Mary Diana Morgan (29 May 1908, in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

– 9 December 1996, in Northwood, Middlesex,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

playwright and screenwriter, mostly associated with her work for

Ealing Studios Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever s ...

as Diana Morgan. She was married to fellow screenwriter Robert MacDermot.

Career

Mary Diana Morgan was born in

on 29 May 1908. She studied at the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama was founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as The Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students. It became a ...

. Her London stage debut was in Noël Coward's ''

Cavalcade A cavalcade is a procession or parade on horseback, or a mass trail ride by a company of riders. The focus of a cavalcade is participation rather than display. Often, the participants do not wear costumes or ride in formation. Often, a cava ...

'' at the

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dr ...

in 1931. On 8 September 1934, she married Robert MacDermot Barbour (b. 19 March 1910 in Poona, India), who would become Head of BBC TV Drama in 1948. They had a son, Richard Morgan Derry MacDermot Barbour. After their marriage, they began writing as a partnership. Their early work was for the London stage and included a full revue in 1938 at the

London Hippodrome The Hippodrome is a building on the corner of Cranbourn Street and Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, London. The name was used for many different theatres and music halls, of which the London Hippodrome is one of only a few su ...

, ''Black and Blue'', starring Frances Day,

Vic Oliver Victor Oliver von Samek (8 July 1898 – 15 August 1964) was an Austrian-born British actor and radio comedian. Early life He was born in Vienna into a Jewish family, the son of Baron Viktor von Samek. He studied medicine at Vienna University but ...

and Max Wall.Adam Benedic
Obituary: Diana Morgan
''The Independent'', 6 January 1997 Morgan and MacDermot were later hired by stage director Norman Marshall, who was impressed with their witty and satirical scripts. Their task was to write a stage show for

Hermione Gingold Hermione Ferdinanda Gingold (; 9 December 189724 May 1987) was an English actress known for her sharp-tongued, eccentric character. Her signature drawling, deep voice was a result of nodules on her vocal cords she developed in the 1920s and e ...

. Although slow to begin, the show was a great success, selling out for its eight-week run. Morgan and MacDermot would go on to write the stage shows, ''Lets Face It!'' (1939) and ''Swinging the Gate'' (1940), as well as many revues for the West End and the outlying club theatres. In the 1940s Morgan wrote several plays including a ''House in the Square'' (1940) and ''Rain before Seven'' (1949). Also during the 1940s, Morgan made significant script contributions to several Ealing screenplays. She is currently better known for her screenplays than her stage work. A contract writer, her film work included ''

Went the Day Well? ''Went the Day Well?'' is a 1942 British war film adapted from a story by Graham Greene and directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. It was produced by Michael Balcon of Ealing Studios and served as unofficial propaganda for the war effort. The film shows ...

'' (1942) and additional dialogue for ''

A Run for Your Money ''A Run for Your Money'' is a 1949 Ealing Studios comedy film starring Donald Houston and Meredith Edwards as two Welshmen visiting London for the first time. The supporting cast includes Alec Guinness, Moira Lister and Hugh Griffith. Plot T ...

'' (1949). In 1960 she scripted

Philip Leacock Philip David Charles Leacock (8 October 1917 – 14 July 1990) was an English television and film director and producer. His brother was documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock. Career Born in London, England, Leacock spent his childhood in the C ...

's film '' Hand in Hand'' about a Roman Catholic child and his Jewish friend, for which she won several international awards. Her television work included ''

Emergency – Ward 10 ''Emergency Ward 10'' is a British medical soap opera series shown on ITV between 1957 and 1967. Like ''The Grove Family'', a series shown by the BBC between 1954 and 1957, ''Emergency Ward 10'' is considered to be one of British television's ...

'' and its spin-off ''Call Oxbridge 2000'', while she also made contributions to radio and wrote two novels: ''Delia'' (1974) and ''Thomas the Fish'' (1976).

Death

MacDermot died in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on 21 November 1964, while Morgan lived until 9 December 1996, and died in Northwood, Middlesex.

Notable stage work

*''Bats In The Belfry'' (1937) *''Transatlantic Lullaby'' (1939) * ''Black & Blue'' Revue – Frances Day (1939) *''Let's Face it!'' (1939) *''A House in the Square'' (1940) *''Three Waltzes'' (1945) *''My Sex Right or Wrong'' (1947) *''Swinging the Gate'' (1950) *''Everyman'' (1952) *''After my Fashion'' (1952) *''The Starcross Story'' (1953) *''I"ll Take the High Road...'' (1956) *''Your Obedient Servant'' (1960) *''Rain Before Seven'' (1960) *''Time to Kill'' (1961) *''Hand in Hand'' (1963) *''Little evenings'' (1971) *''My Cousin Rachel'' (1980) (based in the novel ''

My Cousin Rachel ''My Cousin Rachel'' is a Gothic novel written by English author Daphne du Maurier, published in 1951. Bearing thematic similarities to her earlier and more famous novel '' Rebecca'', it is a mystery-romance, set primarily on a large estate in ...

'' by

Daphne Du Maurier Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, (; 13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was an English novelist, biographer and playwright. Her parents were actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and his wife, actress Muriel Beaumont. Her grandfather was Geo ...

)

Notable film work

*''

'' (1943) *''

Pink String and Sealing Wax ''Pink String and Sealing Wax'' is a 1945 British drama film directed by Robert Hamer and starring Mervyn Johns. It is based on a play with the same name by Roland Pertwee. It was the first feature film Robert Hamer directed on his own. The ti ...

'' (1945) *''

'' (1949) * ''

Poet's Pub ''Poet's Pub'' is a 1949 British comedy film directed by Frederick Wilson and starring Derek Bond, Rona Anderson and James Robertson Justice. It is based on the 1929 novel of the same title by Eric Linklater. The film was one of four of Dav ...

'' (1949) *''

Dance Hall Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for dancing. From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub. The majority of towns and cities in ...

'' (1950) *'' Hand in Hand'' (1960)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Diana 1908 births 1996 deaths 20th-century Welsh dramatists and playwrights 20th-century British screenwriters 20th-century Welsh actresses 20th-century Welsh novelists 20th-century Welsh women writers Writers from Cardiff Welsh satirists Welsh screenwriters Welsh stage actresses Welsh women dramatists and playwrights Women satirists Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama Welsh television writers British women television writers Welsh women novelists