Carla Lane

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Romana Barrack Template:Post-nominalsTemplate:Efn (5 August 1928 – 31 May 2016), better known as Carla Lane, was an English screenwriter who became known for creating or co-creating successful British sitcoms such as The Liver Birds (1969–1979), Butterflies (1978–1983), and Bread (1986–1991).

Described as "the television writer who dared to make women funny", much of Lane's work focused on strong female characters, including "frustrated housewives and working class matriarchs". In later years, she became well known as an animal welfare advocate.

Early life

Lane was born Romana Barrack<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> in the West Derby area of Liverpool on 5 August 1928,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the daughter of Ivy Amelia (née Foran) and Gordon De Vince Barrack.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Her father, who was of Italian and Welsh descent, was a steward in the Merchant Navy.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She had a younger brother named Ramon and a sister named Marna.<ref name=":0" /> She grew up in West Derby and Heswall, Cheshire.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She attended a convent school, where she won a school poetry prize at the age of seven.<ref name=Someday>Template:Cite book</ref> She left school at the age of 14 and worked in nursing.<ref name="Telegraph" /> She also worked in a baby linen shop and later took a job at Bonmarché before working at a factory in Prescot, Lancashire.<ref name=":0" />

Career

In the 1960s, Lane wrote various short stories and radio screenplays.<ref name=BFIbio>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Her first successes came in collaboration with Myra Taylor, whom she had met at a writers' workshop in Liverpool,<ref name=BFIbio /> and they would often meet at the Adelphi Hotel in the city centre to write together. She began using the stage name "Carla Lane" because of her modesty about revealing that she was a writer.<ref name=ellen>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Lane and Taylor submitted some comedy sketch scripts to the BBC, where they were seen by head of comedy Michael Mills. He encouraged them to write a half-hour script, which was broadcast as a pilot episode of The Liver Birds in April 1969. A short first series followed to little acclaim, leading Mills to abandon plans for a second series, though he changed his mind when he read Lane and Taylor's new scripts. The series soon became one of the most popular of its time, characterised by Lane's "ability to conjure laughs out of pathos and life's little tragedies". Mills left his position as the BBC's head of comedy in 1972, leaving Lane to take sole responsibility for writing the show's scripts the following year.<ref name=Telegraph/>

Lane's successful screenwriting career continued through the 1970s and 1980s, in particular with the 1978–1983 sitcom Butterflies and the 1986–1991 sitcom Bread. In Butterflies, described as "undoubtedly her finest work", Lane addressed the lead character's desires for freedom from her "decent but dull" husband.<ref name="Telegraph2">Template:Cite news</ref> Butterflies star Wendy Craig said of Lane, "Her greatest gift was that she understood women and wrote the truth about them ... she spoke about what others didn't. In the case of [my character], it was all about what was going on inside herTemplate:Emdashand many other women at the time."<ref name=stanford>Template:Cite news</ref>

With Bread, which ran for seven series, Lane was said to have become "the first woman to mine television comedy from sexual and personal relationships through a galère of expertly-etched contemporary characters, developed against a backdrop of social issues such as divorce, adultery, and alcoholism".<ref name="BBC2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the late 1980s, Bread had the third-highest viewing figures on British television, beaten only by EastEnders and Neighbours.<ref name=Telegraph/> However, it was criticised by some in Liverpool for perpetuating stereotypes of people in the city,<ref>Bronwyn Jones, "Carla Lane's sitcom Bread and its legacy in Liverpool", BBC News, 3 June 2016. Retrieved 3 June 2016</ref> an opinion Lane rejected.<ref name=stanford/>

Personal life

File:Broadhurst Manor.jpg

Broadhurst Manor in Horsted Keynes, Lane's home for many years

Lane married Eric Arthur Hollins on 27 March 1948,<ref name=":0" /> and they had two sons together before divorcing in 1981.<ref name=":0" /> She later claimed in her 2006 autobiography Someday I'll Find Me that she was 17 years old when she married Hollins,<ref name=Someday /> despite official records showing that she was 19.<ref name=":0" /> She lived for many years in Broadhurst Manor, her mansion in Horsted Keynes.<ref name=ellen/>

Lane became a vegetarian and began dedicating much of her time to the care and welfare of animals in 1965.<ref name="Telegraph"/> She established the Animal Line trust with her friends, English actress Rita Tushingham and American photographer Linda McCartney, in 1990.<ref name="Telegraph"/> The following year, she purchased St. Tudwal's Island East in order to protect its wildlife.<ref name=Telegraph/> She converted the grounds of her mansion into a 25-acre animal sanctuary in 1993,<ref name=ellen/> and operated the sanctuary for 15 years before closing it due to financial constraints.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Lane received an OBE for services to writing in 1989, but returned it to Prime Minister Tony Blair in protest against animal cruelty in 2002.<ref name="BBC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She moved back to her native Liverpool in 2009.<ref name=stanford/> In 2013, an animal sanctuary was opened in nearby Melling and named after her.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Death

On 31 May 2016, at the age of 87, Lane died at Stapley Nursing Home in the Mossley Hill suburb of Liverpool.<ref name = BBC/><ref name="Telegraph">Template:Cite news</ref>

Credits

• 1969–1979, 1996: The Liver Birds (with Myra Taylor and others)<ref name=guardobit>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 1971–1976: Bless This House (with Myra Taylor and others)<ref name=guardobit/>
• 1974: No Strings<ref name=Telegraph/>
• 1975: Going, Going, Gone ... Free?<ref name=BFIbio/>
• 1977: Three Piece Suite<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 1978–1983, 2000: Butterflies<ref name=guardobit/>
• 1981–1983: The Last Song<ref name=BFIbio/>
• 1981–1982: Solo<ref name=guardobit/>
• 1984–1985: Leaving<ref name=BFIbio/>
• 1985–1987: The Mistress<ref name=Telegraph/>
• 1985–1986: I Woke Up One Morning<ref name=Telegraph/>
• 1986–1991: Bread<ref name=guardobit/>
• 1992: Screaming<ref name=Telegraph/>
• 1993–1994: Luv<ref name=Telegraph/>
• 1995: Searching<ref name=Telegraph/>

See also

• List of animal rights advocates

External links

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