{{Short description|British writer (1922–2003)}} {{EngvarB|date=September 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}} {{Infobox writer | name = Kevin Laffan | birth_name = Kevin Barry Laffan | birth_date = {{Birth date|1922|5|24|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Reading, Berkshire]], England | death_date = {{Death date and age|2003|3|11|1922|5|24|df=y}} | death_place = London, England | occupation = Screenwriter, playwright | notableworks = ''[[Emmerdale]]'' | spouse = {{marriage|Jeanne Thompson|1952}} | children= 3 }}
'''Kevin Barry Laffan''' (24 May 1922 – 11 March 2003) was a British playwright, screenwriter, author, actor and stage director. Laffan is best known for creating the 1972 [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] soap opera ''Emmerdale Farm'', titled ''[[Emmerdale]]'' since 1989.
Raised in a family of fourteen children, Laffan's Catholic upbringing formed the inspiration for many of his plays. Laffan's theatrical career began with a position as a [[Call boy (theatre)|call boy]] at the Theatre Royal in Bilston, and would eventually lead to him founding a [[repertory company]] in Reading. In later life, Laffan also branched out into fiction, publishing his [[debut novel|début novel]], ''Virgins are in Short Supply'', in 2001.
==Early life and theatre career== Laffan was the third of fourteen children of a disabled Irish photographer. The family moved to Walsall while he was a child. When he was twelve, they were sent to the [[workhouse]] and he claimed to have escaped by jumping off the lorry as it drove through the gates. An elderly actress allowed him to sleep in her kitchen and advised him, "If you want to be serious, make them laugh".<ref name=Telegraph>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1425635/Kevin-Laffan.html "Kevin Laffan"], Obituaries, ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 26 March 2003.</ref><ref name=Guardian>Dennis Barker, [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/mar/20/broadcasting.guardianobituaries "Kevin Laffan: The creator of Emmerdale Farm, he disliked its descent into 'sex and sensationalism'"], Obituaries, ''[[The Guardian]]'', 20 March 2003.</ref> At 14 he became a [[Call boy (theatre)|call boy]] at the Theatre Royal in Bilston, and rose to be a stage manager, an actor and a director. In his teens, he also supplemented his acting income by working on a farm for six months, which gave him insight into farming as a way of life when he came to write ''Emmerdale Farm''.<ref name="indep1">Anthony Hayward, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/kevin-laffan-600634.html "Obituary: Kevin Laffan Creator of the long-running ITV soap opera 'Emmerdale Farm'"]{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, Obituaries, ''[[The Independent]]'' ([https://web.archive.org/web/20121112071934/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1745117.html at Highbeam])</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20131103040424/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-98913782.html "TV soap writer dies in London"], ''[[Birmingham Evening Mail]]'', 18 March 2003 (at Highbeam)</ref> In the early 1950s he started his own [[repertory company]] at the Everyman Theatre in Reading; he was its artistic director until 1958.<ref name=Telegraph/><ref name=Hub>[http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb338kl The Kevin Laffan Archive] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121223072739/http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb338kl |date=23 December 2012 }}, Archives Hub, retrieved 11 May 2012.</ref>
==Writing career== Laffan wrote his first plays under the name Kevin Barry. They included ''Ginger Bred'' (1951), ''The Strip-Tease Murder'' (1955, co-written with Neville Brian), ''Winner Takes All'' (1956) and ''First Innocent'' (1957).<ref name="indep1"/> His 1968 play ''Zoo, Zoo, Widdershins Zoo'', about drop-outs, won the first prize for new plays at the 1968 National Union of Students Drama Festival and was produced at Nottingham Playhouse with [[Lynn Redgrave]] in the leading role.<ref name=Telegraph/><ref name=Hub/>
Laffan blamed the [[Roman Catholic Church]]'s ban on artificial birth control for his family's financial problems, saying: "I am a product of my father's belief in God rather than his belief in sex". His play ''It's Two Foot Six Inches Above the Ground World'' portrays an Irish Catholic family's family planning problems.<ref>Philippa Hawke, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-AJVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aJQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2144,1194861&dq=kevin+laffan&hl=en "Where There's a Pill . . ."], ''[[The Age]]'', 3 December 1981.</ref> [[Irving Wardle]] in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' in 1970 called it "comedy that is clearly rooted in pain";<ref>Irving Wardle, [https://archive.today/20120712103933/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/599306622.html?dids=599306622:599306622&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Apr+12,+1970&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=The+Season+in+London:+The+Rift+Grows+Wider&pqatl=google "The Season in London: The Rift Grows Wider"], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', 12 April 1970 (pay per view)</ref> the ''[[New York Times]]'' in 2010 called it "potty-mouthed".<ref name=LoveBan>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071029153756/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/100316/The-Love-Ban/overview "The Love Ban (1973): Alternate title: It's a 2'6" Above the Ground World"], Movies, ''[[The New York Times]]'', 2010, retrieved 10 May 2012.</ref> It carried the warning: "It may not be for those who could find a frank discussion of sexual and religious matters not to their taste."<ref name=Telegraph/> It was a West End hit and was made into a film in 1973 as ''It's a Two-Foot-Six-Inch-Above-the-Ground World'', later retitled ''[[The Love Ban]]''.<ref name="indep1" /><ref name=Hub/><ref name=LoveBan/><ref name=Scotsman/> His 1994 play ''The Missionary and Other Positions'' is about sex.<ref name=Telegraph/> Other later plays include ''Never So Good'' (1976), in which a bomb-wielding terrorist visits a group of black squatters, and ''Adam Redundant'' (1989), which reverses the roles in the [[Garden of Eden]] by making [[Satan]] the hero.<ref name=Telegraph/>
