Alun Owen

For those of the same or a similar name, see Allen Owen (disambiguation).
Alun Owen
Born (1925-11-24)November 24, 1925
Liverpool, England
Died December 6, 1994(1994-12-06) (aged 69)
London, England
Occupation Screenwriter and television actor.
Period 1959–1990
Genre Comedy, drama, adventure

Alun Owen (24 November 1925 – 6 December 1994) was a British screenwriter, predominantly active in television, but best remembered by a wider audience for writing the screenplay of The Beatles' debut feature film A Hard Day's Night (1964).

Career

Owen was born in the English city of Liverpool. His family on his father's side originated from North Wales. He attended St Michael's Primary School and Oulton High School. For two years during the Second World War, Owen worked down a coal mine as a 'Bevin Boy', before moving into repertory theatre as an assistant stage manager. From there he moved into acting, first with the Birmingham Repertory Company and then various other companies, appearing in small roles in films and to a greater degree in the newer medium of television during the 1950s.

By the late 1950s, however, Owen was beginning to realise that his real ambitions lay in writing rather than performing, and he began to submit scripts to BBC Radio. His first full-length play, Progress to the Park, was produced by the Theatre Royal, Stratford East following its radio debut, and later in the West End. A second play, titled The Rough and Ready Lot, received its stage debut on 1 June 1959 in a production by the 59 Theatre Company at the Lyric Opera House, Hammersmith directed by Caspar Wrede and with a cast including Ronald Harwood, June Brown, Jack MacGowran, Patrick Allen, and Alan Dobie.[1] It was adapted for television by Charles Lawrence and broadcast by the BBC in September 1959 with the original cast, having previously been heard on the Third Programme.[2]

His next play was his first to be written directly for television. Titled No Trams to Lime Street (1959), the Liverpool-set piece was presented in ABC Television's Armchair Theatre anthology strand, for which Owen continued to write plays into the 1960s. He also made his feature film scriptwriting debut in 1960, penning The Criminal from a storyline originally by Jimmy Sangster.

In 1961, Owen won both the Guild of Television Producers and Directors' Writer's Award and Scriptwriter's Award.[3][4]

In 1964, when director Richard Lester was hired to direct The Beatles' first film, he remembered Owen from their previous work together on Lester's ITV television programme The Dick Lester Show in 1955. The Beatles were also keen on Owen, having been impressed with his depiction of Liverpool in No Trams to Lime Street, and Owen spent some time associating with the four band members to gain an ear for their characters and manners of speech. His resulting script for A Hard Day's Night earned him a nomination for the 1965 Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay. In the same year, Owen contributed the libretto for a West End musical, composer Lionel Bart's Maggie May. The show ran for a respectable 501 performances at London's Adelphi Theatre.

Television continued to be his main medium, however, and he concentrated on single plays in anthology series such as BBC2's Theatre 625. An episode of ITV's Saturday Night Theatre, three linked plays under the title "The Male of the Species" (1969) featured Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Paul Scofield, and Laurence Olivier as the narrator. His 1974 play Lucky was a rare television representation of Britain's new multicultural reality and described a young black man's (Paul Barber), search for identity. He carried on writing for television through the 1970s and 80s, with his final produced work being an adaptation of R. F. Delderfield's novel Come Home, Charlie, and Face Them for ITV in 1990.

Death

He died in London in 1994 at the age of 69.

Legacy

A festival was held in his honour from 19 October–21 October 2006 in Liverpool, arranged by the Merseyside Welsh Heritage Society. A lecture in English on Owen and the Liverpool Welsh was delivered by Dr D. Ben Rees, Chairman of the Society, and in Welsh by Dr Arthur Thomas of University of Liverpool on his life and work. These lectures were published in book form in 2007.

