Sally Anne Wainwright (born 1963) is an English television writer, producer, and director. She is known for her dramas, which are often set in her native

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, and feature "strong female characters". Wainwright has been praised for the quality of her dialogue. Wainwright began her career as a scriptwriter on the long-running radio serial drama ''

The Archers ''The Archers'' is a British radio soap opera currently broadcast on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word Radio broadcasting, channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now pr ...

'', and worked on the television soap operas ''

Emmerdale ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British television soap opera that is broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a List of fictional towns and villages, fict ...

'' and ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' (colloquially referred to as ''Corrie'') is a British television soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced ...

'' in the 1990s. Her first original drama, '' At Home with the Braithwaites'', aired between 2000 and 2003. After two self-described "flops" in the mid-2000s, Wainwright found success with ''Unforgiven'' (2009), for which she won the

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

's Writer of the Year Award. Her work since includes '' Scott & Bailey'' (2011–2016''), Last Tango in Halifax'' (2012–2020), '' Happy Valley'' (2014–2023), and '' Gentleman Jack'' (2019–2022). ''Last Tango in Halifax'' won the

British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series The British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series is one of the major categories of the British Academy Television Awards (BAFTAs), the primary awards ceremony of the British television industry. The category is described on the official ...

in 2013, and ''Happy Valley'' won the same award in both 2015 and 2017. The first book covering Wainwright's career and key works
Sally Wainwright
authored by Prof Kristyn Gorton and Prof. Beth Johnson (University of Leeds), will be published by Manchester University Press in September 2025.

Early life

Wainwright was born in 1963 in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

, to Harry Wainwright and Dorothy Wainwright (née Crowther). Wainwright was brought up in

Sowerby Bridge Sowerby Bridge ( ) is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. The Calderdale Council ward population at the 2011 census was 11,703. History The town was originally a fording point over the once mu ...

, where she attended

Triangle A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...

Church of England Primary School and Sowerby Bridge High School. She attended the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

, reading English and Related Literature. She has one sister. Wainwright said that she had always wanted to write, had started writing from the time she was nine years old, and wanted to write for ''

.'' She said that when she was 16 years old, she saw a play called ''Bastard Angel'' by playwright Barrie Keeffe at the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

, and was impressed by its short sentences and naturalistic approach to dialogue.

Career

While at the

, Wainwright took an original play called ''Hanging On'' to the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of Arts festival, arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the ...

and in the process found an agent, Meg Davis, for her writing. Meanwhile, she worked as a bus driver. When she was 24, she left the driving job after she started writing for the Radio 4 series ''

.'' One of her contributions was to write an atypical story for the long-running radio soap in which the village shop was robbed. After that she wrote for ''

'', developing her writing skills, from 1994 to 1999. She has since said that working on continuing drama was "a great education in discipline and a lesson that great stories are hard work". She was mentored by Kay Mellor, who encouraged her to stop writing for soaps and to concentrate instead on original work. She created the TV series '' At Home with the Braithwaites'' about a woman who had secretly won the lottery. The programme was nominated for multiple awards. In 2006, she wrote the drama series '' Jane Hall'', which depicts the life of a woman bus driver in London. Wainwright drew on her own experiences in scripting the series. She won the 2009 Writer of the Year Award given by the RTS in 2009 for ''

Unforgiven ''Unforgiven'' is a 1992 American revisionist Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood from a screenplay by David Webb Peoples. It stars Eastwood as William Munny, an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job years after ...

'', which took several awards including best TV series. Wainwright says that her strong yet flawed female characters are "almost real" to her and arrive "fully formed" in her imagination. She likes to control the television that is created and has done some directing and producing of her own work, partly to ensure the scenery and dialogue reflects Yorkshire. In 2011, she wrote '' Scott & Bailey'', a series about two female police officers. The idea for the series came from the actresses Suranne Jones and

Sally Lindsay Sally Jane Lindsay (born 8 July 1973) is an English actress and television presenter. She rose to fame playing Shelley Unwin in the long-running ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' (2001–2006). Her other roles include Lisa Johnson in the Sky ...

and former Detective Inspector Diane Taylor, who assisted with bringing the series to air. Wainwright based the plot of her series '' Last Tango in Halifax'' on the story of her mother, who was widowed in 2001. Her mother, Dorothy, moved to Oxfordshire to live with her daughter and rediscovered a lost love via Friends Reunited. With her mother's permission, Wainwright developed the story of how she remarried so rapidly, showing extracts from the series to her mother before broadcast. When she told the story to Nicola Shindler, she suggested she turn her mother's experience into a television series. Shindler became the series' executive producer. Both ''Last Tango in Halifax'' and her crime series ''Scott & Bailey'' were turned down by both the BBC and ITV before being accepted retrospectively. The former was voted by

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

to be best series in 2012 and Wainwright was given the award for best writer. '' Happy Valley,'' which was shot in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

's upper

Upper Calder Valley The Upper Calder Valley lies in West Yorkshire, in northern England, and covers the towns of Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Luddendenfoot, and Sowerby Bridge, as well as a number of smaller settlements such as Portsmouth, Cornholme ...

and

Hebden Bridge Hebden Bridge is a market town in the Calderdale district of West Yorkshire, England. It is in the Upper Calder Valley, west of Halifax and 14 miles (21 km) north-east of Rochdale, at the confluence of the River Calder and the Hebden W ...

