COLIN WELLAND

3 Nov

(4 July 1934 - 2 November 2015)

The teacher turned actor and writer began his acting career in the BBC’s Z Cars series in 1962. This was in direct contrast to the likes of Dixon of Dock Green with its cosy plots and aging star Jack Warner. Like Z Cars, in his writing for Play for Today, Welland portrayed everyday lives in realistic plays that dealt with the people he knew in the north of England. As an actor he won a BAFTA in Ken Loach’s Kes (1969) and featured in films such as Villain, Straw Dogs and the big screen version of TV’s The Sweeney. His first film screenplay was John Schlesinger’s Yanks (1979) starring Richard Gere and Vanessa Redgrave. This was a preamble to Chariots of Fire (1981) for which he won an Oscar, announcing famously at the Academy Awards that “The British are coming!” He wrote more films and acted in others, but nothing ever matched Chariots of Fire.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

COLIN WELLAND

WARREN MITCHELL

MAUREEN O’HARA