Peter Tinniswood


Peter Tinniswood was an English radio and TV comedy scriptwriter, and author of a series of popular cricketing novels. He was born in Liverpool, but grew up above a dry cleaner's on Eastway in Sale, Greater Manchester.

Early career

Tinniswood attended Sale Boys' Grammar School. His career began in journalism. He spent four years in Sheffield from 1958, first working for The Star, and then for the Sheffield Telegraph, where he was a leader writer and specialised in feature writing. He won widespread admiration for a week-long series Travels with a Donkey, an account of a tramp round the Peak District with a reluctant donkey.

Television and radio

In 1964 Tinniswood collaborated with his long-term writing partner David Nobbs on the BBC sketch show The Frost Report and the comedy Lance At Large, starring Lance Percival. It was an innovative attempt to update the sitcom formula, as Percival's character, Alan Day, was involved in different scenarios and meeting different people in each episode.
The short-lived ITV series Never Say Die drew on Tinniswood's days as a hospital porter. Set in Victoria Memorial Hospital, the show focused on the comedy created between the patients and staff. It starred Reginald Marsh and Patrick Newell.
Tinniswood's best-known comedy was 1975's I Didn't Know You Cared featuring the Brandons, a dour northern family. Adapted for the BBC from his novels, the programme ran until 1979, and featured Liz Smith, Robin Bailey, John Comer and Stephen Rea.
In 1980 the BBC produced a series based on other Tinniswood books, featuring the character the Brigadier, an erstwhile cricketer and over-the-top raconteur, played by Robin Bailey. Some of the stories were adapted for BBC Radio 4. The series was remade in 1985 for Channel 4.
For ITV in 1983 Tinniswood wrote The Home Front, again set in the north of England. It starred Brenda Bruce as Mrs Place, a nosey, arrogant mother who lorded it over her three children. Two years later ITV produced Mog, based on Peter's 1970 novel and starring Enn Reitel as the title character. The episodes were written by Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement, but it was not a success. Also in 1985 was South Of The Border starring Brian Glover as Edgar Rowley, a Yorkshireman forced to migrate to the south of England.
In later years Tinniswood's output was mostly for Radio 4 and included the continuing adventures of Uncle Mort and Carter Brandon in Uncle Mort's North Country, Uncle Mort's South Country and Uncle Mort's Celtic Fringe and a series about poacher Winston Hayballs, his "bit of fluff" Nancy and her family adapted from his novel "Winston". Liz Goulding, his second wife, played Rosie.
A lifelong pipe smoker, Peter Tinniswood died of throat cancer at the age of 66. Since his death, the Writers' Guild of Great Britain and the Society of Authors have jointly administered in his memory the annual Tinniswood Award, to honour the best original radio drama script broadcast in the UK during the previous year, with a prize of £1500 for the winner.

TV credits

THE BRANDON FAMILY SERIES:
CRICKETING TALES AND SKETCHES:
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HAYBALLS AND ITS SEQUEL:
OTHERS:
The books listed above under the heading Cricketing Tales And Sketches contain short stories and other humorous pieces as shown here:
#Tales From A Long RoomMore Tales From A Long Room The Brigadier Down UnderThe Brigadier In SeasonTales From Witney ScrotumWitney Scrotum
1Root's BootWitney ScrotumThe ExplanationThe Start of the SeasonThe DedicationThe Commodore
2Our Own Dear QueenThe Boys of SummerThe LandfallStumped!The IntroductionMentioned in Dispatches
3The DitherersBatmanFirst ImpressionsA Day in the Life ofHitting the TruthSlakehouse
4'Blackstop'Five Non-CricketersA Day OutHarold SalisburyA Walk with Miss RoebuckHimmelweit Revisited
5What Do I Mean By?SibsonBefore The MatchA Glimpse into the FutureThe Third ManIn Dock
6The Lady WifeThe Royal WeddingFirst Dispatches From The FrontThe PartySouvenirsMitchell Dever
7The Groundsman's HorseHard TimesKingsley KunzelCarry on GoeringTour de ForceThe Trusty Old Lanchester
8Mendip-HughesThe MoleSecond Dispatches From The FrontThe Holy FatherFamous SonsSplit Runciman
9Cricketers' Cook BookApartheidThe Lady Wife Down Under"Looknow" HobsonAnother Bloody WifeAlternative Cricket
10Polar GamesBlofeld RevisitedA Visit To NauntonMiss Roebuck's Diaries: The Journals of a Cricketing SpinsterThe Half CenturyWhat-Ho, Vileness
11The Ones That Got AwayCricket AhoyThird Dispatches From The FrontThe Brigadier in SeasonThe Great DayBeryl
12I Was ThereThe ReturnStop PressThe Bird Tapes
13Incident at FromeWhen Winter Comes
14Farewell, My Lovelies
15The Perfect Day
16Cricketers' Quiz

