Kevin Barry Laffan (24 May 1922 – 11 March 2003) was a British playwright, screenwriter, author, actor and stage director. Laffan is best known for creating the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

soap opera ''Emmerdale Farm'', now titled ''

Emmerdale ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, '' ...

''. Raised in a family of fourteen children, Laffan's Catholic upbringing formed the inspiration for many of his plays. Laffan's theatrical career began with a position as a call boy at the Theatre Royal in Bilston, and would eventually lead to him founding a

repertory company A repertory theatre is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation. United Kingdom Annie Horniman founded the first modern repertory theatre in Manchester after withdrawing ...

in Reading. In later life, Laffan also branched out into fiction, publishing his

début novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

, ''Virgins are in Short Supply'', in 2001.

Early life and theatre career

Laffan was the third of fourteen children of a disabled Irish photographer. The family moved to Walsall while he was a child. When he was twelve, they were sent to the

workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...

and he claimed to have escaped by jumping off the lorry as it drove through the gates. An elderly actress allowed him to sleep in her kitchen and advised him, "If you want to be serious, make them laugh"."Kevin Laffan"
Obituaries, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', 26 March 2003.Dennis Barker
"Kevin Laffan: The creator of Emmerdale Farm, he disliked its descent into 'sex and sensationalism'"
Obituaries, ''

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'', 20 March 2003. At 14 he became a call boy at the Theatre Royal in Bilston, and rose to be a stage manager, an actor and a director. In his teens, he also supplemented his acting income by working on a farm for six months, which gave him insight into farming as a way of life when he came to write ''Emmerdale Farm''.Anthony Hayward
"Obituary: Kevin Laffan Creator of the long-running ITV soap opera 'Emmerdale Farm'"
Obituaries, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''
at Highbeam
In the early 1950s he started his own

at the Everyman Theatre in Reading; he was its artistic director until 1958.The Kevin Laffan Archive
, Archives Hub, retrieved 11 May 2012.

Writing career

Laffan wrote his first plays under the name Kevin Barry. They included ''Ginger Bred'' (1951), ''The Strip-Tease Murder'' (1955, co-written with Neville Brian), ''Winner Takes All'' (1956) and ''First Innocent'' (1957). His 1968 play ''Zoo, Zoo, Widdershins Zoo'', about drop-outs, won the first prize for new plays at the 1968 National Union of Students Drama Festival and was produced at Nottingham Playhouse with

Lynn Redgrave Lynn Rachel Redgrave (8 March 1943 – 2 May 2010) was an English actress. She won two Golden Globe Awards throughout her career. A member of the Redgrave family of actors, Lynn trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962. By ...

in the leading role. Laffan blamed the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

's ban on artificial birth control for his family's financial problems, saying: "I am a product of my father's belief in God rather than his belief in sex". His play ''It's Two Foot Six Inches Above the Ground World'' portrays an Irish Catholic family's family planning problems.

Irving Wardle John Irving Wardle (born 20 July 1929) is an English writer and theatre critic. Biography Wardle was born on 20 July 1929 in Manchester, Lancashire, the son of John Wardle and his wife Nellie (Partington). His father was drama critic on the ''B ...

in the ''

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'' in 1970 called it "comedy that is clearly rooted in pain";Irving Wardle
"The Season in London: The Rift Grows Wider"
''

'', 12 April 1970 (pay per view) the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' in 2010 called it "potty-mouthed"."The Love Ban (1973): Alternate title: It's a 2'6" Above the Ground World"
Movies, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 2010, retrieved 10 May 2012. It carried the warning: "It may not be for those who could find a frank discussion of sexual and religious matters not to their taste." It was a West End hit and was made into a film in 1972 as ''It's a Two-Foot-Six-Inch-Above-the-Ground World'', later retitled ''The Love Ban''. His 1994 play ''The Missionary and Other Positions'' is about sex. Other later plays include ''Never So Good'' (1976), in which a bomb-wielding terrorist visits a group of black squatters, and ''Adam Redundant'' (1989), which reverses the roles in the

Garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan-Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the Bible, biblical paradise described in Book of Genesis, Genes ...

by making

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

the hero. Laffan also became known as a television writer in the 1960s. ''Bud'' (1963) was a six-episode serial starring the music-hall comedian

Bud Flanagan Bud Flanagan, (born Chaim Reuben Weintrop, 14 October 1896 – 20 October 1968) was a British music hall and vaudeville entertainer and comedian, and later a television and film actor. He was best known as a double act with Chesney Allen. Fla ...