, stars Sarah Lancashire, whom Wainwright had in mind as she wrote the role. Wainwright made her directorial debut with episode 4 of the first series. Wainwright had previously said that she was willing to write a third series of ''Happy Valley'', but had commitments to work on other projects, and in 2016 producer Nicola Shindler indicated that the third series would not air until 2018 at the earliest. In 2022 it was announced that a third series would debut on 1 January 2023. The final episode was broadcast on 5 February 2023. In 2016, Wainwright was made a Fellow of the

. Wainwright wrote and directed a two-hour drama special for

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

entitled '' To Walk Invisible,'' which aired on BBC One in 2016 and in the US in 2017. Its subject is the

Brontë family The Brontës () were a 19th century literary family, born in the village of Thornton, West Yorkshire, Thornton and later associated with the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte Brontë, Charlott ...

, particularly the relationship the three sisters,

Anne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), Annie a ...

, Emily and Charlotte, had with their brother, Branwell. While working on the drama, Wainwright said "I am thrilled beyond measure that I've been asked by the BBC to bring to life these three fascinating, talented, ingenious Yorkshire women." In 2019, Wainwright's '' Gentleman Jack'', a drama about the 19th-century Yorkshire landowner, diarist, and open lesbian, Anne Lister, played by Suranne Jones, and Lister's courtship of Ann Walker, played by

Sophie Rundle Sophie Rundle (born 21 April 1988) is an English actress. Her television roles include portraying Ada Thorne in ''Peaky Blinders'', Ann Walker in '' Gentleman Jack'', Vicky Budd in ''Bodyguard'', code-breaker Lucy in ''The Bletchley Circle'', L ...

, premiered on both BBC One in the UK and HBO in the US. Her female-led highwaywoman epic '' Renegade Nell'' streamed on Disney+ from 29 March 2024. In 2024, filming began on her series '' Riot Women'', about a collection of women who form a band in Yorkshire.

Personal life

Wainwright, who lives in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

, is married to Ralph "Austin" Sherlaw-Johnson, an antiquarian

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed Book, books or Pamphlet, pamphlets ...

dealer, son of the composer, pianist, and music scholar Robert Sherlaw Johnson. They have two sons and, , a

Maine Coon The Maine Coon is a large Domestication, domesticated breeds of cats, cat breed. One of the oldest natural breeds in North America, the breed originated in the U.S. state of Maine, where it is the official List of U.S. state mammals, state cat ...

cat Wainwright claims is the largest in the world. Wainwright was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the

2020 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours for 2020 are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded ...

for services to writing and television. Wainwright has said that she has "decided that he isslightly

autistic Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing di ...

" and that social interaction is quite painful for her.

Credits

Television

Other

* 1986–1988: ''

'' (Radio show:

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

) − Writer (2 years) * 2000: ''Emily Brontë's Lover'' (Radio show:

) − Writer * ''Hanging On'' (play)

Honours

* 2003: Best Short Drama Banff Festival for ''The Wife of Bath's Tale'' * 2009: RTS Awards, Best Drama Serial for ''Unforgiven'' * 2011: RTS North West Awards, Best Writer for ''Scott & Bailey'' * 2013: Sky WFTV Awards, Technicolor Writing Award * 2013: BAFTA TV Craft Awards, Best Drama Writer * 2013: BAFTA TV Craft Awards, Best Drama Series for ''Last Tango in Halifax'' * 2014: Broadcast Awards, Best Drama Series for ''Happy Valley'' * 2014: British Screenwriters’ Awards, Best British TV Drama Writing for ''Happy Valley'' * 2014: Crime Thriller Awards, Best TV Series for ''Happy Valley'' * 2014: TV Choice Awards, Best New Drama for ''Happy Valley'' * 2015: Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, Best Drama Writer * 2015: BAFTA TV Craft Awards, Best Drama Writer * 2015: Edgar Allan Poe Awards, Best Television Episode for ''Happy Valley'' (episode 1) * 2015: WGGB Awards, Best Long Form TV Drama for ''Happy Valley'' * 2015: Edinburgh TV Awards, Best Programme of the year for ''Happy Valley'' * 2015: BAFTA Awards, Best Drama Series for ''Happy Valley'' * 2017: RTS Programme Awards, Best Drama Writer for ''Happy Valley'' * 2017: RTS Programme Awards, Judges' Award * 2017: BAFTA Awards, Best Drama Series for ''Happy Valley'' * 2017: BAFTA TV Craft Awards, Best Drama Writer for 'Happy Valley' * 2020: Royal Television Society Awards, Best Drama Series Winner for 'Gentleman Jack' * 2020: Freedom of The Borough of Calderdale * 2020:

(OBE) in the

for services to Writing and Television.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wainwright, Sally 1963 births Living people 21st-century British women writers 21st-century British screenwriters 20th-century British women writers 20th-century English screenwriters Alumni of the University of York BAFTA winners (people) British television producers British women television directors British women television producers British women television writers Edgar Award winners English television directors English television writers English soap opera writers Fellows of the Royal Television Society Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Sowerby Bridge British television show creators WFTV Award winners Women soap opera writers