13 Facts About Alan Plater

Alan Plater is best known for the sitcom Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt and the comedy drama serials The Beiderbecke Trilogy.

Alan Plater trained as an architect at King's College, Newcastle, but only practised in the profession briefly, at a junior level.

Alan Plater later stated that it was shortly after he was forced to fend off a herd of pigs from eating his tape measure while he was surveying a field that he left to pursue writing full-time.

Alan Plater stayed in the north of England for many years after he became prominent as a writer and lived in Hull.

Alan Plater first made his mark as a scriptwriter for Z-Cars, along with its spin-offs Softly, Softly and Softly, Softly: Task Force.

Alan Plater contributed to the BBC series Dalziel and Pascoe, and adapted Chris Mullin's novel A Very British Coup for television.

Alan Plater said that he had always tried to make his characters normal people, whose normal lives are interrupted when the outside world comes into their lives.

Alan Plater claimed his two best-known characters, Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne in the Beiderbecke series, were based on himself.

Alan Plater was married to Shirley Johnson, with whom he had two sons and a daughter, and later Shirley Rubinstein gaining three stepsons.

Alan Plater was president of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain from September 1991 until April 1995.

Alan Plater received honorary degrees from the University of Hull and Northumbria University in Newcastle.

Alan Plater is commemorated with a green plaque on The Avenues, Kingston upon Hull.

Alan Plater died of cancer at a London hospice, aged 75.