{{Short description|British script writer}} {{About|the British script writer|the Tlingit Canadian schoolteacher and interpreter|Constance Cox (interpreter)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Use British English|date=August 2012}} {{Infobox person | name = Constance Cox | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1912|10|25}} | birth_place = Sutton, Surrey, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1998|07|08|1912|10|25}} | death_place = | occupation = Scriptwriter, playwright | known_for = }}
'''Constance Cox''' (25 October 1912 – 8 July 1998) was a British script writer and playwright, born in Sutton, Surrey.<ref name=Ind>{{cite news|work=The Independent|title=Obituary: Constance Cox|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-constance-cox-1170945.html|accessdate=2 October 2018}}</ref>
==Life and career== Cox was born Constance Shaw in Sutton, Surrey, in 1912. She married Norman Cox, a fighter pilot, who was killed in 1942. She had been a postmistress in Shoreham-by-sea, and moved to Brighton where she took up writing full-time after the end of the war.<ref name=Ind />
Cox specialised in adaptations of books by Charles Dickens and other classic literature. Her 1962 adaptation of Charles Dickens' ''Oliver Twist'' led to viewer complaints over the murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes and questions asked in Parliament about the suitability of such content for family audiences.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1420996/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Dickens on Television|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref>
In 1957 she adapted the J.B. Priestley novel ''Angel Pavement'' into a BBC series of the same title. She also was a prolific playwright. She was a member of the Brighton Little Theatre from the early 1950s and directed her own and others' work there for many years.<ref name=Ind />
==Selected works and adaptations== * ''The Romance of David Garrick'' (1942) * ''Vanity Fair'' (1946) * ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'': A Play in Two Acts Adapted from Oscar Wilde's Novel (1948) (The Fortune Press) * ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' (1950) (The Fortune Press) * ''Northanger Abbey'' : a comedy in three acts, based upon Jane Austen's novel (1950) (The Fortune Press) * ''Spring at Marino'': A comedy in three acts; suggested by Turgenev's ''Fathers and son'' (1951) (Samuel French Ltd) * ''Lord Arthur Savile's Crime'' (1952) * ''Three Knaves of Normandy'': Play (1958) (Evans Bros.) <!-- ISBN removed 023749284 Unable to find replacement, this one is invalid. --> * ''Jane Eyre'': Play (1959) based on the novel by Charlotte Brontë (J Garnet Miller Ltd) {{ISBN|0-85343-110-8}} * ''Bleak House'': BBC television adaptation (1959) * ''Caliph's Minstrel'': Play (1961) (Evans Bros.) {{ISBN|0-237-49282-2}} * ''Oliver Twist'': BBC television adaptation (1962) * ''Lord Arthur Savile's Crime'': A comedy in three acts (Acting Edition S.) (1963) (from Oscar Wilde's short story) (Samuel French Ltd) {{ISBN|0-573-01245-8}} * ''Miniature Beggar's Opera'': Play (1964) (Evans Bros) {{ISBN|0-237-49283-0}} * ''Everyman'': A new version of the morality play (Acting Edition S.) (1967) (Samuel French Ltd) {{ISBN|0-573-06248-X}} * ''Christmas Carol'' (1968) (Evans Bros.) {{ISBN|0-237-49495-7}} * ''Maria Marten or Murder in the Red Barn: A Melodrama'' (1969) (Samuel French Ltd) {{ISBN|0-573-02325-5}} * ''Miss Letitia'' (Acting Edition S.) (1970) (Samuel French Ltd) {{ISBN|0-573-01275-X}} * ''Maria Marten'' (Acting Edition S.) (1970) (Samuel French Ltd) {{ISBN|0-573-02325-5}} * ''Pride and Prejudice'': Play (1972) (J Garnet Miller Ltd) {{ISBN|0-85343-528-6}} * ''Murder Game'' (Acting Edition S.) (1976) (Samuel French Ltd) {{ISBN|0-573-01222-9}} * ''Lady Audley's Secret (Acting Edition S.)'' (1976) (Samuel French Ltd) {{ISBN|0-573-02345-X}} * ''Vampire, or the Bride of Death'' (1978) (Samuel French Ltd) {{ISBN|0-573-12293-8}} * ''What Brutes Men Are: A Comedy'' (1980) (Samuel French Ltd) {{ISBN|((0-573-13337-8))}} * ''Micah Clarke'' (1985) * ''A Time for Loving'' (Acting Edition S.) (1986) (Samuel French Ltd) {{ISBN|0-573-11417-X}} * ''Because of the Lockwoods'': Play (Acting Edition S.) Constance Cox and Dorothy Whipple (1991) (Samuel French Ltd) {{ISBN|0-573-01722-0}} * ''Return of the Church to an East Anglian Parish'' (1996) (Honeyhill Studio) {{ISBN|0-9529942-0-8}} * ''Wuthering Heights'' (1997) (New Theatre Publications) {{ISBN|1-84094-002-6}} * ''Mansfield Park'' Jane Austen and Constance Cox (1997) (Hub Publications) {{ISBN|0-905049-15-2}} * ''The Woman in White'': Play (French's Acting Editions S.) (2005) (Samuel French Ltd) {{ISBN|0-573-11578-8}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20050831235103/http://web.ukonline.co.uk/m.gratton/Names/Constance.htm Her Name is Constance] *{{IMDb name|1522821}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Constance}} Category:1912 births Category:1998 deaths Category:20th-century British dramatists and playwrights Category:British women screenwriters Category:British women television writers
{{UK-playwright-stub}}