Andrew Wynford Davies is a British author and screenwriter. He was made a Fellow of BAFTA in 2002.
Education and early career
Davies (icon) attended
Whitchurch Grammar SchoolWhitchurch High School is a large, co-educational, comprehensive secondary school in the suburb of Whitchurch in Cardiff, Wales. It is considered to be one of the better secondary schools in Cardiff, and was described in its 2009 Estyn report as a 'good school' which is 'moving forward from...
in Cardiff and then University College, London, where he received a BA in English in 1957. He took a teaching position at
St. Clement Danes Grammar SchoolSt. Clement Danes School is a mixed, voluntary-aided, comprehensive school in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire.-Admissions:It has specialist status for languages and science and takes students aged 11 through to 18 ....
in London, where he was on the teaching staff from 1958–61. He held a similar post at Woodberry Down Comprehensive School in
HackneyThe London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....
, London from 1961–63. Following that, he was a lecturer in English at
Coventry College of EducationCoventry College Of Education existed as a separate institution until its incorporation into the University of Warwick in 1971. It is located to the north of the University's Main Site.-Alumni:* Sting, British rock musician.-Former Tutors of note:...
(which merged with the University of Warwick in 1971 to become the Faculty of Educational Studies and later the Warwick Institute of Education) from 1963–71, and then at the
University of WarwickThe University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
in
CoventryCoventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
from 1971–87.
In 1960, Davies contributed material to the
BBC Home ServiceThe BBC Home Service was a British national radio station which broadcast from 1939 until 1967.-Development:Between the 1920s and the outbreak of The Second World War, the BBC had developed two nationwide radio services, the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programme...
's
Monday Night at Home strand, alongside
Harold PinterHarold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
and
Ivor CutlerIvor Cutler was a Scottish poet, songwriter and humorist. He became known for his regular performances on BBC radio, and in particular his numerous sessions recorded for John Peel's influential radio programme, and later for Andy Kershaw's programme...
. He wrote his first play for radio in 1964. In 1960, he married Diana Huntley; the couple have a son and daughter. He is resident in Kenilworth, a town of Warwickshire.
Writer for television
Davies' first television play,
Who's Going to Take Me On?, was broadcast in 1965 as part of BBC1's
The Wednesday PlayThe Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured...
strand. His early plays were written as a sideline to his work in education, many of them appearing in anthology series such as
Thirty Minute Theatre,
Play for TodayPlay for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...
and
Centre Stage.
Davies is the creator of the children's
Marmalade AtkinsMarmalade Atkins is a children's fictional character created by the writer Andrew Davies. Marmalade first appeared in the book Marmalade and Rufus in 1979, and the character was later brought to television in 1981 in which she was played by the actress Charlotte Coleman.-Background:A hair-raising...
television series and
A Very Peculiar PracticeA Very Peculiar Practice is a BBC comedy-drama series, which ran for two series in 1986 and 1988. It was the first major success for screenwriter Andrew Davies, and was inspired by his experiences as a lecturer at the University of Warwick.- Storyline :...
, and is also well known for his adaptations of classic works of literature, including the 1995 television adaptation of
Pride and PrejudicePride and Prejudice is a six-episode 1995 British television drama, adapted by Andrew Davies from Jane Austen's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice. Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth starred as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Produced by Sue Birtwistle and directed by Simon Langton, the serial was a BBC...
starring
Colin FirthSirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
and
Jennifer EhleJennifer Ehle is an American actress of stage and screen. She is known for her BAFTA winning role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice.-Early life:...
, the 1998 adaptation of
Vanity FairVanity Fair is a BBC television drama serial adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel of the same name broadcast in 1998. The screenplay was written by Andrew Davies....
, and the 2008 BBC adaption of
Sense and SensibilitySense and Sensibility is a 2008 British television serial adapted by the BBC from Jane Austen's novel of the same name. It was written by Andrew Davies and directed by John Alexander. The serial was aired on BBC One in three parts on 1, 6 and 13 January 2008. It aired the United States in two...
