Sally Anne Wainwright (born 1963) is an English television writer, producer, and director from

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. Early in her career, Wainwright worked as a playwright, and as a scriptwriter on the long-running radio serial drama ''

The Archers ''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural settin ...

''. In the 1990s, Wainwright began her television career, and, in 2000, created her first original drama series ''

At Home with the Braithwaites ''At Home with the Braithwaites'' is a British comedy-drama television series, created and written by Sally Wainwright (except for the final four episodes). The storyline follows a suburban family in Leeds, whose life is turned upside down when ...

'' (2000–2003). She won the

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

's Writer of the Year Award for the 2009 mini-series ''Unforgiven''. Wainwright is known for her creation of 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 ...

drama series ''

Scott & Bailey ''Scott & Bailey'' is a British police procedural series that debuted on ITV on 29 May 2011 and concluded on 27 April 2016. The series stars Suranne Jones, Lesley Sharp, Amelia Bullmore, Nicholas Gleaves, Danny Miller and Pippa Haywood. The sh ...

'' (2011–2016''),

Last Tango in Halifax ''Last Tango in Halifax'' is a British comedy-drama series that began broadcasting on BBC One on 20 November 2012 until its final episode which was broadcast on 15 March 2020. Screenwriter Sally Wainwright loosely adapted the story of her mothe ...

'' (2012-2020), and '' Happy Valley'' (2014–present). ''Last Tango in Halifax'' won the

British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series The British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series is one of the major categories of the British Academy Television Awards (BAFTAs), the primary awards ceremony of the British television industry. The category is described on the official ...

in 2013, whilst ''Happy Valley'' won the same award in both 2015 and 2017. Wainwright is the creator of the 2019

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

and

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

television series '' Gentleman Jack'' starring

Suranne Jones Sarah Anne Akers (née Jones; born 27 August 1978), known professionally as Suranne Jones, is an English actress and producer. She rose to prominence as Karen McDonald in ''Coronation Street'' between 2000 to 2004. Upon leaving, she furthered h ...

Anne Lister Anne Lister (3 April 1791 – 22 September 1840) was an English diarist, famous for revelations for which she was dubbed "the first modern lesbian". Lister was from a minor landowning family at Shibden in Calderdale, West Riding of Yorkshire ...

and

Sophie Rundle Sophie Rundle (born 21 April 1988) is an English actress, best known for portraying Ada Thorne in the BBC One historical crime drama television series ''Peaky Blinders'', Ann Walker in BBC One and HBO's period drama '' Gentleman Jack'', Vicky B ...

as Ann Walker.

Early life

Wainwright was born in 1963 in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, to Harry Wainwright and Dorothy Wainwright (née Crowther). Wainwright was brought up in

Sowerby Bridge Sowerby Bridge ( ) is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. The Calderdale Council ward population at the 2011 census was 11,703. History The town was originally a fording point over the once muc ...

where she attended Triangle C of E Primary School and Sowerby Bridge High School. She attended the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

, reading English and Related Literature. She has an older sister, Diane Hilton, a housing professional with The Guinness Partnership. Wainwright said that she had always wanted to write, and had started writing when she was young, from the time she was nine years old, and wanted to write for ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

.'' She said that when she was 16 years old in 1980 she saw a play called ''Bastard Angel'' by playwright

Barrie Keeffe __NOTOC__ Barrie Colin Keeffe (31 October 1945 – 10 December 2019) was an English dramatist and screenwriter. Best known for his screenplay for the gangster classic, ''The Long Good Friday'' (1980), starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, Keeff ...

at the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

and was deeply interested in its short sentences and naturalistic approach to dialogue.

