Gerald Savory

Who was Gerald Savory?

Gerald Savory was an English playwright and screenwriter specialising in comedies.

The son of actress Grace Lane, he was educated at Bradfield College and worked as a stockbroker's clerk before turning to the stage, first as an actor then a writer. His earliest work in the film industry was as a dialogue writer for director Alfred Hitchcock's Young and Innocent.

He spent some time in the United States in the 1940s writing for film and television and became an American citizen. From 1964 to 1965 he was writer, producer and production manager for Granada Television, producing five episodes of ITV Play of the Week; adapting Saki, J.B. Priestley, Noël Coward and Tennessee Williams for television. He then joined the BBC first as then Head of Serials, then Head of Plays. He notably produced five episodes of the thoroughly panned Churchill's People and six of the eight episodes of Love in a Cold Climate for Thames Television in 1980.