Peter Ambrose Cyprian Luke MC (12 August 1919 – 23 January 1995) was a British writer, editor, and producer.

Early years

Luke was born in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

, he was the first son of Sir

Harry Luke Sir Harry Charles Luke (born Harry Charles Lukach; 4 December 1884 – 11 May 1969) was an official in the British Colonial Office. He served in Barbados, Cyprus, Transcaucasia, Sierra Leone, Mandatory Palestine, Palestine, Malta#British Empir ...

and his wife Joyce Evelyn Fremlin. He had wanted to be a painter, and went to art school for two years before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

broke out. He was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

for his service during the war. Some time after, he worked under producer

Sydney Newman Sydney Cecil Newman (April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman w ...

on the British television drama anthology ''

Armchair Theatre ''Armchair Theatre'' is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968. The Canad ...

'', as a story editor. In 1967, he adapted

Frederick Rolfe Frederick William Rolfe (surname pronounced ), better known as Baron Corvo (Italian for "Crow"), and also calling himself Frederick William Serafino Austin Lewis Mary Rolfe (22 July 1860 – 25 October 1913), was an English writer, artist, ph ...

's novel ''

Hadrian the Seventh ''Hadrian the Seventh: A Romance'' (sometimes called ''Hadrian VII'') is a 1904 novel by the English novelist Frederick Rolfe, who wrote under the pseudonym "Baron Corvo". Rolfe's best-known work, this novel of extreme wish-fulfilment developed o ...

'' for the stage. In 1984, he published a solitary novel ''The Other Side of the Hill'' set during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

. This was adapted into a BBC radio drama in 1993 with

Michael Pennington Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington (born 7 June 1943) is a British actor, director and writer. Together with director Michael Bogdanov, he founded the English Shakespeare Company in 1986 and was its Joint Artistic Director until 1992. He has writ ...

and John Moffat, and directed by

Glyn Dearman Glyn Dearman (30 December 1939 – 30 November 1997) was an English actor, originally a child actor, whose career spanned almost two decades, including the eponymous '' Jennings'' in BBC ''Children's Hour'' "Jennings at School". Dearman is perha ...

. He was married to Carola Peyton-Jones (deceased), then Lettice Crawshaw (one daughter, one son deceased; marriage dissolved), and finally June Tobin (two sons, three daughters). He died in Cadiz on 23 January 1995.

Timeline of events

*1946–47 - Sub-editor, Reuters News Desk *1947–57 - Wine trader *1958–62 - Story editor,

ABC Weekend TV ABC Weekend TV was the popular name of the British broadcaster ABC Television Limited, which provided the weekend service in the Midlands and Northern England regions of the Independent Television (ITV) network from 1956 to 1968. It was one ...

*1962–63 - Editor, arts series ''The Bookman'' (ABC TV) *1963–64 - Editor, ''Tempo'' (ABC TV) *1963–68 - Drama producer, writer and director

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 19 ...

*1977–80 - Director, Edwards-Mac Liammoir Dublin Gate Theatre Company

List of works

* 1967 - ''

'' * 1974 - ''

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

'' * 1977 - '' Rings for a Spanish Lady'' * 1978 - '' Proxopera'' * 1985 - '' Married Love: The Apotheosis of Marie Stopes'' * 1987 - ''

Yerma ''Yerma'' is a play by the Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. It was written in 1934 and first performed that same year. García Lorca describes the play as "a tragic poem." The play tells the story of a childless woman living in rural S ...

'' * 1993 - ''The Other Side of the Hill''; BBC radio drama based on his only novel

References

External links

Obituary
in ''

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 ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Luke, Peter 1919 births 1995 deaths 20th-century British writers People from St Albans Rifle Brigade officers British Army personnel of World War II Recipients of the Military Cross