Bill Morrison - born Ballymoney, Northern Ireland on 22 January 1940. Educated Queens University, 1958-62,
Honours Degree in Law.
He has worked as an actor, BBC radio drama producer, and theatre director.
During the 1960s he was a professional actor in Belfast, Dublin and London. Roles included Nick in the Irish première of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf with T.P. McKenna and he appeared in the film Sinful Davey directed by John Huston.
He established himself as a professional theatrical playwright in the 1960s with plays at the Dublin Theatre Festival and in Brighton, London and Manchester. He was Resident Playwright for Peter Cheeseman at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent from 1969.
The 1970s saw his work being produced in America and his play Sam Slade is Missing was published in Best Short Plays of 1973 in the USA. It was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 1974. More radio work followed and he became BBC Radio Drama Producer, Belfast, 1975-76. His adaptations of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels (1977-78) were well received and his "McKinley and Sarah" and "Joggers" were produced on BBC television.
He was Resident Writer at the Liverpool Everyman, 1977-79 and Drama Producer, Radio City, Liverpool, 1979-80. Bill Morrison was among the original founders of the Theatre Writers Union and its first Chair.
His play "Flying Blind", Everyman, 1977, Royal Court, London, 1978, Harold Clurman, New York, 1979, was published by Faber & Faber in 1978, translated into six languages and produced in 10 countries. It was nominated for an Evening Standard Award Best Play and Best Comedy.
He had a long association with the Liverpool Everyman and became Artistic Director, 1983-85 and then Board member until 1991 and was a member of the so called "Gang of Four" – Alan Bleasdale, Chris Bond, Bill Morrison and Willy Russell – in a brief but dazzlingly creative period.
Radio Plays[]
- The Great Gun-Running Episode (BBC Radio 4 1972)
- The Love of Lady Margaret (BBC Radio 3 1973)
- Sam Slade is Missing (BBC Radio 4 - 25/10/71)
- Ellen Cassidy (BBC Radio 3 in 1974)
- Crime and Punishment (1975) (adaptation BBC Radio 3 1975)
- Crow's Flight (adapted from Dimitri Kehaidis's play), 1975
- Simpson and Son (BBC Radio 3 1977)
- The Big Sleep (1977) - 26.09.1977
- The High Window (1977) - 17.10.1977
- The Lady in the Lake (1977) - 07.11.1977
- The Little Sister (1977) - 05.12.1977
- The Long Goodbye (1978) - 16.01.1978
- The Naval Treaty (1978 adaptation)
- Maguire (BBC Radio 4 1979)
- The Emperor of Ice-Cream (BBC Radio 4 1977)
- The Spring of Memory (dramatic feature for BBC Radio 3 1981)
- Farewell my Lovely (1988) - 23.09.1988
- Blues in A Flat (BBC Radio 4 1989)
- Affair (BBC World Service 1991)
- Three Steps to Heaven (1992)
- Waiting for Lefty (BBC World Service 1994)
- Murder at The Cameo (BBC World Service 1996)
- Save The Last Dance For Me (1999)
- Witness For The Prosecution (BBC Radio 4 2002)
- The Hound Of Death (BBC Radio 4 2002)
Critical Reception[]
References[]
- International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2004 - Europa Publications - ISBN-13: 978-1857431797