Alan Charles Langley Hackney (born 10 September 1924,

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 ...

– d. 15 May 2009, Hertfordshire) was an English novelist and screenwriter.

Biography

He was educated at

Thornleigh Salesian College Thornleigh Salesian College is a Roman Catholic secondary school in the Astley Bridge area of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. History Thornleigh College was originally a boys school founded in 1925 by the Salesians of Don Bosco at the ...

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ...

, and later, while at

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

, was called up to the army. Hackney was posted to

Maidstone Barracks Invicta Park Barracks is a military installation in Maidstone, Kent. History Maidstone Barracks Permanent barracks were first established in Maidstone as part of the British response to the threat of the French Revolution in 1797. Maidstone Barr ...

for one year where he met his first wife and was later posted to India. After demobilisation he proceeded to New College, Oxford, where he read Politics, Philosophy and Economics under the tutelage of Isaiah Berlin. He is best known for two of his novels, ''Private's Progress'' and ''Private Life'', both of which were adapted into

Boulting brothers John Edward Boulting (21 December 1913 – 17 June 1985) and Roy Alfred Clarence Boulting (21 December 1913 – 5 November 2001), known collectively as the Boulting brothers, were English filmmakers and identical twins who became known for thei ...

films: the former as ''

Private's Progress ''Private's Progress'' is a 1956 British comedy film based on the novel by Alan Hackney. It was directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting, from a script by John Boulting and Frank Harvey. Plot During the Second World War, young undergrad ...

'' (1956); and the latter as ''

I'm All Right Jack ''I'm All Right Jack'' is a 1959 British comedy film directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting from a script by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney based on the 1958 novel ''Private Life'' by Alan Hackney. The film is a sequel t ...

'' (1959). Hackney also co-wrote the script of ''

'', which was a satire of trade unions. He was also a frequent contributor to ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

''. In the 1960s the British film industry went into decline, and Hackney's career was never to hit such heights again. A further two children meant that he had to travel to write and he had spells in Canada, Italy (with the

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

TV series '' K 2 +1'', directed by

Luciano Emmer Luciano Emmer (19 January 1918 – 16 September 2009) was an Italian film director. He was born in Milan, but most of his childhood lived in Venice. He started as filmmaker at filming Giotto's frescoes in Padua in 1938. Screenwriter Serg ...

, starring the

Kessler Sisters Alice and Ellen Kessler (born 20 August 1936 in Nerchau, Saxony, Germany) are twin entertainers known in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, from the 1950s and 1960s for their singing, dancing, and acting. They are usually credited as the Kess ...

and

Johnny Dorelli Johnny Dorelli (real name Giorgio Guidi; born 20 February 1937) is an Italian actor, singer and television host. Early life Dorelli was born in Meda, Italy. In 1946 he moved to New York City with his family, where his father, Nino D'Aurelio ...

), and Hollywood as well as working for British television and continuing to contribute to ''Punch''. In later years he worked with the composer Howard Blake on a musical version of ''

''. His best-remembered films are ''

Two-Way Stretch ''Two-Way Stretch'', is a 1960 British comedy film, about a group of prisoners who plan to break out of jail, commit a robbery, and then break back into jail again, thus giving them the perfect alibi – that they were behind bars when the ro ...

'' (1960), starring

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...

, and '' You Must Be Joking'' (1965), directed by

Michael Winner Robert Michael Winner (30 October 1935 – 21 January 2013) was a British filmmaker, writer, and media personality. He is known for directing numerous action, thriller, and black comedy films in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including several c ...

Private life

His success writing for the television series ''

The Adventures of Robin Hood ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' is a 1938 American Technicolor swashbuckler film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, and stars Errol Flynn, Olivia d ...

'' and the 1960 film '' Sword of Sherwood Forest'' enabled him to buy an Edwardian house in

Bovingdon Bovingdon is a village in Hertfordshire, England, southwest of Hemel Hempstead, and it is a civil parish within the local authority area of Dacorum. It forms the largest part of the ward of Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield, which had a ...

, Hertfordshire where he spent the rest of his life, first with his wife, Peggy until her she died in 1995 and then later with the Canadian film producer Daisy de Bellefeuille, whom he nursed through a long illness until her death in 2006.

Awards

Hackney shared a BAFTA for Best Screenplay of 1959 for "I'm All Right Jack".

Death

Alan Hackney died on 15 May 2009, aged 85.Telegraph (newspaper) 19 May 2009 He was survived by his six children.

Novels

*''Private's Progress'' (1954). film_of_that_name..html" ;"title="Private's_Progress.html" ;"title="ater made into the 1956 Private's Progress">film of that name.">Private's_Progress.html" ;"title="ater made into the 1956 Private's Progress">film of that name.*''All You Young Ladies'' (1956). *''Private Life'' (1958). [Later made into the 1959 film ''

''.] *''Let's Keep Religion Out of This!'' (1963). [Simultaneously made into the 1963 film ''Heavens Above!''.] *''Whatever Turns You On, Jack'' (1972).

References

External links

Obituary in ''The Daily Telegraph''
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hackney, Alan 1924 births 2009 deaths British male screenwriters Writers from Manchester People from Bovingdon Alumni of New College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Manchester British male novelists 20th-century British novelists 20th-century English male writers 20th-century British screenwriters Best British Screenplay BAFTA Award winners