David Turner (18 March 1927 – 11 December 1990) was a British playwright. Turner was born in Birmingham and came from a working-class background. He studied French at

Birmingham University , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

and later worked as a school teacher in that city. He is best remembered for his stage play '' Semi-Detached'', first performed during 1962, which reached

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

and was adapted for the film '' All the Way Up'' (1970). He prepared modern versions of classic plays including John Gay's ''

The Beggar's Opera ''The Beggar's Opera'' is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satiri ...

'', a version seen in London in 1968, and ''

The Miser ''The Miser'' (french: L'Avare; ; also known by the longer name ''L'Avare ou L'École du Mensonge,'' meaning The Miser, or the School for Lies) is a five-act comedy in prose by the French playwright Molière. It was first performed on September ...

'' by

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and worl ...

, which was performed at the

Birmingham Rep Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre ...

in 1973. An early opponent of the 'Clean-Up TV' founder Mary Whitehouse, Turner interrupted the initial meeting at Birmingham Town Hall in April 1964 as an audience member. At this event, which first brought Mrs Whitehouse to national attention, he accused her of attacking creative freedoms. In '' Swizzlewick'' (BBC 1964), a twice weekly comedy drama he created, Turner wrote a series' episode featuring possibly the earliest parody of the morality campaigner. ''Way Off Beat'', transmitted as a '' Wednesday Play'' in June 1966, was another suburban comedy like ''Semi-Detached''. Critic

John Russell Taylor John Russell Taylor (born 19 June 1935) is an English critic and author. He is the author of critical studies of British theatre; of critical biographies of such figures in film as Alfred Hitchcock, Alec Guinness, Orson Welles, Vivien Leigh, ...

thought Turner had "revivified the Jonsonian Ben_Jonson's.html" ;"title="Ben_Jonson.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Ben Jonson">Ben Jonson's">Ben_Jonson.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Ben Jonson">Ben Jonson's/nowiki> comedy of humours". Turner was for a time a scriptwriter on ''The Archers'', the BBC radio soap opera. He also adapted literary works for television. A five-part version of ''Germinal'', from the Germinal (novel), 1885 novel by Émile Zola, was transmitted early in 1970 and ''

The Roads to Freedom ''The Roads to Freedom'' (french: Les chemins de la liberté) is a series of novels by French author Jean-Paul Sartre. Intended as a tetralogy, it was left incomplete, with only three of the planned four volumes published. The three published nov ...

'' (also 1970) was a thirteen-part adaptation of the novel of that name by

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lit ...

. Both were nominated for several BAFTA awards including one for Turner's version of Sartre's work. He also wrote versions of Stella Gibbons' ''Cold Comfort Farm'' (1968) based on her comic classic and ''North and South'' (1975) from the 1855 novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. He died in 1990, aged 63, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

References

External links

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David Turner (1927-1990)
a list of his plays on the Doollee.com website {{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, David 1927 births 1990 deaths 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights Alumni of the University of Birmingham English male dramatists and playwrights Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands 20th-century English male writers