. He is the writer of the screenplays both for the 1994
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
production
MiddlemarchGeorge Eliot's novel Middlemarch has been adapted for television twice. The most recent version in 1994 was directed by Anthony Page from a screenplay by Andrew Davies...
and a planned 2011 film of the same name.
Davies also co-devised with Bernadette Davis the laddish sitcom
Game On for BBC2 and co-wrote the first two series in 1995 and 1996.
The popularity of his adaptation of
Michael DobbsMichael Dobbs, Baron Dobbs is a British Conservative politician and best-selling author.-Background:Michael Dobbs was born on 14 November 1948 in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, the son of nurseryman Eric and Eileen Dobbs. He was educated at Hertford Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford University....
's political thriller
House of CardsHouse of Cards is a 1990 political thriller television drama serial by the BBC in four parts, set after the end of Margaret Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It was televised from 18 November to 9 December 1990, to critical and popular acclaim...
was a significant influence in Dobbs's decision to write two sequels, which Davies also adapted for television.
In film, he has collaborated on the screenplays for both of the
Bridget JonesBridget Jones is a franchise based on the fictional character with the same name. English writer Helen Fielding started her Bridget Jones's Diary column in The Independent in 1995, chronicling the life of Bridget Jones as a thirtysomething single woman in London as she tries to make sense of life...
films, based on
Helen FieldingHelen Fielding is an English novelist and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the fictional character Bridget Jones, a sequence of novels and films that chronicle the life of a thirtysomething single woman in London as she tries to make sense of life and love.Her novels Bridget Jones's...
's successful novels.
His previous career in education he drew upon in writing the campus-based comedy-drama series
A Very Peculiar PracticeA Very Peculiar Practice is a BBC comedy-drama series, which ran for two series in 1986 and 1988. It was the first major success for screenwriter Andrew Davies, and was inspired by his experiences as a lecturer at the University of Warwick.- Storyline :...
(1986–88).
He is also a prolific writer for children. His works in this field include the
Guardian AwardThe Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award is a prominent award for works of children's literature by British or Commonwealth authors, published in the United Kingdom during the preceding year. The award has been given annually since 1967, and is decided by a panel of authors and the...
-winning
Conrad's War,
Alfonso BonzoAlfonso Bonzo is a 1986 children's book by Andrew Davies and a 1990 children's television mini-series adapted from the book by the author. The series starred Alex Jennings as Alfonso Bonzo and Scott Riley as Billy Webb....
(book and television series), and the adventures of
Marmalade AtkinsMarmalade Atkins is a children's fictional character created by the writer Andrew Davies. Marmalade first appeared in the book Marmalade and Rufus in 1979, and the character was later brought to television in 1981 in which she was played by the actress Charlotte Coleman.-Background:A hair-raising...
(television series and numerous books). He also wrote the stories
Dark Towers and
Badger Girl for BBC TV's
Look and ReadLook and Read is a BBC television programme for primary schools, aimed at improving children's literacy skills. The programme presents fictional stories in a serial format, the first of which was broadcast in 1967 and the most recent in 2004, making it the longest running nationally broadcast...
series of programmes for schools audiences.
2008 saw the release of his adaptations of the 1999 novel
AffinityAffinity is a 1999 historical fiction novel by Sarah Waters. It is the author's second novel, following Tipping the Velvet, and followed by Fingersmith.-Plot summary:...
by
Sarah WatersSarah Waters is a British novelist. She is best known for her novels set in Victorian society, such as Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith.-Childhood:Sarah Waters was born in Neyland, Pembrokeshire, Wales in 1966....
,
Evelyn Waugh'sArthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
Brideshead RevisitedBrideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. Waugh wrote that the novel "deals with what is theologically termed 'the operation of Grace', that is to say, the unmerited and unilateral act of love by...
