Barbara Clegg (born 1 March 1926) is a British actress and scriptwriter for television and radio.

Biography

She was born in March 1926 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England. Her parents were Herbert Clegg and Ethel Moores, sister of

Sir John Moores Sir John Moores (25 January 1896 – 25 September 1993) was an English businessman, telegraphist, football club owner, politician and philanthropist, most famous for the founding of the now defunct Littlewoods retail and football pools compa ...

who founded the Littlewoods Empire and they ran an artificial flower making factory in Manchester. She spent her early years in

Gatley Gatley is a suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, 3 miles north-east of Manchester Airport. History Toponymy Within the boundaries of the historic county of Cheshire, in 1290, Gatley was known as ''Ga ...

. After obtaining an English degree at Oxford University, Clegg decided to pursue a career in the theatre. Initial work as an understudy led to more substantial roles, most notably her turn as Cleopatra opposite Cyril Luckham's Caesar at the Liverpool Playhouse. A high-profile tour of Australia with Katharine Hepburn followed, performing plays such as The Merchant of Venice, but by this point Clegg was looking to move into television, a medium where more money could be made with roles in ''

Emergency – Ward 10 ''Emergency Ward 10'' is a British medical soap opera series shown on ITV between 1957 and 1967. Like ''The Grove Family'', a series shown by the BBC between 1954 and 1957, ''Emergency Ward 10'' is considered to be one of British television's ...

'' and ''

The Dream Maker ''It's All Happening'' is a 1963 British musical film directed by Don Sharp and starring Tommy Steele, Michael Medwin and Angela Douglas. It is sometimes known under the alternative title ''The Dream Maker''. Premise A talent scout for a recor ...

''. She then started writing scripts and in 1961 contributed seven scripts for the television soap opera '' Coronation Street''. After writing for several radio and television serials, including for ''

Crossroads Crossroads, crossroad, cross road or similar may refer to: * Crossroads (junction), where four roads meet Film and television Films * ''Crossroads'' (1928 film), a 1928 Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa * ''Cross Roads'' (film), a 1930 Brit ...

'' and a radio dramatisation of ''

The Chrysalids ''The Chrysalids'' (United States title: ''Re-Birth'') is a science fiction novel by British writer John Wyndham, first published in 1955 by Michael Joseph. It is the least typical of Wyndham's major novels, but regarded by some as his best. A ...

'', Clegg was asked to submit ideas for the science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'' in 1981. Her storyline, titled ''The Enlighteners'', involved a space-bound race using anachronistic sailing ships. ''Doctor Who'' script editor

Eric Saward Eric Saward (; born 9 December 1944) is a British radio scriptwriter who worked for the BBC as a television script editor and screenwriter on the science fiction series ''Doctor Who'' from 1982 until 1986. He wrote the stories '' The Visitation' ...

decided to use Clegg's story as the last part of a trilogy of three stories, known informally as the ''Black Guardian Trilogy'', as it involved the return of the

Black Guardian This is a list of villains from the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. For other, related lists, see below. See also * List of ''Doctor Who'' supporting characters * List of ''Doctor Who'' henchmen * Lis ...

. To integrate ''The Enlighteners'' into the trilogy, portions of the story were rewritten at the request of the production team and the Black and White Guardians replaced the originally planned "Enlighteners". Since the title could no longer refer to those entities, the story was renamed '' Enlightenment''. She was the first woman to write a serial for ''Doctor Who''. The serial was Barbara Clegg's only commission for ''Doctor Who'', other story line ideas being rejected by Saward, and later

Andrew Cartmel Andrew J. Cartmel (born 6 April 1958) is a British author and journalist. He was the script editor of ''Doctor Who'' during the Sylvester McCoy era of the show between 1987 and 1989. He has also worked as a script editor on other television serie ...

. However one of those ideas, " Point of Entry", was later written up as a full script by Marc Platt and released as part of Big Finish's series of '' Doctor Who: The Lost Stories''. Another " The Elite", was released in 2011. She wrote a book about the life of her Uncle Sir John Moores, called The Man Who Made Littlewoods, which was published just five weeks before his death in 1993.

References

External links

Biography of Barbara Clegg
(archived 2005) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clegg, Barbara 1926 births Living people Actresses from Manchester British actresses British television writers British soap opera writers 20th-century British women writers Women soap opera writers 20th-century English women 20th-century English people British women television writers