David Kynaston recently released the latest volume of his epic history of post-war Britain. A Northern Wind covers 1962 to 1965, so...

I have a quick question for you. What does Alan Plater have in common with Noel Edmonds? That’s right, they both produced shows that were...

Bedtime Stories was a six-part BBC anthology of contemporary takes on classic fairy-tale stories. Plater’s contribution, ‘Goldilocks and...

When I tell you that ‘A Tale of Two Hamlets’ is the first episode of Midsomer Murders (1997-present) I’ve ever watched all the way...

Les Dawson is one of those comedians that I’ve never really had a particular opinion about. He didn’t make a huge impression on me when...

I was bamboozled when I found out fairly recently that Plater had written an episode of Spender (1991-93), the gritty early 1990s police...

Of the numerous novels that Plater adapted for the screen, only a handful had been recently published and were set in the present day....

In a promotional interview for The Guardian in the run-up to the first episode of the seven-part Tales of Sherwood Forest, Plater sounded...

Now and again I put the words “Alan Plater” into YouTube on the off-chance that someone has uploaded something by him that I’ve yet to...

The first time I watched ‘The Reluctant Juggler’, I was rather impatient to get through it quickly, and may even have – gasp! –...

Speaking in his radio series Abandoned Projects, Plater admitted that, for all his many successes over forty years as a writer, the...

The person who uploaded Curriculee Curricula onto Youtube says in their description that ‘this might be the most painful 50 minutes of...

When I saw that Alan Plater had written a TV play called Night People, I assumed it would be set around a cool jazz club, with lots of...

Although I’m starting to get a handle on Plater’s trajectory as a TV writer, I’ve still got some work to do to fathom his radio career....

The Last Will and Testament of Billy Two-Sheds (2006), with its running time of an hour, was the last of Plater’s single TV dramas...

Alan Plater never finished his university studies. His period in Newcastle in the late 1950s reading architecture was clearly not time...

I’d wager that most people with a familiarity with Z Cars (1962-1978) lore know already why Alan Plater’s second episode for the BBC’s...

Because I’m going be using this blog to promote and enthuse about Plater, I reckon it’s fine to confess when one of his projects isn’t my...

My deep-dive into Alan Plater has so far given me numerous surprises. A few examples: a musical about the Tolpuddle Martyrs written in...

One of the distinctive and pleasing aspects of Plater’s career is his comfort in writing ‘trigger’ material for educational or...