(a film),
Charles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
'
Little Dorrit (a BBC series). Little Dorrit won 7 out of its 11 Emmy nominations and earned Davies an Emmy for
Outstanding Writing for a MiniseriesThis is a list of the winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special.- Award winners:1970s*1979: The Jericho Mile – Michael Mann, Patrick Nolan1980s...
.
Planned adaptations of
Dombey and SonDombey and Son is a novel by the Victorian author Charles Dickens. It was first published in monthly parts between October 1846 and April 1848 with the full title Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation...
, one of Dickens' lesser-read works, and
Anthony TrollopeAnthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
's
Palliser novelsThe Palliser novels are six novels by Anthony Trollope.The common thread is the wealthy aristocrat and politician Plantagenet Palliser and his wife Lady Glencora...
were both scrapped by the BBC in late 2009, following a previously announced move away from "bonnet dramas".
Television series and serials
- To Serve Them All My Days
To Serve Them All My Days is a British television adaptation of the 1972 novel by R. F. Delderfield. 13 episodes 50 minute in length were first shown by the BBC in 1980 and 1981....
(1980)
- Dark Towers (Look And Read: 1981)
- Diana
Diana is a British television drama series first broadcast by the BBC in 1984. It was adapted from two R. F. Delderfield books by Andrew Davies....
(1984)
- Badger Girl (Look And Read: 1984)
- A Very Peculiar Practice
A Very Peculiar Practice is a BBC comedy-drama series, which ran for two series in 1986 and 1988. It was the first major success for screenwriter Andrew Davies, and was inspired by his experiences as a lecturer at the University of Warwick.- Storyline :...
(1986–88)
- Mother Love
Mother Love is a British television drama that first aired in 1989. It was adapted by Andrew Davies from Laura Black's novel concerning a mother's obsessive love for her son, vengeful hatred of his father, her ex-husband, and the effect on her daughter-in-law and grandchildren...
(1989)
- House of Cards
House of Cards is a 1990 political thriller television drama serial by the BBC in four parts, set after the end of Margaret Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It was televised from 18 November to 9 December 1990, to critical and popular acclaim...
(1990)
- Anglo-Saxon Attitudes
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes is a satirical novel by Angus Wilson, published in 1956. It was Wilson's most popular book, and many consider it his best work.-Plot summary:...
(1992)
- The Old Devils
The Old Devils is a novel by Kingsley Amis, first published in 1986. The novel won the Booker Prize. It was adapted for television by Andrew Davies for the BBC in 1992, starring John Stride, Bernard Hepton, James Grout and Ray Smith...
(1992)
- To Play the King
To Play The King is a 1993 BBC television serial, the second part of the House of Cards trilogy. Directed by Paul Seed, the serial was based on the Michael Dobbs novel of the same name and adapted for television by Andrew Davies...
(1993)
- Middlemarch
George Eliot's novel Middlemarch has been adapted for television twice. The most recent version in 1994 was directed by Anthony Page from a screenplay by Andrew Davies...
(1994)
- Game On (1995, with Bernadette Davis)
- Pride and Prejudice (1995)
- The Final Cut
The Final Cut is a 1995 BBC television serial, the third part of the House of Cards trilogy. Directed by Mike Vardy, the serial, based on Michael Dobbs's 1995 novel of the same name, was adapted for television by Andrew Davies...
(1995)
- Emma (1996)
- Wilderness (1996)
- Moll Flanders
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders is a novel written by Daniel Defoe in 1722, after his work as a journalist and pamphleteer. By 1722, Defoe had become a recognised novelist, with the success of Robinson Crusoe in 1719...
(1996)
- Bill's New Frock (1997)
- Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair is a BBC television drama serial adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel of the same name broadcast in 1998. The screenplay was written by Andrew Davies....
(1998)
- Wives and Daughters
Wives and Daughters is a 1999 four part BBC serial adapted from the novel Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story by Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell...
