Peter Tinniswood (21 December 1936 – 9 January 2003) was an English radio and TV comedy scriptwriter, and author of a series of popular novels. He was born in Liverpool, but grew up above a dry cleaner's on Eastway in Sale, Cheshire.
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.
In 1964, Tinniswood collaborated with his long-term writing partner David Nobbs on the BBC sketch show The Frost Report[1] and the comedy Lance At Large, a sitcom starring Lance Percival in which 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 (1970) drew on Tinniswood's days as a hospital porter. Set in Victoria Memorial Hospital, the show derived much of its comedy from the interactions betweenvpatients and staff. It starred Reginald Marsh and Patrick Newell. Tinniswood based the BBC comedy I Didn't Know You Cared (1975–1979) on his novels. Featuring the Brandons, a dour northern family, 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 latterly 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 Tinniswood'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 £3,000 for the winner.
THE BRANDON FAMILY SERIES:
CRICKETING TALES AND SKETCHES:(A table of the individual pieces in these books is given at the foot of this section).
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 Room | More Tales From A Long Room | The Brigadier Down Under | The Brigadier In Season | Tales From Witney Scrotum | Witney Scrotum | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Root's Boot | Witney Scrotum | The Explanation | The Start of the Season | The Dedication | The Commodore | |
| 2 | Our Own Dear Queen | The Boys of Summer | The Landfall | Stumped! | The Introduction | Mentioned in Dispatches | |
| 3 | The Ditherers | Batman | First Impressions | A Day in the Life of | Hitting the Truth | Slakehouse | |
| 4 | 'Blackstop' | Five Non-Cricketers | A Day Out | Harold Salisbury | A Walk with Miss Roebuck | Himmelweit Revisited | |
| 5 | What Do I Mean By? | Sibson | Before The Match | A Glimpse into the Future | The Third Man | In Dock | |
| 6 | The Lady Wife | The Royal Wedding | First Dispatches From The Front | The Party | Souvenirs | Mitchell Dever | |
| 7 | The Groundsman's Horse | Hard Times | Kingsley Kunzel | Carry on Goering | Tour de Force | The Trusty Old Lanchester | |
| 8 | Mendip-Hughes | The Mole | Second Dispatches From The Front | The Holy Father | Famous Sons | Split Runciman | |
| 9 | Cricketers' Cook Book | Apartheid | The Lady Wife Down Under | "Looknow" Hobson | Another Bloody Wife | Alternative Cricket | |
| 10 | Polar Games | Blofeld Revisited | A Visit To Naunton | Miss Roebuck's Diaries: The Journals of a Cricketing Spinster | The Half Century | What-Ho, Vileness | |
| 11 | The Ones That Got Away | Cricket Ahoy | Third Dispatches From The Front | The Brigadier in Season | The Great Day | Beryl | |
| 12 | I Was There | The Return | Stop Press | The Bird Tapes | |||
| 13 | Incident at Frome | When Winter Comes | |||||
| 14 | Farewell, My Lovelies | ||||||
| 15 | The Perfect Day | ||||||
| 16 | Cricketers' 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.
(snt = BBC Saturday-Night Theatre; aft = BBC Afternoon Theatre, m = monologue)
(numbers show no. of episodes) [4]