Alan Plater (1935-2010)

Alan Plater, playwright and screenwriter, died on Friday, 25 June, aged 75. He was best known for his TV work on such series as Z-Cars, Softly Softly and in more recent years Dalziel and Pascoe and Lewis but, to my mind, his finest moments were with The Beiderbecke Affair and its two sequels. There was almost no action at all - just marvelous, sparkling dialogue.

A small connection with British comics: he adapted Bill Tidy's Daily Mirror strip "The Fosdyke Saga" into two plays, The Fosdyke Saga (1975) and Fosdyke Two (1976) which successfully toured the country.

Obituaries: Daily Telegraph (25 June), The Independent (26 June), The Guardian (25 June).