Career

While at the

, Wainwright took an original play called ''Hanging On'' 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 ...

and found an agent, Meg Davis, for her writing in the process. Meanwhile, she worked as a bus driver. When she was 24, she left the driving job after she started writing for the Radio 4 series ''

.'' One of her contributions was to write an atypical story for the long-running radio soap in which the village shop was robbed. After that she wrote for ''

'', developing her writing skills, from 1994 to 1999. She has since said that working on continuing drama was "a great education in discipline and a lesson that great stories are hard work". She was mentored by

Kay Mellor The name Kay is found both as a surname (see Kay (surname)) and as a given name. In English-speaking countries, it is usually a feminine name, often a short form of Katherine or one of its variants; but it is also used as a first name in its own ...

who encouraged her to stop writing for soaps and to concentrate instead on original work. She created the TV series ''

'' about a woman who had secretly won the lottery. The programme was nominated for multiple awards. In 2006, she wrote the drama series '' Jane Hall'', which depicts the life of a female bus driver in London. Wainwright drew on her own experiences in scripting the series. She won the 2009 Writer of the Year Award given by the

RTS RTS may refer to: Medicine * Rape trauma syndrome, the psychological trauma experienced by a rape victim * Revised Trauma Score, a system to evaluate injuries secondary to violent trauma * Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome, a condition characterized by ...

in 2009 for ''

Unforgiven ''Unforgiven'' is a 1992 American Revisionist Western film starring, directed, and produced by Clint Eastwood, and written by David Webb Peoples. The film tells the story of William Munny, an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job, ...

'' which took several awards including best TV series. Wainwright says that her strong yet flawed female characters are "almost real" to her and arrive "fully formed" in her imagination. She likes to control the television that is created and has done some directing and producing of her own work partly to ensure the scenery and dialogue reflects Yorkshire. In 2011, she wrote ''

'', a series about two female police officers. The idea for the series came from the actresses

and

Sally Lindsay Sally Jane Lindsay (born 8 July 1973) is an English actress and television presenter known for her roles as Shelley Unwin in the long-running ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'', Lisa Johnson in the Sky One comedy series '' Mount Pleasant'' an ...

and former Detective Inspector Diane Taylor, who assisted with bringing the series to air. Wainwright based the plot of her series ''

'' on the story of her mother who was widowed in 2001. Her mother, Dorothy, moved to Oxfordshire to live with her daughter and rediscovered a lost love via

Friends Reunited Friends Reunited was a portfolio of social networking websites based upon the themes of reunion with research, dating and job-hunting. The first and eponymous website was created by a husband-and-wife team in the classic back-bedroom Internet s ...

. With her mother's permission, Wainwright developed the story of how she remarried so rapidly, showing extracts from the series to her mother before broadcast. When she told the story to

Nicola Shindler Nicola Shindler (born 8 October 1968) is a British television producer and executive, and founder of the independent television drama production company Quay Street Productions, having founded and run Red Production Company from 1998 to 2020. S ...

, she suggested she turn her mother's experience into a television series. Shindler became the series' executive producer. Both ''Last Tango in Halifax'' and her crime series ''Scott & Bailey'' were turned down by both the BBC and ITV before being accepted retrospectively. The former was voted by BAFTA to be best series in 2012 and Wainwright was given the award for best writer. '' Happy Valley,'' which was shot in

's upper

Upper Calder Valley The Upper Calder Valley lies in West Yorkshire, in northern England, and covers the towns of Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Luddendenfoot, and Sowerby Bridge, as well as a number of smaller settlements such as Portsmouth, Cornholme, W ...

and

Hebden Bridge Hebden Bridge is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, England. It is west of Halifax and 14 miles (21 km) north-east of Rochdale, at the confluence of the River Calder and the Hebden Water. The town is the largest ...

, stars

Sarah Lancashire Sarah-Jane Abigail Lancashire (born 10 October 1964) is an English actress from Oldham, England. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1986 and began her career in local theatre, whilst teaching drama classes at the Sal ...

, whom Wainwright had in mind as she wrote the role. Wainwright made her directorial debut with episode 4 of the first series. Wainwright had previously said that she was willing to write a third series of ''Happy Valley'', but had commitments to work on other projects, and in 2016 producer Nicola Shindler indicated that the third series would not air until 2018 at the earliest.. In 2022 it was announced that a third series will debut on 1 January 2023. In 2016, Wainwright was made a Fellow of the

. Wainwright wrote and directed a two-hour drama special for

entitled '' To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters,'' which aired on BBC One in 2016 and in the US in 2017. Its subject is the

Brontë family The Brontës () were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in the village of Thornton and later associated with the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte (1816–1855), Emily (1818–1848) ...

