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John Hawkesworth | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1920-12-07)7 December 1920 London, England |
| Died | 30 September 2003(2003-09-30) (aged 82) Leicester,Leicestershire, England |
| Alma mater | University of Paris University of Oxford |
| Occupation(s) | Television producer,screenwriter |
| Spouse | Hyacinth Gregson-Ellis[1] |
John Stanley Hawkesworth (7 December 1920 – 30 September 2003) was an English television and film producer and screenwriter, best known for his work on theperiod dramaUpstairs, Downstairs and theGranada Television adaptation ofSherlock Holmes.
Hawkesworth was born in London on 7 December 1920, the son of the-thenCaptainJ. L. I. Hawkesworth, aBritish Army officer who rose to the rank oflieutenant general and who had fought in theFirst World War (1914–1918) and Helen Jane Hawkesworth (née McNaughton). He was educated atRugby,the Sorbonne andOxford. During the Second World War (1939–1945) he wascommissioned as asecond lieutenant, in 1941, into the 4th Battalion,Grenadier Guards and served with it throughout theNorth-West Europe Campaign of 1944–45. He left the army with the rank of captain in 1946. In the late 1940s Hawkesworth began his film career as an assistant toart directorVincent Korda working with him onThe Fallen Idol (1948). He also worked on films such asThe Third Man (1949),Outcast of the Islands (1951) andThe Sound Barrier (1952).
By the mid-1950s, Hawkesworth was an independent designer, and films he worked on includedThe Prisoner (1955). He soon joinedRank as a trainee producer, and qualified as an associate producer while working on the filmWindom's Way (1957). For the filmTiger Bay (1959), he was the producer and wrote the screenplay withShelley Smith. In the mid-1960s, he began to work for television, and he wrote the scripts for programmes includingThe Hidden Truth (1964),The Short Stories of Conan Doyle (1967) andThe Gold Robbers (1969).
AfterJean Marsh andEileen Atkins came up with an idea for a period comedy featuring twomaids, Hawkesworth, along withJohn Whitney, turned the idea into the success that becameUpstairs, Downstairs. He went on to produce 65 out of the 68 episodes from 1971 to 1975. He also wrote 12 episodes and some of the novelisations. Following this, he produced theBBC dramaThe Duchess of Duke Street (1976–77), and created as well as produced the 1979Euston Films seriesDanger UXB (1979) forThames Television. During the 1980s, he produced many television programmes includingBy the Sword Divided (1983),The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984) andOscar (1985).
Hawkesworth's final work was writing the screenplay for the comedy-dramaMrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris (1992). He was married to Hyacinth Gregson-Ellis. They had two children. In his biography of the television producerVerity Lambert,Richard Marson describes Hyacinth as "fiercely snobbish", and as someone who "answered to the unlikely nickname 'Pussy'". Pussy occasionally accompanied Hawkesworth to meetings. In his retirement, he spent much time painting. He died inLeicester in 2003 aged 82.