; '' Castle Haven'' (1969) was a serial for ITV about the residents of two converted Victorian houses in a seaside town in Yorkshire, featuring

Roy Barraclough Roy Senior Barraclough (12 July 1935 – 1 June 2017) was an English comic actor. He was best known for his role as Alec Gilroy, the devious, mournful landlord of the Rovers Return in the long-running British TV soap '' Coronation Street'', a ...

Kathy Staff Kathy Staff (born Minnie Higginbottom; 12 July 1928 – 13 December 2008) was an English actress known for her work on British television. She is best known for her portrayal of Nora Batty in ''Last of the Summer Wine'', the longest running sit ...

and

Jill Summers Jill Summers (born Honor Margaret Rozelle Santoi Fuller; 10 December 1910 – 11 January 1997) was an English music hall performer, actor and comedian. Her career in entertainment lasted eighty years and in 1982 she achieved stardom as Phyll ...

. In 1984 he co-wrote with Peter Jones ''I Thought You'd Gone'', a sitcom about parents who wrongly believe their children have left the nest. He wrote episodes of several serials, and also television plays, including ''Decision to Burn'' (1971, starring

Anthony Hopkins Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor, director, and producer. One of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins has received many accolad ...

) and ''The Best Pair of Legs in the Business'', (1968, with

Reg Varney Reginald Alfred Varney (11 July 1916 – 16 November 2008) was an English actor, entertainer and comedian. He is best remembered for having played the lead role of bus driver Stan Butler in the LWT sitcom ''On the Buses'' (1969–73) and its th ...

as a holiday camp drag queen), which was remade as a feature film with the same title in 1972. ''Emmerdale Farm'' came about after Laffan was asked to write a lunchtime "farm serial" for ITV after government restrictions on broadcasting hours were relaxed. On his agent's advice, he at first refused, fearing that writing a soap opera would damage his reputation as a playwright, but then wrote the requested three months' worth of episodes "as a 26-episode play eavingthe end open so that it could continue." He eventually wrote 262 episodes of the serial, which was first broadcast in October 1972, but stopped in 1985 after twelve years because producers wanted "sex, sin and sensationalism" rather than the realism he had intended; however, he remained as a consultant and met

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

on the set on the programme's 30th anniversary. Laffan's other big television success was '' Beryl's Lot'', a British sitcom inspired by the real-life story of former maid

Margaret Powell Margaret Powell (1907 – April 1984) was an English writer. Her book about her experiences in domestic service, ''Below Stairs'', became a best-seller and she went on to write other books and became a television personality. ''Below Stair ...

.Alasdair Steven
"Obituary Kevin Laffan"
''

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'', 21 March 2003 (at Highbeam) In 2001 his first novel, ''Virgins are in Short Supply'', was published; he had initially titled it ''Pendle's Disposal'' and been unable to find a publisher, but received two offers within a week of changing the title.

Private life and death

Laffan married Jeanne Thompson in 1952; they had three sons, and lived in Wimbledon."Kevin Laffan"
'' The Herald'' (Glasgow), 21 March 2003 (pay per view)
at Highbeam
''Contemporary Dramatists'', ed. K. A. Berney, 5th ed., Contemporary writers of the English language, London / Washington, DC / Detroit: St. James, 1993,
p. 370
He died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

two weeks after undergoing

heart surgery Cardiac surgery, or cardiovascular surgery, is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. It is often used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease (for example, with coronary artery bypass grafting); to corr ...

. His archives are at the

University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_labe ...

Awards

* 1959: ATV Television Award for ''Cut in Ebony'' * 1969: Irish Life Award * 1968: National Union of Students Award * 1970: ''Sunday Times'' Award

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laffan, Kevin 1922 births 2003 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in England English people of Irish descent English television writers English soap opera writers Writers from London People from Reading, Berkshire People from Wednesbury English male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English male writers British male television writers 20th-century English screenwriters