Carla Lane
| Carla Lane OBE |
|
|---|---|
| Born | Romana Barrack 5 August 1937 Liverpool, Lancashire, England |
| Occupation | Screenwriter |
| Nationality | British |
| Period | 1969–present |
| Genre | Television |
| Notable works | The Liver Birds (1969–78, 1996) Bless This House (1971–76) Butterflies (1978–83) Solo (1981–82) The Last Song (1981–83) Leaving (1984–85) The Mistress (1985–87) Bread (1986–91) Screaming (1992) Luv (1993–94) |
| Spouse | Arthur Hollins (1954–1980) (divorced) |
| Children | 2 Carl and Nigel |
Carla Lane, OBE (born Romana Barrack, 5 August 1937) is an English television writer responsible for many sitcoms, including The Liver Birds (1969–78), Butterflies (1978–82), and Bread (1986–91).
Lane is also known for her animal rights activism and, until 2009, ran an animal sanctuary, Animaline, in Horsted Keynes, Sussex. Animal rights is a theme that has appeared in her writing; for example, the character Darwin in Luv is a member of an animal rights group. Lane was awarded an OBE in 1989, but returned it in protest at the CBE awarded to the managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences, a contract animal testing laboratory.
Background
In the 1960s she wrote short stories and radio scripts. Her first successes came in collaboration with Myra Taylor, whom she had met at a writers' workshop in Liverpool, before she embarked on a solo career. Carla and Myra would often meet at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool city centre to write.
OBE protest
Lane returned her OBE in 2002 in protest at the award of a CBE to Brian Cass, managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences. HLS has been at the centre of numerous animal rights protests for its use of animals in the development and testing of drugs.[citation needed] Upon returning her award, she received a handwritten reply from Tony Blair who said that she deserved the honour and that it would be kept in case she changed her mind and wanted it back.[citation needed]
Television series
- 1969–78, 96 The Liver Birds (with Myra Taylor and others)
- 1971–76 Bless This House (with Myra Taylor and others)
- 1974 No Strings
- 1975 Going, Going, Gone... Free?
- 1977 Three Piece Suite
- 1978–83, 2000 Butterflies
- 1981–83 The Last Song
- 1981–82 Solo
- 1984–85 Leaving
- 1985–87 The Mistress
- 1985–86 I Woke Up One Morning
- 1986–91 Bread
- 1992 Screaming
- 1993–94 Luv
- 1995 Searching
External links
- Carla Lane (official site). Archived from the original on 29 October 2012.
- Carla Lane at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
- Carla Lane at the Internet Movie Database
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- Use dmy dates from June 2014
- Articles with unsourced statements from October 2014
- 1937 births
- English dramatists and playwrights
- English television writers
- Living people
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- Women television writers
- Animal rights advocates
- English women dramatists and playwrights
- Writers from Liverpool
