Colin Free

{{Short description|Australian writer (1925–1996)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{infobox person | name= Colin Free | birth_place= Sydney, Australia | birth_date= 1 September 1925 | death_place= Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | death_date= 26 May 1996 | occupation = {{hlist|Screenwriter|playwright|radio writer|novelist|[[short story|short-story writer]]}}

}} '''Colin Lewis Free''' (1 September 1925–26 May 1996) also wrote under pen name '''Colin Lewis''', was an award-winning Australian screenwriter and dramatist, best known for his work on television, but also wrote for radio and theatre, as well as wrote short stories and novels.

==Biography== Colin Free was born on 1 September 1925 in [[Sydney|Sydney, Australia]] and died on 26 May 1996 in [[Goulburn, New South Wales|Goulburn]], Australia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A21757|title=Colin Free: (author/organisation) {{!}} AustLit: Discover Australian Stories|last=Austlit|website=www.austlit.edu.au|language=en|access-date=2017-10-10}}</ref>

At the start of his career, Free wrote for the theatre, notably ''Hamlet in Shadow'', which was performed in Sydney in 1954 with a cast featuring [[Moya O'Sullivan]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18422174|title=Hamlet Story Re-told In New Play|date=1954-04-24|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954)|access-date=2017-10-10|pages=17}}</ref>

By the mid-1960s, he concentrated on writing teleplays for the [[BBC]] and the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://johntranter.com/abc/connolly-ach1983-a5.pdf|title=ABC Radio: Culture and the Spoken Word|last=Connolly|first=Richard|date=2011|website=johntranter.com|access-date=10 October 2017}}</ref> as well as for radio.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.atvtoday.co.uk/65046-bellbird/|title=Classic soap Flashback: Bellbird|date=2015-01-31|work=ATV Today|access-date=2017-10-10|language=en-US}}</ref> He was most frequently associated with ABC-TV where he developed the original treatment for the popular soap opera ''[[Bellbird (TV series)|Bellbird]]'', created the adventure series ''[[Delta (Australian TV series)|Delta]],'' and served as script editor on the historical miniseries '' [[Rush (1974 TV series)|Rush]]'' and'' [[Ben Hall (TV series)|Ben Hall]]''.

==Assessment== Leslie Rees called him: <blockquote>An author of remarkable facility and flexibility of mind" who in his stage plays "showed a rich gift for words in dramatic and lyrical contiguity, a derisive sense of characterization, a volatile and inventive calling-up of scene both past and present, and what Alexander Archdale described as “‘Pirandellian ingenuity”—all this without quite being able to draw his reins together and spin the horse past the winning-post, meanwhile murmuring in its ear something really striking. Similar qualities of flair, energy, but inadequate clearness of line marked some of Free’s ever-ranging, elusive contributions to a further A.B.C. series, ''Delta'', illustrating the investigations of a young group of itinerant scientists into dubious practices around the countryside. But in the short bucolic comedy, ''A Walk Among the Wheenies'', he was entirely successful.<ref>{{cite book|page=384-385|url=https://archive.org/details/australiandrama10000rees/page/385/mode/1up?q=derisive|title= Australian drama, 1970–1985 : a historical and critical survey|last=Rees|first= Leslie|year=1987 |publisher=Angus & Robertson Publishers | isbn=9780207153549 }}</ref></blockquote>

== Selected awards == * [[Australian Writers' Guild|Australian Writer's Guild]] ([[AWGIE Awards|AWGIE]]), 1977 - Best TV series episode, ''[[Rush (1970s TV series)|Rush]]'' (Television) – "A Shilling a Day" * [[Logie Awards|Logie Award]] 1977 – Best script – ''[[Rush (1970s TV series)|Rush]]'' (Television) * [[Sammy Awards|Sammy Award]] 1977 – Best writer for a television series, ''[[Rush (1970s TV series)|Rush]]'' (Television) * [[Logie Awards|Logie Award]] 1979 – Bit part (Television Drama) * [[Logie Awards|Logie Award]] – 1984, 1985, 1986 – ''[[A Country Practice]]'' (Television)

==Selected credits== *''[[How Do You Spell Matrimony?]]'' (1965) *''[[Contrabandits]]'' (1967–68) *''[[Delta (Australian TV series)|Delta]]'' (1969) * ''[[The Thursday Creek Mob]]'' (1971) *''[[The End Product]]'' (1974) *''[[Ben Hall (TV series)]] (1975)'' * ''[[Rush (1974 TV series)|Rush]]'' (1977) *''[[The Rock Pool (film)|The Rock Pool]]'' (1979) *''[[Timelapse (TV series)|Timelapse]]'' (1980) *''[[All the Rivers Run]]'' (1983) * ''A Walk Among the Wheenies''

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb name|1420174}} *[http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A21757 Colin Free] at [[Austlit]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Free, Colin}} [[Category:1925 births]] [[Category:1996 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Australian writers]] [[Category:Logie Award winners]]