Laffan also became known as a television writer in the 1960s. ''Bud'' (1963) was a six-episode serial starring the music-hall comedian [[Bud Flanagan]]; ''[[Castle Haven (TV series)|Castle Haven]]'' (1969) was a serial for ITV about the residents of two converted Victorian houses in a seaside town in Yorkshire, featuring [[Roy Barraclough]], [[Kathy Staff]] and [[Jill Summers]].<ref name=Telegraph/><ref name="indep1"/> In 1984 he co-wrote with [[Peter Jones (actor)|Peter Jones]] ''I Thought You'd Gone'', a sitcom about parents who wrongly believe their children have left the nest.<ref name=Telegraph/><ref name="indep1"/> He wrote episodes of several serials, and also television plays, including ''Decision to Burn'' (1971, starring [[Anthony Hopkins]]) and ''The Best Pair of Legs in the Business'' (1968, with [[Reg Varney]] as a holiday camp drag queen), which was remade as [[The Best Pair of Legs in the Business|a feature film with the same title]] in 1972.<ref name=Telegraph/><ref name="indep1"/><ref name=Hub/>
''Emmerdale Farm'' came about after Laffan was asked to write a lunchtime "farm serial" for ITV after government restrictions on broadcasting hours were relaxed. On his agent's advice, he at first refused, fearing that writing a soap opera would damage his reputation as a playwright, but then wrote the requested three months' worth of episodes "as a 26-episode play [leaving] the end open so that it could continue."<ref name="indep1"/><ref name=Hub/> He eventually wrote 262 episodes of the serial, which was first broadcast in October 1972, but stopped in 1985 after twelve years because producers wanted "sex, sin and sensationalism" rather than the realism he had intended;<ref name=Telegraph/><ref name=Guardian/> however, he remained as a consultant and met [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]] on the set on the programme's 30th anniversary.<ref name=Guardian/> <!--Cannot find any support for this: The soap was named for a town in Yorkshire called Ammerdale. Laffan, however, was not allowed to name the programme directly after a real place, so subtly altered the name. -->
Laffan's other big television success was ''[[Beryl's Lot]]'', a British sitcom inspired by the real-life story of former maid [[Margaret Powell]].<ref name="indep1"/><ref name=Hub/><ref name=Scotsman>Alasdair Steven, [https://web.archive.org/web/20131103040405/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-13014185.html "Obituary Kevin Laffan"], ''[[The Scotsman]]'', 21 March 2003 (at Highbeam)</ref>
In 2001 his first novel, ''Virgins are in Short Supply'', was published; he had initially titled it ''Pendle's Disposal'' and been unable to find a publisher, but received two offers within a week of changing the title.<ref name=Telegraph/>
==Personal life and death== Laffan married Jeanne Thompson in 1952; they had three sons, and lived in [[Wimbledon, London|Wimbledon]].<ref name=Telegraph/><ref name="indep1" /><ref name=Scotsman/><ref name=Herald>[https://archive.today/20130131205533/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/smgpubs/access/311818741.html?dids=311818741:311818741&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar+21,+2003&author=&pub=The+Herald&desc=Kevin+Laffan&pqatl=google "Kevin Laffan"], ''[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]]'' (Glasgow), 21 March 2003 (pay per view) ([https://web.archive.org/web/20131103040418/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23526412.html at Highbeam])</ref><ref name=Dramatists>''Contemporary Dramatists'', ed. K. A. Berney, 5th ed., Contemporary writers of the English language, London / Washington, DC / Detroit: St. James, 1993, {{ISBN|9781558621855}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rkkOAQAAMAAJ&q=Ammerdale+Kevin+Laffan p. 370].</ref> He died of [[pneumonia]] two weeks after undergoing [[heart surgery]].<ref name="indep1"/><ref name=Herald/> His archives are at the [[University of Leicester]].<ref name=Hub/>
==Awards== * 1959: ATV Television Award for ''Cut in Ebony''<ref name=Hub/><ref name=Dramatists/> * 1969: Irish Life Award<ref name=Dramatists/> * 1968: National Union of Students Award<ref name=Telegraph/><ref name=Hub/> * 1970: ''Sunday Times'' Award<ref name=Dramatists/>
==References== {{Reflist|colwidth=33em}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|0480782}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laffan, Kevin}} [[Category:1922 births]] [[Category:2003 deaths]] [[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in England]] [[Category:English people of Irish descent]] [[Category:English television writers]] [[Category:English soap opera writers]] [[Category:Writers from London]] [[Category:Writers from Reading, Berkshire]] [[Category:People from Wednesbury]] [[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:20th-century English dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:20th-century English male writers]] [[Category:British male television writers]] [[Category:20th-century British screenwriters]] [[Category:Male actors from Staffordshire]] [[Category:Actors from Sandwell]] [[Category:People from Wimbledon, London]] [[Category:Actors from the London Borough of Merton]]