Alan Bleasdale

Alan Bleasdale (born 23 March 1946 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, brought up in Huyton) is an English television dramatist, best known for several social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people.

Early life

Bleasdale is an only child, his father worked in a food factory and his mother in a grocery shop. From 1951-57, he went to the [http://www.knowsley.gov.uk/education/schools/primary/staloysius.html St. Aloysius] Roman Catholic infant and junior Schools on "Twig Lane" in Huyton-with-Roby (then in Lancashire). From 1957-64, he went to Wade Deacon Grammar School on "Birchfield Road" in Widnes (now the [http://www.wadedeacon.com Wade Deacon High School] since 1974). In 1967, he obtained a teaching certificate from the Padgate College of Education (which became [http://www.warr.ac.uk Warrington Collegiate Institute] , now part of the University of Chester) on "Winwick Road" near Warrington. In 1967, he married Julia Moses and they now have two sons and one daughter. For eight years he worked as a teacher at St Columba's Secondary Modern School (now St Columba's Catholic Primary School) on "Hillside Road" in Huyton from 1967-71, then King George V School (now The King George V & Elaine Bernacchi School and based in [http://www.janeresture.com/kiribati-edu/education.htm Bikenibeu] in South Tarawa) on the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (now called Kiribati since 1979) in the Pacific Ocean from 1971-4, and lastly at Halewood Grange Comprehensive School (now known as [http://www.halewoodccs.co.uk Halewood College] ) on "The Avenue" in Halewood from 1974-5. From 1975 to 1986 he worked as a playwright at the Liverpool Playhouse (becoming associate director) and the Contact Theatre in Manchester (owned by the University of Manchester).

Broadcasting

His first success came as a writer of radio drama for the BBC, with several plays following the character of Scully being broadcast on his local station, BBC Radio Merseyside, in 1971. Scully was a young man from Liverpool, and Bleasdale's plays represented a more realistic, contemporary depiction of life there than was usually seen in the media.

The character became so successful that Bleasdale wrote a stage play, two novels and in 1978 a BBC Television play about the character. The same year, he wrote another one-off play for BBC One, entitled "The Black Stuff". This latter play concerned the story of a group of Liverpudlian tarmac-layers - the 'black stuff' of the title - and a job in Middlesbrough that goes disastrously wrong for all of them resulting in the loss of their jobs.

Although the play remained untransmitted for two years as it waited for an available slot, on its eventual broadcast in 1980 it won much praise, and producer Michael Wearing of BBC English Regions Drama managed to commission the sequel serial that Bleasdale had already been working on. The series, "Boys from the Blackstuff", was transmitted on BBC Two in 1982. It established Bleasdale as one of Britain's most important television writers and social commentators. [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/B/htmlB/bleasdaleal/bleasdaleal.htm]

Bleasdale penned the script for the 1985 film "No Surrender", a black comedy in which a group of elderly Protestant hardliners are booked into a party at a pub on the same night as a group of equally sectarian Catholic old-timers.

Since "Boys from the Blackstuff", Bleasdale has gone on to pen several other award winning television dramas, including "The Monocled Mutineer" (1986, BBC One) and "G.B.H." (1991, Channel 4). In 1999 Bleasdale adapted "Oliver Twist" for ITV. The adaptation was well received but attracted some controversy as Bleasdale expanded the narrative adding a backstory.

In 1987, Charlottetown Festival director Walter Learning presented the Canadian premiere of the Bleasdale musical "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" at the Confederation Centre of the Arts, a national arts centre located on Prince Edward Island. A storm of controversy erupted across the country with opponents decrying the presentation of the tough look at the life of Elvis Presley at the festival, which had been known for lightweight family fare such as "Anne of Green Gables - The Musical". The chairman of the Board of Directors resigned in protest over the Bleasdale play and objections to the rough language and subject matter were even brought up in the provincial legislature. However, the play was allowed to proceed and became a major critical and financial success for the festival that season.

External links

* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/566774/index.html Alan Bleasdale biography and credits at BFI Screenonline]
* [http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/drama/bleasdale/index.htm A collection of articles on Bleasdale's work at the Off The Telly website]
* [http://www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/nerve3/articles/bleasdale.htm An interview with Alan Bleasdale from Liverpool's 'Nerve' magazine]
* [http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article624121.ece An interview with Alan Bleasdale by Cathy Pryor in 'The Independent on Sunday' in June 2006]
* [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/B/htmlB/bleasdaleal/bleasdaleal.htm Biography at the Museum of Broadcast Communications]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0088062 IMDb]