{{short description|American-born British television writer and dramatist}} {{Infobox writer | image = | image_size = | name = Donna Franceschild | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1953|11|22}} | birth_place = Illinois | occupation = Writer | period = | genre = Drama | education = University of California, Los Angeles | debut_works = | awards = '''BAFTA Best Drama Serial''' 1994<br>''Takin' Over the Asylum'' <br>'''Mental Health Media Award''' 1995<br>''Takin' Over the Asylum'' <br>'''Mental Health Media Award''' 2001 <br>''Donovan Quick'' }} '''Donna Franceschild''' (born November 22, 1953, in Illinois) is a British-based television writer and dramatist, originally from the US. She has written various plays and television shows, but her best-known work is the BBC series ''Takin' Over the Asylum''.
==Career==
She came to public attention as the writer of ''Takin' Over the Asylum,'' a six-part series about a hospital radio station in a psychiatric hospital. It was first broadcast in 1994 and starred Ken Stott and David Tennant. As well as the 1994 BAFTA for Best Drama Serial, the series won the 1995 Mental Health Media Award. Franceschild won a second MHM award in 2001 for the film ''Donovan Quick''.<ref name="mhm">[http://www.mhmawards.org/speaker_judges.html Mental Health Media Awards 2006 | Keynote Speaker & Judges<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061224010152/http://www.mhmawards.org/speaker_judges.html |date=December 24, 2006 }}</ref>
She wrote the four-part series ''A Mug's Game'' (1996) and adapted Robert McLiam Wilson's novel ''Eureka Street'' for the BBC (Northern Ireland), which was first broadcast in September 1999.
By the 2000s, political drama was seen as anachronistic.<ref name="thekey">{{cite web |url=http://socialistworker.org.uk/art.php?id=2761 |title=Interview with Donna Franceschild, writer of TV's The Key |date=2003-09-13 |work=Socialist Worker |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080813101656/http://www.socialistworker.org.uk/art.php?id=2761 |archivedate=2008-08-13 }}</ref> However, she "swam against the tide",<ref name="thekey"/> as she describes, by writing and producing a three-part drama ''The Key'', about three generations of working class women in Glasgow. She said "We live in cynical times and it's easy to become jaded by the machinations of power and politics. I wrote ''The Key'' to try and remind us that, though we are shaped by our history, sometimes the reverse is also true."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2002/09_september/25/the_key.shtml |work=BBC - Press Office |title=The Key}}</ref>
She has continuously supported the cause of raising awareness and understanding of mental health issues, and has served on the jury of the Mental Health Media awards since 1996. Her 2008 play, ''Lost in Plain Sight'', charted one young man’s recovery from a suicide attempt. In 2010, Franceschild adapted Steinbeck's ''Of Mice and Men'' for radio, starring David Tennant and Liam Brennan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8245610.stm|title=Tennant lined up for radio role|work=BBC News|date=9 September 2009|accessdate=19 December 2011}}</ref> Among recent projects are two new plays for Radio Four and a commission to write a single television drama for Channel Four.<ref>[http://grapevineproject.org/patrondf.aspx Grapevine Project - Patrons] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218003956/http://grapevineproject.org/patrondf.aspx |date=February 18, 2009 }}</ref>
She is Creative Writing Fellow, Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde.<ref>[http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/mfwhoswho/individuals/F_mfwwi/donna_franceschild.html Frost's Scottish Who's Who] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110619125527/http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/mfwhoswho/individuals/F_mfwwi/donna_franceschild.html |date=June 19, 2011 }}</ref>
==Credits==
===TV and film=== TV credits include: ''The Key, Eureka Street, A Mug's Game, Takin' Over the Asylum, And the Cow Jumped Over the Moon, Bobbin' and Weavin', The Necklace''
Film credit: ''Donovan Quick''
===Radio=== *''Quartet'', BBC Radio 4, 13 November 2008<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fbkp9 BBC – Afternoon Play – ''Quartet'']</ref> *''The Lottery Ticket'', BBC Radio 4, 18 February 2009<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ftd09 BBC – Afternoon Play – ''The Lottery Ticket'']</ref> *''The Ca'd'oro Cafe'', BBC Radio 4, 26 January 2010<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00q3g3x BBC – Afternoon Play – ''The Ca'd'oro Cafe'']</ref> *''Of Mice and Men'' (dramatisation), BBC Radio 4, 7 March 2010<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r33y7 BBC – Classic Serial – ''Of Mice and Men'']</ref> *''Down and Out in Auchangaish'', BBC Radio 4, 19 December 2011<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018b6yl BBC – Afternoon Play – ''Down and Out in Auchangaish'']</ref>
===Theatre=== Theatre credits include: ''And the Cow Jumped Over the Moon'' (1990), ''The Sunshine Cafe'' (1989), ''Rebel!'' (1986), ''Songs for Stray Cats and Other Living Creatures'' (1985), ''Tap Dance on a Telephone Line'' (1981), ''Mutiny on the Ml'', ''Diaries'', ''The Soap Opera'' (1979), ''The Cleaning Lady''.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|0289910}} *[http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsF/franceschild-donna.html Profile on The Playwrights Database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080718152223/http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsF/franceschild-donna.html |date=2008-07-18 }} *[http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/interviews/donna-franceschild.shtml 2008 interview for BBC Ouch] *[http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/donna-franceschild.html Notes on BBC radio drama]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Franceschild, Donna}} Category:1953 births Category:British television writers Category:Living people Category:British women television writers