Collected Tales From A Long Room - stories 1-13 are the same as 1-13 in Tales From A Long Room; stories 14-24 are the same as 1-11 in More Tales From A Long Room.
The Brigadier’s Brief Lives - contains the following short sketches:
The Brigadier’s Tour - contains the following 116 short sketches:
The Introduction
The Captain: • Mr W. H. Wooller
The Vice-Captain: • Mr D. J. Insole
The Opening Batsmen: • Mr W. Place • Sir J. B. Hobbs • Mr J. B. Stollmeyer • Mr H. L. Collins • Mr W. Rhodes • Mr W. M. Lawry • Mr A. Jones • Mr S. M. Gavaskar • Mr A. R. Morris • Mr A. C. Maclaren • Mr F. A. Lowson • Mr Hanif Mohammed • Mr R. T. Simpson • Mr C. Milburn • Mr G. Boycott • Mr T. Meale
The Specialist Batsmen: • Mr F. R. Spofforth • Mr K. C. Bland • Mr E. de C. Weekes • Mr W. Watson • Mr C. B. Fry • Mr I. R. Redpath • Mr M. P. Donnelly • Mr C. H. Lloyd • Mr G. Gunn • Mr D. I. Gower • Sir D. G. Bradman • Mr G. R. Viswanath • Mr D. C. S. Compton • Mr A. D. Nourse • Nawab of Pataudi • Mr P. M. Roebuck • Mr V. T. Trumper • Mr I. V. A. Richards • Mr J. E. P. McMaster • Mr R. H. Spooner • Brigadier-General R. M. Poore • Mr D. W. Randall • Mr Z. Abbas • Mr K. D. Mackay • Mr G. L. Jessop • Charles Lawrence, Mullagh, Dick-A-Dick, Twopenny, Red Cap, Mosquito, King Cole, Peter, Cuzens, Tiger, Jim Crow, Bullocky, Dumas, Sundown • Mr D. B. Close • Mr R. L. Dias • Mr C. L. Walcott • Mr T. W. Hayward • Rt Rev D. S. Sheppard • Mr R. N. Harvey • Mr T. W. Graveney • Sir P. F. Warner • Mr A. R. Lewis • Mr A. R. Border • Mr H. Pilling
The All Rounders: • Mr W. G. Grace • Mr R. G. Garlick • Mr R. Benaud • Mr G. H. Hirst • Lord Constantine, Baron of Maraval and Nelson • Mr M. A. Noble • Mr R. M. Kapil Dev • Sir G. St. A. Sobers • Mr P. M. Walker • Mr M. J. Procter • Mr A. E. Trott • Mr F. E. Woolley • Sir F. M. M. Worrell • Mr W. R. Hammond • Mr I. T. Botham
The Fast Bowlers: • Mr J. B. Statham • Mr J. Barton King • Mr H. Larwood • Mr D. K. Lillee • Mr Fazal Mahmood • Mr R. V. Divecha • Mr W. Voce • Mr R. R. Lindwall • Mr W. J. O'Reilly • Mr R. G. D. Willis • Mr E. A. McDonald • Mr M. W. Tate • Mr T. Richardson • Mr I. J. Jones • Mr J. M. Gregory • Mr R. J. Hadlee • Mr F. E. Rumsey • Sir C. A. Smith
The Spinners: • Mr D. J. Shepherd • Mr C. V. Grimmett • Mr R. Peel • Mr P. H. Edmonds • Mr B. S. Bedi • Mr R. Tattersall • Mr J. E. Emburey • Mr H. J. Tayfield • Mr S. Ramadhin • Mr J. C. White • Mr D. V. P. Wright • Mr J. Briggs • Mr J. C. Laker • Mr L. R. Gibbs • Mr C. H. Parkin • Mr H. Verity • Mr Abdul Qadir • Mr C. Blythe
The Greatest Bowler Of Them All: • Mr S. F. Barnes
The Wicket Keepers: • Mr D. Tallon • Mr R. W. Marsh • Mr F. M. Engineer • Mr R. W. Taylor • Mr J. R. Reid • Mr J. G. Binks • Mr W. H. V. Levett
The Replacements: • The Replacements.

Radio credits

Radio drama