Arthur Hopcraft (30 November 1932 – 22 November 2004) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

scriptwriter, well known for his TV plays such as ''

The Nearly Man ''The Nearly Man'' is a UK TV play and series from the mid-1970s, about a middle-class Labour Party (UK), Labour MP. Both play and series were written by Arthur Hopcraft; actors in the cast of both include Tony Britton in the title role, Wilfr ...

'', and for his small-screen adaptations such as ''

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' is a 1974 spy novel by British author John le Carré. It follows the endeavours of taciturn, aging spymaster George Smiley to uncover a Soviet mole in the British Secret Intelligence Service. The novel has receive ...

''; '' Hard Times'', ''

Bleak House ''Bleak House'' is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853. The novel has many characters and several sub-plots, and is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and ...

'', and ''

Rebecca Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...

''. Before taking up writing for TV, he was a sports journalist for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'', writing ''The Football Man: People and Passions in Soccer''. He also had four other books published, including an autobiographical account of his childhood, and wrote the screenplay for the film ''

Hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or ref ...

''. Hopcraft won the BAFTA writer's award in 1985.

Career

Hopcraft was born in

Shoeburyness Shoeburyness (; also called Shoebury) is a suburb of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. east of the city centre. It was an urban district of Essex from 1894 to 1933, when it ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. He soon moved to

Cannock Cannock () is a town in the Cannock Chase district in the county of Staffordshire, England. It had a population of 29,018. Cannock is not far from the nearby towns of Walsall, Burntwood, Stafford and Telford. The cities of Lichfield and Wolverh ...

, Staffordshire, and as a teen, he started working at local newspapers. By the age of 17, he was reporting on the Stafford Rangers' semi-professional football games using the pseudonym "Linesman." After his service in the military, he worked at the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

'' in Manchester and then ''

''. He had assignments in west Africa, India and Brazil. In the mid-1960s, he began doing football writing at ''

'' as well. From January 1968 he was a regular contributor to the IPC monthly ''

Nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

'', his articles were mostly stories from his own life. He was a "self-described loner whose claustrophobia extended to refusing to use the London Underground."Obituary: Arthur Hopcraft , Media , The Guardian
/ref> He never married, noting that "I tried both sexes, but ended up wishing they would all just go away".

References

External links

*
Arthur Hopcraft Collection from the University of Salford site
1932 births 2004 deaths English male screenwriters People from Shoeburyness English sportswriters English male non-fiction writers 20th-century English screenwriters 20th-century English male writers {{UK-writer-stub