Pauline Devaney (born ) is a British actress, writer, and artist, best known for her television writing in partnership with

Edwin Apps Edwin Apps (14 May 1931 – 16 April 2021) was an English television actor and writer. He appeared in many British and French television series and films, which include ''Whack-O!'', '' I Thank a Fool'', ''Danger Man'', '' The Avengers'', '' ...

. Devaney was born in Stoke-on-Trent, and trained at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...

. She and Apps both began their careers as actors but branched into screenwriting while between jobs, originally writing under the name "John Wraith", with ''

All Gas and Gaiters ''All Gas and Gaiters'' is a British television ecclesiastical sitcom which aired on BBC1 from 1966 to 1971. It was written by Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps, a husband-and-wife team who used the pseudonym of John Wraith when writing the pilot ...

'' (1966–71), the series that brought

Derek Nimmo Derek Robert Nimmo (19 September 193024 February 1999) was an English character actor, producer and author. He is best remembered for his comedic upper class "silly ass" and clerical roles including Revd Mervyn Noote in the BBC1 sitcom ''Al ...

into the public eye. The book ''All Gas and Gaiters: The Lost Episodes'', published in June 2015 by Durpey-Allen, () is the first of four in which all the scripts of the

wiped Lost television broadcasts are mostly those early television programs which cannot be accounted for in studio archives (or in personal archives) usually because of deliberate destruction or neglect. Common reasons for loss A significant prop ...

episodes of the first five series are published, together with Devaney's and Apps' memories of writing and producing television comedy decades earlier and, because Devaney was the first woman to ever do so, some of the difficulties they encountered with the hierarchy of the BBC. Devaney appeared in leading roles on television during the 1960s, With Edwin Apps, she appeared in two comedy series by N. F. Simpson: ''Three Rousing Tinkles'' (1966) and ''Four Tall Tinkles'' (1967). She also appeared in '' The Avengers'' 1967 episode entitled ''The 50,000 Pound Breakfast''. During the 1980s, she wrote a one-woman stage play, ''To Marie with Love'', based on the life of

Marie Stopes Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes (15 October 1880 – 2 October 1958) was a British author, palaeobotanist and campaigner for eugenics and women's rights. She made significant contributions to plant palaeontology and coal classification, ...

, which she took to the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

in 1985 where it won a Fringe First Award. There is a script of this play in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

and a sound recording of the original production in the National Archives. She toured extensively with ‘Marie’ both in the UK and abroad for a number of years. Devaney began studying art in 1999. After winning the Winchester Art Competition in 2001, she took up art as a full-time career, and now lives in Lewes, Sussex.

References

1937 births Alumni of RADA British actresses British television writers British women television writers Living people People from Stoke-on-Trent Actors from Staffordshire {{UK-tv-actor-1930s-stub