Writing credits

Production Notes Broadcaster
The Rough and Ready Lot
  • Stage play and television film (1959)
 Lyric Opera House, Hammersmith; BBC1
The Criminal
  • Feature film (1960)
 N/A
BBC Sunday-Night Play
  • "The Ruffians" (1960)
 BBC1
Thirty Minute Theatre
  • "Dare to Be Daniel" (1962)
 ITV
Armchair Theatre
  • "No Trams to Lime Street" (1959)
  • "After the Funeral" (1960)
  • "Lena, O My Lena" (1960)
  • "The Way of Love" (1961)
  • "The Rose Affair" (1961)
  • "The Hard Knock" (1962)
 ITV
Corrigan Blake
  • "You Can't Win Them All" (1962)
  • "Let's Go Home" (1963)
  • "The Removal Men" (1963)
  • "The Scientific Approach" (1963)
  • "The Liberty Takers" (1963)
  • "Lady Bird" (1963)
  • "Love Bird" (1963)
 BBC1
You Can't Win 'Em All
  • Television film (1962)
 ABC
Playdate
  • "You Can't Win 'Em All" (1963)
 ITV
The Stag
  • Television film (1963)
 BBC1
First Night
  • "The Strain" (1963)
  • "A Local Boy" (1963)
 BBC1
A Hard Day's Night
  • Feature film (1964)
 N/A
A Local Boy
  • Television film (1964)
 ABC
Theatre 625
  • "No Trams to Lime Street" (1965)
  • "A Little Winter Love" (1965)
  • "The Loser" (1967)
  • "The Winner" (1967)
  • "The Fantasist" (1967)
 BBC2
Thirty-Minute Theatre
  • "The Other Fella" (1966)
  • "The Wake" (1967)
 BBC2
The Ronnie Barker Playhouse
  • "Tennyson" (1968)
  • "Ah, There You Are" (1968)
  • "Alexander" (1968)
 ITV
Half Hour Story
  • "Shelter" (1967)
  • "George's Room" (1967)
  • "Stella" (1968)
  • "Thief" (1968)
 ITV
For Amusement Only
  • "Time for the Funny Walk" (1968)
 ITV
The Company of Five
  • "Gareth" (1968)
 ITV
Male of the Species
  • Television film (1969)
 ITV
Hark at Barker
  • 15 episodes (1969–1970)
 ITV
Plays of Today
  • "The Ladies: Doreen" (1969)
  • "The Ladies: Joan" (1969)
 BBC2
The Wednesday Play
  • "Charlie" (1968)
  • "No Trams to Lime Street" (1970)
 BBC1
ITV Sunday Night Theatre
  • "Park People" (1969)
  • "MacNeil" (1969)
  • "Cornelius" (1969)
  • "Emlyn" (1969)
  • "Giants and Ogres" (1971)
  • "The Web" (1972)
  • "The Piano Player" (1972)
 ITV
The Ten Commandments
  • "Hilda" (1971)
 ITV
Play for Today
  • "Pal" (1971)
 BBC1
ITV Playhouse
  • "Funny" (1971)
  • "Lucky" (1974)
  • "Norma" (1974)
 ITV
ITV Sunday Night Drama
  • "The Web" (1972)
  • "Forget -Me- Knot" (1976)
 ITV
Joy
  • Television film (1972)
 BBC2
Once Upon a Time
  • "Buttons" (1973)
Forget Me Not
  • 6 episodes (1976)
 ITV
The Look
  • Television film (1978)
Do You Remember?
  • "Park People" (1978)
 ITV
Kisch Kisch
  • Television film (1983)
 BBC2
The Play on One
  • "Unexplained Laughter" (1989)
 BBC1
Come Home, Charlie, and Face Them
  • Television minseries (1990)
 ITV

Awards and nominations

Year Award Work Category Result Reference
1962 Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award Armchair Theatre: "The Rose Affair" Best Original Teleplay Won
1965 Academy Award A Hard Day's Night Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen Nominated

Sources

References

  1. ↑ Owen, Alun (1960). The Rough and Ready Lot: A play in Three Acts. Cover design by Elisabeth Frink (First ed.). London: Encore Publishing Co. Ltd. p. 4.
  2. ↑ "The Rough and Ready Lot", Radio Times, London (1871), p. 19, 18 September 1959, retrieved 6 April 2016
  3. ↑ "Television Writers Award in 1961". BAFTA. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  4. ↑ "Television Scriptwriter in 1961". BAFTA. Retrieved 6 April 2016.

External links

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