serial adaptation of a work of fiction was
To Serve Them All My Days
(1980), from the novel by
R. F. Delderfield
. He wrote
A Very Peculiar Practice
(1986?88), a campus based comedy-drama series that drew upon his career in education.
He is now best known for his adaptations of classic works of literature for television including
the
Charles Dickens
short story
The Signalman
(1976),
Pride and Prejudice
(1995) starring
Colin Firth
and
Jennifer Ehle
,
Vanity Fair
(1998),
Bleak House
(2005) and
Sense and Sensibility
(2008). He is the writer of the screenplays for the
BBC
production
Middlemarch
(1994) and a planned film of the same name once announced for 2011 release.
[2]
[3]
Davies also co-devised with Bernadette Davis the sitcom
Game On
for BBC2 and co-wrote the first two series broadcast in 1995 and 1996. The popularity of his adaptation of
Michael Dobbs
's political thriller
House of Cards
was a significant influence in Dobbs's decision to write two sequels, which Davies also adapted for television. In film, he has collaborated on the screenplays for the first two
Bridget Jones
films, based on
Helen Fielding
novels.
He is a prolific writer for children. The first of his novels was
Conrad's War
, published by Blackie in 1978. Davies won the annual
Guardian Children's Fiction Prize
, which is judged by a panel of British children's writers and recognises the best book by an author who has not yet won it.
[4]
He has written
Alfonso Bonzo
(book and television series) and the adventures of
Marmalade Atkins
(television series and numerous books). He also wrote the stories
Dark Towers
and
Badger Girl
for BBC TV's
Look and Read
programmes for schools audiences.
2008 saw the release of his adaptations of the 1999 novel
Affinity
by
Sarah Waters
,
Evelyn Waugh
's
Brideshead Revisited
(a film),
Charles Dickens
'
Little Dorrit
(a BBC series).
Little Dorrit
won seven of eleven Emmy nominations and earned Davies an Emmy for
Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries
.
Adaptations of
Dombey and Son
, one of Dickens' lesser-read works and
Anthony Trollope
's
Palliser novels
were scrapped by the BBC in late 2009, following a move away from "bonnet dramas".
[5]
ITV
was looking to recreate its period drama success with
Downton Abbey
with a new series
Mr Selfridge
, written by Davies and starring
Jeremy Piven
.
[6]
An initial ten-part series first aired on 6 January 2013 and it has run for 4 series by 2016.
Davies' six-part adaptation of
Leo Tolstoy
's
War & Peace
was broadcast on
BBC One
in January and February 2016.
[7]
Following its success, the BBC announced in July 2016 that it would be followed up with a six-part adaptation of
Victor Hugo
's
Les Miserables
to be scripted by Davies.
[8]
In May 2017, it was announced that BBC would adapt
Vikram Seth
's magnum opus
A Suitable Boy
into an eight-part series to be scripted by Davies.
[9]
In May 2018, he announced at the Hay Festival that he is adapting John Updike's
Rabbit, Run
for television.
[10]
Filmography
[
edit
]
Television series and serials
[
edit
]
Television plays
[
edit
]
- Who's Going to Take Me On?
(
The Wednesday Play
, 1965)
- Is That Your Body, Boy?
(
Thirty-Minute Theatre
, 1970)
- No Good Unless It Hurts
(
Sporting Scenes
, 1973)
- The Water Maiden
(
Bedtime Stories
, 1974)
- Grace
(
Centre Play
, 1975)
- The Imp of the Perverse
(
Centre Play
, 1975)
- A Martyr to the System
(
BBC2 Playhouse
, 1976)
- The Signalman
(
A Ghost Story for Christmas
, 1976)
- Velvet Glove
(1977)
- Fearless Frank
(
BBC2 Play of the Week
, 1978)
- Renoir My Father
(
BBC2 Play of the Week
, 1978)
- After the Gold Rush
(
Scene
, 1980)
- Bavarian Night
(
Play for Today
, 1981)
- Marmalade Atkins in Space
(
Theatre Box
, 1981)
- Heartattack Hotel
(1983)
- Baby I Love You
(
Scene
, 1985)
- Pythons on the Mountain
(
Summer Season
, 1985)
- Time After Time
(
Screen Two
, 1986)
- Inappropriate Behaviour
(
Screen Two
, 1987)
- Lucky Sunil
(
Screen Two
, 1988)
- A Private Life
(
Screen Two
, 1989)
- Ball Trap on the Cote Sauvage
(
Screen One
, 1989)
- Filipina Dreamgirls
(
Screen One
, 1991)
- A Very Polish Practice
(
Screen One
, 1992)
- Anna Lee
(1993)
- Harnessing Peacocks
(1993)
- A Few Short Journeys of the Heart
(
Stages
, 1994)
- Emma
(1996)
- Getting Hurt
(
Obsessions
, 1998)
- A Rather English Marriage
(1998)
- Othello
(2001)
- Boudica
(2003)
- Falling
(2005)
- The Chatterley Affair
(2006)
- Northanger Abbey
(
The Jane Austen Season
, 2007)
- A Room with a View
(2007)
- Affinity
(2008)
- Sleep with Me
(2009)
- A Poet in New York
(2014)
|
Cinema
[
edit
]
Children's books
[
edit
]
- ‘’ The Fantastic Feats of Doctor Boox ‘’
- Marmalade Atkins in Space
(Abelard-Schuman, 1981)
- Educating Marmalade
(
Hamlyn
, 1983)
- Danger! Marmalade at Work
(
Penguin
, 1984)
- Marmalade Hits the Big Time
(
Thames
/Magnet, 1984)
- Alfonso Bonzo
(
Methuen
, 1986)
Novels
[
edit
]
- A Very Peculiar Practice
(
Coronet
, 1986) ?novelization of the first series of
A Very Peculiar Practice
- A Very Peculiar Practice: The New Frontier
(Methuen, 1988) ?novelization of the second series
- Getting Hurt
(Methuen, 1989)
- Dirty Faxes
(Methuen, 1990) ― linked short stories
- B. Monkey
(Lime Tree, 1992) ?
adapted
by others as the 1998 film
B. Monkey
Stage plays
[
edit
]
- Diary of a Desperate Woman
(1979)
[12]
- Rose
(1980)
- Prin
(1990)
Picture books
[
edit
]
Andrew and Diana Davies have written at least two children's picture books.
- Poonam's Pets
(Methuen Children's, 1990), illustrated by Paul Dowling
- Raj In Charge
(Hamish Hamilton, 1994), illus.
Debi Gliori
References
[
edit
]
Further references
[
edit
]
- Cardwell, Sarah (2005) 'Andrew Davies'. Manchester: MUP.
External links
[
edit
]
Awards for Andrew Davies
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1970s
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1980s
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1990s
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2000s
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2010s
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2020s
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International
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National
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People
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Other
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