(1999)
- Take a Girl Like You
Take a Girl Like You is a 2000 British television comedy series adapted by Andrew Davies from the 1960 novel Take a Girl Like You by Kingsley Amis. It starred Sienna Guillory, Rupert Graves, Hugh Bonneville, Robert Daws, Leslie Phillips, Emma Chambers, Ian Driver and Deborah Cornelius. It was...
(2000)
- The Way We Live Now
The Way We Live Now is a 2001 four-part television adaptation of the novel by Anthony Trollope. The serial was first broadcast on the BBC and was directed by David Yates, written by Andrew Davies and produced by Nigel Stafford-Clark...
(2001)
- Daniel Deronda
Daniel Deronda is a British television serial drama adapted by Andrew Davies from the George Eliot novel of the same name. The serial was directed by Tom Hooper, produced by Louis Marks, and was first broadcast in three parts on BBC One from 24 November to 7 December 2002...
(2002)
- Dr Zhivago
Doctor Zhivago is a 2002 British television serial directed by Giacomo Campiotti and starring Keira Knightley and Sam Neill. The teleplay by Andrew Davies is based on the 1957 novel of the same title by Boris Pasternak....
(2002)
- Tipping the Velvet (2002)
- He Knew He Was Right
He Knew He Was Right was a 2004 BBC TV adaptation of the novel of the same name by Anthony Trollope. It was directed by Tom Vaughan.*Jenny Uglow consultant*Nigel Stafford-Clark producer-Cast:*Oliver Dimsdale - Louis Trevelyan...
(2004)
- Bleak House (2005)
- The Line of Beauty (2006)
- Northanger Abbey
Northanger Abbey, an adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel of the same name, premiered on 25 March, 2007 on the United Kingdom channel ITV at 9pm, as part of their Jane Austen Season. The drama ran for 120 minutes in the UK, and 93 minutes without interruption in the United States...
(2007), part of ITV's Jane AustenJane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
SeasonThe Jane Austen Season is a British television series of dramas based on novels by Jane Austen. The season began on ITV at 9 p.m. on Sunday 18 March 2007, with Mansfield Park. Northanger Abbey aired the following week, with Persuasion ending the season on Sunday 1 April 2007. A repeat of the...
- A Room with a View
A Room with a View is televised adaptation of E. M. Forster's novel, A Room with a View, written by Andrew Davies. It was announced in 2006 and filmed in the summer of 2007...
(2007)
- Fanny Hill
Fanny Hill is a BBC adaptation of John Cleland's controversial novel, Fanny Hill, written by Andrew Davies and directed by James Hawes. This is the first television adaptation of the novel...
(2007)
- Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility is a 2008 British television serial adapted by the BBC from Jane Austen's novel of the same name. It was written by Andrew Davies and directed by John Alexander. The serial was aired on BBC One in three parts on 1, 6 and 13 January 2008. It aired the United States in two...
(2008)
- Little Dorrit
Little Dorrit is a 2008 British television serial directed by Adam Smith, Dearbhla Walsh, and Diarmuid Lawrence. The teleplay by Andrew Davies is based on the serial novel of the same title by Charles Dickens, originally published between 1855 and 1857....
(2008)
- South Riding
South Riding is a BBC serial in three parts from 2011, based on the 1936 novel South Riding by Winifred Holtby. It is directed by Diarmuid Lawrence and written by Andrew Davies...
(2011)
- The Spoils of Poynton (TBA)
- Who Speaks For England (TBA)
Television plays
- Who's Going to Take Me On? (1965)
- Is That Your Body, Boy? (1970)
- No Good Unless It Hurts (1973)
- The Water Maiden (1974)
- Grace (1975)
- The Imp of the Perverse (1975)
- The Signalman
The Signalman is a 1976 BBC television adaptation of The Signal-Man, an 1866 short story by Charles Dickens. The story was adapted by Andrew Davies as the BBC's sixth Ghost Story for Christmas, with Denholm Elliott starring as the signalman and Bernard Lloyd as the traveller, an un-named character...
