Ranald Ian Mackenzie Graham was a Scottish writer, director and producer, best known for his writing work on the British television series The Sweeney, The Professionals and Dempsey and Makepeace.
18 Facts About Ranald Graham
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The camp was liberated on 11 September 1945, and after a period of recuperation on Labuan Island the Ranald Graham family returned to the UK.
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Ranald Graham's parents eventually returned to Sandakan, but Graham remained in the UK, to be educated at Gordonstoun and later at Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied English and was a keen member of the drama society.
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Ranald Graham then undertook an MA in contemporary literature at Birmingham University.
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Ranald Graham began his writing career in 1966 when his play Aberfan, Or How The Abnormally High Welsh Rainfalls and the Amazingly High Scottish Wind Pressure Brought About A Dislocation of Scottish And Welsh Responsibilities was performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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In 1968 Ranald Graham became a researcher and writer for the television sports documentary series Sports Arena, which was presented by Michael Parkinson.
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In 1974 Ranald Graham wrote the screenplay for the horror film Shanks, directed by "Hollywood B-movie veteran" William Castle and starring Marcel Marceau.
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The next year Ranald Graham co-wrote a television movie, Strange New World and started to make his career in crime dramas, writing for The Sweeney.
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Ranald Graham's scripts brought an unerring earthiness that equally shocked and entertained.
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In 1980 Ranald Graham revisited the horror genre, writing an episode of Hammer House of Horror, "The Two Faces of Evil".
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In 1985 London Weekend Television asked Ranald Graham to create the television crime drama series Dempsey and Makepeace.
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Ranald Graham acted as series consultant, and for the third series, as producer.
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In 1990 Ranald Graham produced Yellowthread Street, a big budget police series set and filmed in Hong Kong and made by Yorkshire Television.
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Ranald Graham's last television work was an appearance as himself in a television documentary about the depiction of police in television dramas, Top of the Cops.
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Ranald Graham was a keen sports enthusiast, from his Gordonstoun days onwards.
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Ranald Graham's sporting interests included watching boxing, Scottish rugby and English cricket.
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Ranald Graham directed a London Weekend Television documentary on squash player Jonah Barrington, with whom he had been at university.
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Ranald Graham died of motor neurone disease on 29 August 2010.