GREATOREX, Wilfred 1921(?)-2002

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born May 27, 1921 (one source says 1922), in Blackburn, England; died of renal failure October 14, 2002, in Taplow, England. Author. Greatorex was a writer of popular British television series. At the age of eighteen he joined the Royal Air Force to serve in a bomber squadron. After World War II, instead of enrolling at a university, he started a career in journalism, working for a local paper in Blackburn, England, and then for the Reynold's News in London. Greatorex's career in television began in the 1960s when he took a job with Associated Television and began writing scripts for such programs as Danger Man and Man in a Suitcase. His first big success came with the popular drama series The Plane Makers, which later became The Power Game, and Front Page Story. In the 1970s he provided scripts for such programs as The Frighteners and Hine, as well as creating his own series, Secret Army; the last series he worked on was Airline, which aired in 1982. In addition to television work, Greatorex wrote film screenplays, among them Nobody Runs Forever and the coauthored screenplay for The Battle of Britain. He also wrote the novels The Freelancers (1975), Crossover (1976; published as Three Potato, Four, 1977), and The Button Zone (1984).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

books

Clute, John, and Peter Nicholls, editors, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1993.

periodicals

Times (London, England), October 21, 2002, p. 8.