Michael John Abbensetts was a Guyana-born British writer who settled in England in the 1960s. He had been described as "the best Black playwright to emerge from his generation, and as having given "Caribbeans a real voice in Britain". He was the first black British playwright commissioned to write a television drama series — Empire Road, which the BBC aired from 1978 to 1979.
Abbensetts began his writing career with short stories, but decided to turn to playwriting after seeing a performance of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger. Abbensetts was further inspired when he went to England and visited the Royal Court Theatre, Britain's premier theatre of new writing, where he was soon to become resident dramatist. Sweet Talk, Abbensetts' first play, was performed there in 1973, with a cast including Mona Hammond and Don Warrington, directed by Stephen Frears. In the same year, The Museum Attendant, his first television play, was broadcast on BBC2. Directed by Stephen Frears, the drama was, Abbensetts said, based on his own early experiences as a security guard at the Tower of London. Black Christmas, also directed by Frears, was broadcast by BBC Television in 1977 and featured Carmen Munroe and Norman Beaton. It has been called by Stephen Bourne "one of the best television dramas of the 1970s". During the 1970s and 1980s, a number of Abbensetts' plays were produced for the London theatre, including in the West End. Alterations appeared in 1978, followed by Samba, In The Mood, Outlaw, Eldorado and The Lion. Inner City Blues, Crime and Passion, Roadrunner and Fallen Angel were produced on television. Abbensetts' success led to his participation in what came to be considered British television's first Black soap opera, Empire Road, for which he wrote two series. He has said: "I never really liked it being called a Soap. It was The Daily Mail that called it that. I always thought of it as a drama series, where each episode had a separate story." The second series was directed by Horace Ové, "establishing a production unit with a Black director, Black writer and Black actors." The cast featured Norman Beaton, Corinne Skinner-Carter, Joseph Marcell, Rudolph Walker and Wayne Laryea. Abbensetts' television work continued with Easy Money and Big George Is Dead starring Norman Beaton, Linzi Drew and Ram John Holder, and the mini-series Little Napoleons. Little Napoleons is a four-part comic-drama depicting the rivalry between two solicitors, played by Saeed Jaffrey and Norman Beaton, who become Labour councillors.
With Abbensetts' health declining in his latter years as a result of Alzheimer's disease, a tribute was organised for his benefit by Anton Phillips on Sunday, 9 December 2012: a rehearsed reading of Sweet Talk, directed by Phillips and attended by Abbensetts himself, was held at the Tricycle Theatre, with many well known figures in Black theatre and arts in the audience, including Yvonne Brewster, Don Warrington, Rudolph Walker, Oscar James, Allister Bain, and Errol Lloyd. Abbensetts died aged 78 on 24 November 2016, survived by his daughter, Justine, from his relationship with Anne Stewart, and by two grandchildren, Sean and Danielle, as well as a sister Elizabeth. His first wife Connie, a lawyer, had died of cancer towards the end of the 1980s, and in 2005 he was married to Liz Bluett, though they later separated.
