The Right Honourable

The Lord Willis
Born
Edward Henry Willis

13 January 1914
Tottenham, England
Died22 December 1992 (aged 78)
Chislehurst, Kent, England
Resting placeTottenham Cemetery
SpouseAudrey Hale
Children2

Edward Henry Willis, Baron Willis (13 January 1914 – 22 December 1992) was an English playwright, novelist and screenwriter who was also politically active in support of the Labour Party.[1][2] He created several television series, including the long-running police drama Dixon of Dock Green.

Early life and War service

Ted Willis was born in Tottenham, Middlesex, third child and second son of Alfred John Henry Willis (1882-1957), a bus washer who later became a bus driver, and Maria Harriet, née Meek. He recalled that when leaving school aged fourteen: "I had a two-second 'career interview' with my Headmaster. He asked me what I wished to do for the future and I told him that I intended to become a writer. His response was a cackle followed by the remark: 'You will never make a writer in a hundred years. You haven't got the imagination for it or the intelligence. Go away and learn a good trade.'"[3]

Willis was elected Chairman of the Labour League of Youth as the candidate of the left in 1937. In 1939, along with much of the League of Youth leadership, he joined the Young Communist League, the youth branch of the Communist Party of Great Britain.[4][5] In 1941 he became the General Secretary of the Young Communist League.[6] He was drama critic for the Daily Worker.[7]

Willis enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers in 1939, subsequently serving in the Army Kinematograph Service.[8][9] He often spoke at meetings during the Second World War in favour of opening a second front, in order to help the Red Army, which was bearing the brunt of the Nazi onslaught.

Writing career

His passion for drama first manifested in plays he wrote for the Unity Theatre, based in a former chapel near St Pancras, during the war. He was best known for writing the television series Dixon of Dock Green, based on the stories of Gordon Snashall, a local Chislehurst policeman with whom he was great friends; the series ran for more than twenty years. He was Chairman of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain from 1958 to 1964. Willis created several British television series such as Virgin of the Secret Service, The Adventures of Black Beauty, Sergeant Cork and Mrs Thursday.

Along with Berkely Mather, Willis was responsible for a huge proportion of scriptwriting for British television drama in the 1950s.[10] He was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most prolific writer for television; he also wrote 34 stage plays and a number of feature films.[8] In the 1970s he turned to novels, including a spy story, The Left-Handed Sleeper, and a wartime thriller The Lions of Judah.[10]

Honours and awards

Announced on 23 December 1963 he was awarded a life peerage,[11] which was created on 21 January 1964 with the title Baron Willis, of Chislehurst in the County of Kent,[12] on a Labour Party nomination.[13]

Willis was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1959 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the club at the BBC's Lime Grove Studios, in London's Shepherd's Bush.

Coat of arms of Ted Willis, Baron Willis
Coronet
Coronet of a Baron
Crest
In front of a Weeping Willow Tree a Well Head proper
Escutcheon
Or a Saltire Gules on a Chief Vert three Fountains
Supporters
On either side a Willet (Common Snipe) proper supporting with the beak a Quill Or
Motto
Will well[14]

Personal life

Willis married the London-based actress Audrey Hale in 1944[15] and they had a son and a daughter.[9] He died of a heart attack at his home in Chislehurst, Kent in December 1992 aged 78,[8] and was buried at Tottenham Cemetery.

Credits

Selected plays

Films

Selected TV

Novels

  • Whatever Happened to Tom Mix? (1970)
  • Death May Surprise Us (1974)
  • Westminster One (1975)
  • The Churchill Commando (1977)
  • The Left-Handed Sleeper (1977)
  • The Naked Sun (1980)
  • The Buckingham Palace Connection (1980)
  • The Lions of Judah (1981)
  • The Most Beautiful Girl In The World (1982)
  • Spring at the Winged Horse (1985)
  • Problem for Mother Christmas (1986)
  • The Green Leaves of Summer (1989)
  • The Bells of Autumn (1991)
  • Plume of Feathers (1993)

References

  1. ↑ Pattullo, Polly (23 December 1992). "Obituary:Ted Willis". The Guardian. Manchester.
  2. ↑ Sutton, Shaun (23 December 1992). "Obituary: Ted Willis". The Guardian. Manchester.
  3. ↑ Patrick Dickinson: Could Do Better: School Reports and Memories of the Famous (1992)
  4. ↑ Willis, Ted ‘’Whatever Happened to Tom Mix?, ’’ London: Cassell & Co., 1970, p186
  5. ↑ Labour Youth Movement Part One marxists.org
  6. ↑ Landin, Conrad (28 March 2021). "The Writers' Action Group Is a Model for Today's Fight for the Arts". Tribune.
  7. ↑ Obituary, The Independent
  8. 1 2 3 Roberts, Alison (23 December 1992). "Creator of Dixon dies aged 78". The Times. London.
  9. 1 2 "Lord Willis: Obituary". The Times. London. 23 December 1992.
  10. 1 2 Mike Ripley. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: The Boom in British Thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed (2017), p. 397
  11. ↑ "No. 43190". The London Gazette (Supplement). 23 December 1963. p. 10533.
  12. ↑ "No. 43225". The London Gazette. 21 January 1964. p. 571.
  13. ↑ "WILLIS, Ted". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 5 January 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  14. ↑ "Life Peerages - W". Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  15. ↑ "Ted Willis born here". www.shadyoldlady.com. Retrieved 9 March 2023.

Bibliography

  • Willis, Ted (1970). Whatever Happened to Tom Mix? The Story of One of My Lives. London: Cassell. ISBN 0304936758.
  • Willis, Ted (1991). Evening All: Fifty Years Over a Hot Typewriter. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0333546865.
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