Henry Livings
Encyclopedia
Henry Livings was an English
playwright
and screenwriter
, who worked extensively in British television
and theatre
from the 1960s to the 1990s.
, Lancashire
, England. He won a scholarship from the Stand Grammar School in Whitefield
to the University of Liverpool
but attended for only two years, leaving in 1950 without graduating. He went on to serve in the Royal Air Force
(1950–1952), became an expert cook, and held a number of jobs before going into the theatre. Livings trained as an actor at Joan Littlewood
's Theatre Workshop
, which he joined in 1956. Livings appeared in the first of the Carry On films, Carry on Sergeant
(1958) and as Wilf Haddon, Martha Longhurst's son-in-law, on Coronation Street
in May 1964.
His first stage play, Stop It, Whoever You Are, about a washroom attendant in a factory, was performed in 1961. The Evening Standard Awards
for 1961 named Livings as Most Promising Playwright of the Year for Stop It, Whoever You Are, jointly with Gwyn Thomas
, author of The Keep. Among his other plays are The Quick and the Dead Quick (1961), an unconventional historical drama about François Villon
; Big Soft Nellie (1961), whose witless hero creates chaos in a radio repair shop and the play and TV comedy Nil Carborundum (1962), based on his experience of National Service
. His play Eh?
was performed Off-Broadway
, with Dustin Hoffman
in the leading role. Livings won an Obie Award
for Best Play for the production. Eh? was turned into the 1967 film, Work Is a Four-Letter Word
, starring David Warner
and Cilla Black
. Many of the actors in this film were also members of the Royal Shakespeare Company
, including Elizabeth Spriggs
in her first screen role, and it was directed by RSC founder Peter Hall. His Pongo plays, performed in England during the 1960s and 1970s, have been described as Kyogen
adaptations in a music hall
style.
Livings also wrote short stories, plays and screenplays and contributed to the TV series Juliet Bravo
(1980) and Bulman
(1985).
He collaborated with his friend, the song writer Alex Glasgow
, who wrote the songs and music for the successful musical play Close the Coal House Door by Alan Plater
. Together they starred in a 1971 comedy sketch series for BBC2, Get The Drift, based on their stage show, The Northern Drift. Livings was also the translator, together with the academic Gwynne Edwards, of three works by the Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca
-–The Public, Play Without a Title and Mariana Pineda
.
His books include That the Medals and the Baton Be Put on View: Story of a Village Band, 1875–1975, which relates to Dobcross
Band, two volumes of short stories, Pennine Tales (1985) and Flying Eggs and Things: more Pennine tales (1986), illustrated by his daughter Maria Livings, and his autobiography The Rough Side of the Boards, (1994), also turned into a stage show, which featured Arthur Bostrom
in its premiere.
He died on 20 February 1998 at Delph
, near Oldham
, Greater Manchester
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, who worked extensively in British television
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
and theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Early life and career
Livings was born in PrestwichPrestwich
Prestwich is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies close to the River Irwell, north of Manchester city centre, north of Salford and south of Bury....
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, England. He won a scholarship from the Stand Grammar School in Whitefield
Whitefield, Greater Manchester
Whitefield is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on undulating ground in the Irwell Valley, along the south bank of the River Irwell, south-southeast of Bury, and to the north-northwest of the city of Manchester...
to the University of Liverpool
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...
but attended for only two years, leaving in 1950 without graduating. He went on to serve in the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
(1950–1952), became an expert cook, and held a number of jobs before going into the theatre. Livings trained as an actor at Joan Littlewood
Joan Littlewood
Joan Maud Littlewood was a British theatre director, noted for her work in developing the left-wing Theatre Workshop...
's Theatre Workshop
Theatre Workshop
Theatre Workshop is a theatre group noted for their director, Joan Littlewood. Many actors of the 1950s and 1960s received their training and first exposure with the company...
, which he joined in 1956. Livings appeared in the first of the Carry On films, Carry on Sergeant
Carry On Sergeant
Carry On Sergeant is the first Carry On film. Its first public screening was on 1 August 1958 at Screen One, London. Actors in this film who went on to be part of the regular team in the series were Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Connor and Terry Scott...
(1958) and as Wilf Haddon, Martha Longhurst's son-in-law, on Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
in May 1964.
His first stage play, Stop It, Whoever You Are, about a washroom attendant in a factory, was performed in 1961. The Evening Standard Awards
Evening Standard Awards
The Evening Standard Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre. Sponsored by the Evening Standard newspaper, they are announced in late November or early December...
for 1961 named Livings as Most Promising Playwright of the Year for Stop It, Whoever You Are, jointly with Gwyn Thomas
Gwyn Thomas
Gwyn Thomas may refer to:*Gwyn Thomas , Welsh cricketer for Glamorgan CCC, and rugby union footballer for Neath RFC*Gwyn Thomas , 20th century prose writer*Gwyn Thomas , National Poet for Wales 2006...