(1976)
- A Martyr to the System (1976)
- Eleanor Marx (1977)
- Velvet Glove (1977)
- Fearless Frank (1978)
- Renoir My Father (1978)
- Bavarian Night (1981)
- Heartattack Hotel (1983)
- Baby I Love You (1985)
- Pythons on the Mountain (1985)
- Inappropriate Behaviour (1987)
- Lucky Sunil (1988)
- Ball Trap on the Cote Sauvage
Ball Trap on the Cote Sauvage is a 1989 British television comedy drama , written by celebrated screenwriter Andrew Davies, and set in France on Brittany's Côte Sauvage. The one-off drama starred Jack Shepherd, Zoë Wanamaker, Michael Kitchen, Miranda Richardson and Erika Hoffman-External links:*...
(1989)
- Filipina Dreamgirls (1991)
- A Very Polish Practice (1992)
- Anna Lee (1993)
- Harnessing Peacocks (1993)
- A Few Short Journeys of the Heart (1994)
- Getting Hurt (1998)
- A Rather English Marriage (1998)
- Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
(2001)
- Boudica (2003)
- Falling (2005)
- The Chatterley Affair
The Chatterley Affair is a BBC television drama, produced by BBC Wales and broadcast on BBC Four on 20 March, 2006. It is an account of the obscenity trial surrounding the publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1960...
(2006)
- Diary of a Nobody
The Diary of a Nobody, an English comic novel written by George Grossmith and his brother Weedon Grossmith with illustrations by Weedon, first appeared in the magazine Punch in 1888 – 89, and was first printed in book form in 1892...
(2007)
Cinema
- Circle of Friends
Circle of Friends is a 1995 film directed by Irish filmmaker Pat O'Connor and based on the novel of the same name written by Maeve Binchy.-Plot:...
(1995)
- The Tailor of Panama
The Tailor of Panama is a 2001 American film based on the 1996 spy novel of the same name by John le Carré, which was inspired by Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana...
(2001)
- Bridget Jones's Diary (2001, with Helen Fielding
Helen Fielding is an English novelist and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the fictional character Bridget Jones, a sequence of novels and films that chronicle the life of a thirtysomething single woman in London as she tries to make sense of life and love.Her novels Bridget Jones's...
and Richard CurtisRichard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...
)
- Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
# Will Young - "Your Love Is King"# Jamelia - "Stop"# Kylie Minogue - "Can't Get You Out of My Head"# Joss Stone - "Super Duper Love Pt. 1"# Mary J...
(2004, with Helen Fielding)
- Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited is a 2008 British drama film directed by Julian Jarrold. The screenplay by Jeremy Brock and Andrew Davies is based on the 1945 novel of the same name by Evelyn Waugh, which previously had been adapted in 1981 as an eleven-episode television serial.-Plot:Although he aspires to...
(2008)
- The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers is a 2011 3D action-adventure film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson which is a reinterpretation of the novel of the same title by Alexandre Dumas, the film was released in Germany, Austria, France & Switzerland on September 1, 2011, and in the U.S...
(2011)
- Middlemarch (2011)
Novels
- Getting Hurt (1989)
- Dirty Faxes (1990, short stories)
- B. Monkey
B. Monkey is a 1998 film directed by Michael Radford. Originally, Michael Caton-Jones was attached to direct the adaptation of the book by Andrew Davies, but left over creative differences.-Plot:...
(1992)
- Conrad's War
Based on the TV series of the same title
- A Very Peculiar Practice
A Very Peculiar Practice is a BBC comedy-drama series, which ran for two series in 1986 and 1988. It was the first major success for screenwriter Andrew Davies, and was inspired by his experiences as a lecturer at the University of Warwick.- Storyline :...
(1986, Coronet)
- A Very Peculiar Practice: The New Frontier (1988, Methuen)
External links