A History Of Liverpool Thespians - Colin Welland

 

Colin Welland was born Colin Edward Williams at The Maternity Hospital, Oxford Street Liverpool on the 4th of July 1934, the son of Norah and John 'Jack' Arthur Williams who was a keen left winger and trade unionist who forbade mention of Winston Churchill, a controversial figure with the left since his time as home secretary in 1910. Colin spent his earliest years in Kensington, Liverpool before moving to Newton-le-Willows while still a young child where he attended Newton-le-Willows Grammar School. After his National Service he studied at Bretton Hall College of Education, West Yorkshire and then at Goldsmiths College, London where he gained a teacher’s diploma in art and drama, and became an art teacher (1958-62) and taught art at Manchester Road Secondary Modern school in Leigh, where he was known as 'Ted' because of his Teddy Boy curly hairstyle. Meanwhile, he would sit in the bar of the New Theatre in Manchester, which was frequented by Granada TV staff, hoping to wangle a job as an assistant floor manager. It never happened, but he was eventually offered a job as an assistant stage manager and actor by David Scasey at Manchester Library theatre (1962-64). He married Patricia Sweeney in 1962, and they had a son and three daughters together, Genevieve, Catherine, Caroline and Christie

On the left as PC David Graham in Z-Cars

He also tried his hand at radio, presenting the BBC news programme North at Six. Told to speak informally, as if to friends in a pub, he was accused by listeners in Cheshire of not being able to speak the Queen's English, and lost the job. Meanwhile, though, the acting roles were starting to come in and after appearing in the Granada TV crime series as a defendant in 'The Verdict Is Yours', he was given the part of PC David Graham in the BBC’s groundbreaking series 'Z-Cars', and became a familiar face in the nation’s sitting rooms (1962 to 1965). His first film appearance is perhaps still his best-loved, the sympathetic Mr Farthing in 'Kes' (1969), for which he won a BAFTA. He played a detective in the film 'Villain' (1971), about an East End gangster played by Richard Burton and also featured in the controversial 'Straw Dogs' (1971). In the meantime he was developing as a writer and in the late 1960s he wrote his first play, 'Bangelstein’s Boys'. The play was produced on ITV’s 'Sunday Night Theatre' in 1969 and proved to be so popular that he stepped up his writing (in longhand in notebooks), creating in 1970 the plays 'The Hallelujah Handshake' for the BBC and, screened a week later on ITV, 'Roll on Four O’Clock', drawing on his own experiences as a teacher and heightening the frustrations he had felt. Now combining writing with acting, 'Kisses at Fifty' (1973), an exploration of middle-aged affairs, won him a Bafta. In 1970, 1973 and 1974 he received the Writers’ Guild awards for best TV playwright, with his plays known for their earthy humour and working-class themes.

as Mr Farthing in 'Kes'

He appeared as a villain in one 1975 episode of 'The Sweeney' and was in the series' first cinema spin-off 'Sweeney!' (1977) as Frank Chadwick, a newspaper editor. His other appearances included 'Dennis Potter's 'Blue Remembered Hills' (1979) as the character Willie, and 'Dancin' Thru the Dark' (1990). He was also in the television series 'Cowboys' (1980), a comedy about a dodgy builder, with Roy Kinnear. His screenwriting credits include the teleplay about the strike for equal pay 'Leeds United' (1974), the film 'Yanks' (1979), starring Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Gere, which was directed by John Schlesinger and 'Twice in a Lifetime' (1985), starring Gene Hackman. On stage, he starred in Howard Brenton’s 1988 Royal Shakespeare Company 'deconstruction' of Winston Churchill, 'The Churchill Play', in which he portrayed the great war leader as a less than great politician and a less than perfect man. In one of his final TV roles, he played the Everton manager Harry Catterick in 'The Fix' (1997). He followed 'Yanks' up with the multi award-winning, box office smash 'Chariots of Fire' (1981), for which he won the Best Screenplay Oscar and at the 1982 Academy Awards his acceptance speech included the phrase: "The British are coming!" (a quotation from Paul Revere). In the film the sign outside the Church of Scotland in Paris shows the preacher for the 9am worship to be "C.M. Welland"; a nod to the fact he had played a vicar in 'Straw Dogs'. He was again commissioned by David Puttnam to write the screenplay for 'War of the Buttons' (1994).

Writing columns on sport for the Observer and the Independent proved popular. One included a resounding denunciation of snobbish rules imposed by golf clubs, headlined 'Beware the Bores and Bigots'. His admirers insisted that his broad streak of concern for human decency prevented him from becoming either. A lifelong Rugby League fan and player he wrote of his support for the sport in newspaper and stood up for rugby league against rugby union discrimination in the 1980s and 1990s. He was also instrumental in the founding of Fulham Rugby League Club - the club that later evolved into London Broncos in 1980. He was last seen acting in 'Bramwell:Our Brave Boys' (1998) and 'Bramwell: Loose Women' (1998).

Colin died in his sleep at a nursing home in Sunbury on Thames on the 2nd of November 2015, at the age of 81. He had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for several years before his death. David Puttnam said Colin was "an unswervingly good man; a fine actor, and a seriously gifted screenwriter".

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/10/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-gia.html