, particularly the relationship the three sisters,

Anne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

, Emily and

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

, had with their brother, Branwell. While working on the drama, Wainwright said "I am thrilled beyond measure that I've been asked by the BBC to bring to life these three fascinating, talented, ingenious Yorkshire women." In 2019, Wainwright's '' Gentleman Jack'', a drama about the 18th-century Yorkshire landowner, diarist, and open lesbian,

, played by

, and Lister's courtship of Ann Walker, played by

, premiered on both BBC One in the UK and HBO in the US.

Personal life

Wainwright, who lives in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, is married to Ralph "Austin" Sherlaw-Johnson, an antiquarian

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...

dealer, son of the composer, pianist, and music scholar

Robert Sherlaw Johnson Robert Sherlaw Johnson (21 May 1932 – 3 November 2000), was a British composer, pianist and music scholar. Sherlaw Johnson was one of that group of post-war British musicians whose work reflected wider European interests in new ideas, techni ...

. They have two sons and own two

Maine Coon The Maine Coon is a large domesticated cat breed. It is one of the oldest natural breeds in North America. The breed originated in the U.S. state of Maine, where it is the official state cat. The breed was popular in cat shows in the late 19t ...

cats. Wainwright was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the

2020 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours for 2020 are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded ...

for services to writing and television.

Credits

Television

Other

* 1986–1988: ''

'' (Radio show:

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

) − Writer (2 years) * 2000: ''Emily Brontë's Lover'' (Radio show:

) − Writer * ''Hanging On'' (play)

Honours

* 2003: Best Short Drama Banff Festival for ''The Wife of Bath's Tale'' * 2009: RTS Awards, Best Drama Serial for ''Unforgiven'' * 2011: RTS North West Awards, Best Writer for ''Scott & Bailey'' * 2013: Sky

WFTV Awards The Women in Film and Television UK or WFTV Awards are presented in an annual award programme hosted by the Women in Film and Television (UK) to the most talented women in UK film, TV and digital media. Annual ceremony The ceremony previously ...

, Technicolor Writing Award * 2013:

BAFTA TV Craft Awards The British Academy Television Craft Awards is an accolade presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), a charitable organisation established in 1947, which: "supports, promotes and develops the art forms of the moving imag ...

, Best Drama Writer * 2013:

, Best Drama Series for ''Last Tango in Halifax'' * 2014: Broadcast Awards, Best Drama Series for ''Happy Valley'' * 2014: British Screenwriters’ Awards, Best British TV Drama Writing for ''Happy Valley'' * 2014: Crime Thriller Awards, Best TV Series for ''Happy Valley'' * 2014: TV Choice Awards, Best New Drama for ''Happy Valley'' * 2015: Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, Best Drama Writer * 2015: BAFTA TV Craft Awards, Best Drama Writer * 2015: Edgar Allan Poe Awards, Best Television Episode for ''Happy Valley'' (episode 1) * 2015: WGGB Awards, Best Long Form TV Drama for ''Happy Valley'' * 2015: Edinburgh TV Awards, Best Programme of the year for ''Happy Valley'' * 2015: BAFTA Awards, Best Drama Series for ''Happy Valley'' * 2017: RTS Programme Awards, Best Drama Writer for ''Happy Valley'' * 2017: RTS Programme Awards, Judges' Award * 2017: BAFTA Awards, Best Drama Series for ''Happy Valley'' * 2017:

, Best Drama Writer for 'Happy Valley' * 2020: Royal Television Society Awards, Best Drama Series Winner for 'Gentleman Jack' * 2020: Freedom of The Borough of Calderdale * 2020:

(OBE) in the

for services to Writing and Television.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wainwright, Sally Living people English television writers British women television writers English soap opera writers The Archers Alumni of the University of York People from Sowerby Bridge Women soap opera writers 20th-century British women writers BAFTA winners (people) York University alumni Edgar Award winners British television producers English television directors Fellows of the Royal Television Society Officers of the Order of the British Empire WFTV Award winners British women television producers 1963 births 20th-century English screenwriters 21st-century British women writers 21st-century British screenwriters British women television directors