- Roland Pertwee
Roland Pertwee (
May 17 ,1885 -April 26 ,1963 ) was an Englishplaywright , film and televisionscreenwriter , director andactor . He is perhaps best remembered as the father of both "Doctor Who " starJon Pertwee and fellow playwright and screenwriterMichael Pertwee . He is also the uncle of actorBill Pertwee and the grandfather of actorsSean Pertwee andDariel Pertwee .Following the end of the First World War in 1918, he retired from the
British Army and began to pursue a career in the burgeoning British film industry. From the 1910s to 1950s, he worked as a writer on many British films, generally providing either the basic story or full screenplay. He was one of numerous writers working on the script of "A Yank at Oxford " starring Robert Taylor andVivien Leigh , the film in which his son Jon made his screen debut, and on "Caravan".While he seemingly preferred writing, he acted in ten films between 1915 and 1945 and directed "Breach of Promise", which he also wrote.
His play "Heatwave", written in collaboration with
Denise Robins , was produced at theSt James's Theatre ,London , in 1929. [Robins, Denise, "Stranger Than Fiction" (London,Hodder & Stoughton , 1965, autobiography)]In 1954, he and his elder son Michael created "
The Grove Family " - generally regarded as being the firstsoap opera onBritish television - for theBBC . Having previously written an episode of "Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Presents ", this marked Pertwee's second and final foray into television writing. Like many BBC television productions of the era, it was broadcast live. At its height, the series had drawn in almost a quarter of British people who owned a television. Reportedly, Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother was a great fan. A film version, entitled "It's a Great Day", was produced in 1955, likewise written by the Pertwees.Following the cancellation of "The Grove Family" in 1957, Pertwee retired from writing. He died in April 1963, three weeks shy of his 78th birthday.
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*imdb name|id=0675729|name=Roland Pertwee
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