, author of The Keep. Among his other plays are The Quick and the Dead Quick (1961), an unconventional historical drama about François Villon
François Villon
François Villon was a French poet, thief, and vagabond. He is perhaps best known for his Testaments and his Ballade des Pendus, written while in prison...
; Big Soft Nellie (1961), whose witless hero creates chaos in a radio repair shop and the play and TV comedy Nil Carborundum (1962), based on his experience of National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
. His play Eh?
Eh?
This article is about the play. For the common Canadian colloquialism, see Canadian English.Eh? is a play by Henry Livings.- Production history :...
was performed Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
, with Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
in the leading role. Livings won an Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
for Best Play for the production. Eh? was turned into the 1967 film, Work Is a Four-Letter Word
Work Is a Four-Letter Word
-External links:*...
, starring David Warner
David Warner (actor)
David Warner is an English actor who is known for playing both romantic leads and sinister or villainous characters, both in film and animation...
and Cilla Black
Cilla Black
Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...
. Many of the actors in this film were also members of the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
, including Elizabeth Spriggs
Elizabeth Spriggs
-Early life and career:Born in Buxton, Derbyshire as Elizabeth Jean Williams, Spriggs had an unhappy childhood and grew up entirely without affection, particularly from her distant, domineering father, a master builder and farmer. She studied at the Royal College of Music and taught speech and...
in her first screen role, and it was directed by RSC founder Peter Hall. His Pongo plays, performed in England during the 1960s and 1970s, have been described as Kyogen
Kyogen
is a form of traditional Japanese comic theater. It developed alongside Noh, was performed along with Noh as an intermission of sorts between Noh acts, on the same Noh stage, and retains close links to Noh in the modern day; therefore, it is sometimes designated Noh-kyōgen...
adaptations in a music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
style.
Livings also wrote short stories, plays and screenplays and contributed to the TV series Juliet Bravo
Juliet Bravo
Juliet Bravo is a British television series, which ran on BBC1 between 1980 and 1985. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over control of a police station in the fictional town of Hartley in Lancashire.-Programme name:...
(1980) and Bulman
Bulman
Bulman was a Granada TV series which ran from 1985-1987 and followed the fortunes of the major character from the earlier XYY Man and Strangers series....
(1985).
He collaborated with his friend, the song writer Alex Glasgow
Alex Glasgow
Alex Glasgow was a singer/songwriter from Low Fell, Gateshead, England. He was educated at Gateshead Grammar School where he founded the Caprians, a choir that, 55 years on and still counting, is thriving. He graduated in German at the University of Leeds...
, who wrote the songs and music for the successful musical play Close the Coal House Door by Alan Plater
Alan Plater
Alan Frederick Plater, CBE, FRSL was an English playwright and screenwriter, who worked extensively in British television from the 1960s to the 2000s.-Career:...
. Together they starred in a 1971 comedy sketch series for BBC2, Get The Drift, based on their stage show, The Northern Drift. Livings was also the translator, together with the academic Gwynne Edwards, of three works by the Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
-–The Public, Play Without a Title and Mariana Pineda
Mariana Pineda
Mariana Pineda is a play by the Spanish playwright and poet Federico García Lorca. It is based on the life of Mariana de Pineda Muñoz, whose republican opposition to Ferdinand VII had become part of the folklore of Granada. The play was written between 1923 and 1925 and was first performed in June...
.
His books include That the Medals and the Baton Be Put on View: Story of a Village Band, 1875–1975, which relates to Dobcross
Dobcross
Dobcross is a village in Saddleworth—a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It is located in a valley in the South Pennines, along the course of the River Tame and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, east-northeast of Oldham and west-southwest of...
Band, two volumes of short stories, Pennine Tales (1985) and Flying Eggs and Things: more Pennine tales (1986), illustrated by his daughter Maria Livings, and his autobiography The Rough Side of the Boards, (1994), also turned into a stage show, which featured Arthur Bostrom
Arthur Bostrom
Arthur Bostrom is an English actor, most famous for his role as Officer Crabtree, in the long-running BBC sitcom Allo 'Allo!.-Biography:...
in its premiere.
He died on 20 February 1998 at Delph
Delph
Delph is a village in the Saddleworth civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on the River Tame below the village of Denshaw, east-northeast of Oldham, and north-northwest of Uppermill.The centre of the village has barely...
, near Oldham
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
, Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
.