Keith Dewhurst (24 December 1931 – 11 January 2025) was an English playwright and film and television scriptwriter.

Life and career

Born in

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

on 24 December 1931, Dewhurst was educated at

Rydal School Rydal Penrhos School is a private day school in Colwyn Bay, North Wales. It is the only Methodist school in the independent sector in Wales. It is located on multiple sites around the town with a site in the neighbouring village of Rhos-on-Sea wh ...

and

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has around 300 undergraduate and 175 graduate stud ...

, graduating with a B.A. in English in 1953. After working as a yarn tester for Lancashire Cotton Corporation, he worked for the ''

Manchester Evening Chronicle ''Manchester Evening Chronicle'' was a newspaper established by Sir Edward Hulton, a Manchester City chairman, a newspaper proprietor and a racehorse owner. It started publication in 1897, was renamed ''Evening Chronicle'' in 1914 but stayed in ...

'' from 1955 to 1959,Christopher Smith, 'Keith Dewhurst', in K. A. Berney, ed., ''Contemporary British Dramatists'', Gale, 1994, pp.187–91 as their reporter on

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

Hunter Davies Edward Hunter Davies (born 7 January 1936) is a British author, journalist and broadcaster. His books include the only authorised biography of the Beatles. Early life Davies was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, to Scottish parents. For four ...

The triumph of failure
''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'', 10 March 2012 Dewhurst wrote television plays from 1960, and plays for the theatre from the late 1960s. He also wrote radio plays and a couple of novels. His non-fiction ''Underdogs'' (2012) tells the story of Darwen FC's long run in the 1879

F.A. Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competition i ...

. John Crace, 'Underdogs: The Unlikely Story of Football's First FA Cup Heroes by Keith Dewhurst – review', ''The Guardian'', 21 March 2012 Dewhurst died on 11 January 2025, at the age of 93.

Works

Plays

* ''Running Milligan''. Televised 1965. Published in Michael Marland, ed., ''Z Cars: Four Scripts from the Television Series'', 1968. * ''Rafferty's Chant''. Produced at the

Mermaid Theatre The Mermaid Theatre was a theatre encompassing the site of Puddle Dock and Curriers' Alley at Blackfriars in the City of London, and the first built in the City since the time of Shakespeare. It was, importantly, also one of the first new th ...

, 1967. Published in ''Plays of the Year''33, 1967. * ''Corunna!''. Produced 1971. * ''Kidnapped'', adaptation of the novel by

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

. Produced 1972. * ''The Bomb in Brewery Street''. Produced 1975. * ''

Lark Rise ''Lark Rise'' is a 1939 semi-autobiographical novel by the English author Flora Thompson. It was illustrated by Lynton Lamb. In 1945, the book was republished as part of the trilogy '' Lark Rise to Candleford'', comprising the novels ''Lark ...

'' and '' Candleford'', adaptation of works by

Flora Thompson Flora Jane Thompson (née Timms; 5 December 1876 – 21 May 1947) was an English novelist and poet best known for her autobiography, semi-autobiographical trilogy about the English countryside, ''Lark Rise to Candleford''. Early life and f ...

. Produced 1978–1979. * ''Don Quixote'', adaptation of the novel by

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelist ...

. Produced 1982. * ''The Animals of Farthing Wood'', adaptation of the

Colin Dann Colin Dann (born 10 March 1943) is an English author. He is best known for his '' The Animals of Farthing Wood'' series of books, which was subsequently made into an animated series. Dann worked at the publishing firm William Collins, Sons & ...

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

Television plays

* ''Albert Hope'', 1962 * ''The Siege of Manchester'', 1965 * ''Men of Iron'', 1969 * ''It Calls for a Great Deal of Love'', 1969 * ''Lloyd-George'', 1973 * ''Our Terry'', 1975

Non-fiction

* ''Underdogs: the unlikely story of football's first FA Cup heroes'' (Yellow Press, 2012) * ''When You Put on a Red Shirt: Memories of Matt Busby, Jimmy Murphy and Manchester United (''Yellow Press, 2012)

References

External links

*
Keith Dewhurst
at www.doollee.com

at www.film.reference.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Dewhurst, Keith 1931 births 2025 deaths English dramatists and playwrights English sportswriters English male dramatists and playwrights English male non-fiction writers People from Oldham