Wilfred Greatorex

Infobox Writer
name = Wilfred Greaterox


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birthdate = May 27, 1922
birthplace = Liverpool, England
deathdate = death date and age|2002|10|14|1922|5|27
deathplace = Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
occupation = Television writer, Screenwriter, script editor, Television producer
nationality = British
period = 1959 - 1982
genre = Drama
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debut_works = "Probation Officer" "The Net"
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Wilfred Greaterox (27 May 1922–14 October 2002)cite web
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title = Wilfred Greatorex
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publisher = IMDB
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url= http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0337311/
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accessdate =2008-03-02] was an English television and film writer, script editor and producer. He was creator of such series as "Secret Army", "1990", "Plane Makers" and its sequel "The Power Game", "Hine", "Brett", "Man At The Top", "Man From Haven" and "The Inheritors".cite web
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first =Tise
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title = Greaterox, Wilfred (1922-2002)
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publisher = Screenonline
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url= http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/550065/index.html
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accessdate =2008-03-02] He also wrote the screenplay for the 1969 film " Battle of Britain". He was described by The Guardian newspaper as "one of the most prolific and assured of television script-writers and editors from the 1960s into the 1980s".cite web
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first =Phillip
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title = Obituary: Wilfred Greaterox
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publisher = The Guardian
date =2002-10-17
url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/oct/17/broadcasting.guardianobituaries
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accessdate =2008-03-02] Starting off as a journalist, he got his big break as a TV writer on Lew Grade's ATV service writing dramas about journalism, such as "Deadline Midnight" and "Front Page Story".

As a TV script editor he also worked on series such as "Danger Man" and was also producer of "The Inheritors", "Hine" and "The Power Game".

In 1977, he came up with the dystopian drama series "1990" for BBC2, starring Edward Woodward. A series Greaterox himself dubbed "Nineteen Eighty-Four plus six". cite web
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title = 1990 episode Guide
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publisher = Action TV
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url= http://web.archive.org/web/20060509052013/http://www.action-tv.org.uk/guides/1990.htm
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accessdate =2008-03-02] Over its two series it portrayed "a Britain in which the rights of the individual had been replaced by the concept of the common good - or, as I put it more brutally, a consensus tyranny." The same year he also devised (with Gerard Glaister) the BBC1 wartime drama "Secret Army". The show later inspired the sitcom parody "Allo Allo".cite web
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title = Wilfred Greaterox obituary
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publisher = The Times
date =2002-10-17
url= http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article815774.ece
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accessdate =2008-03-02]

When talking about his writing style he said "I am opposed to soft-centred characters, which is why I don't create a lot of Robin Hoods. The world's full of hard cases, real villains. And they need to be confronted with other characters just as hard."

His last series for television was "Airline" in 1982 (starring Roy Marsden). He died in of renal failure in Buckinghamshire in 2002.

References

External links

* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/550065/index.html Screenonline page on Wilfred Greatorex]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0337311/ Wilfred Greatorex at IMDB]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/oct/17/broadcasting.guardianobituaries Obituary in The Guardian]
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article815774.ece Obituary in The Times]