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Laurence Marks (British writer)
British screenwriter From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Laurence Marks (born 8 December 1948) is a British screenwriter and one half of writing duo Marks and Gran (with Maurice Gran).
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Born to a Jewish family, Marks attended Holloway Comprehensive School (formerly Holloway County Grammar School until 1955).[1][2][3]
Marks became a reporter for a local weekly paper, the Tottenham Weekly Herald.[4] In 1975, he was working as a freelance journalist when he was asked to report from the scene of the Moorgate tube crash. He only discovered later that his father, Bernard Marks, was one of 43 victims of the accident.[5]
Soon after, Marks joined the Sunday Times' Insight investigative journalism team, and reported in depth on the investigation into the crash.[5] In 2006, Marks made a documentary for Channel 4, Me, My Dad and Moorgate, in which he rejected the verdict of accidental death by the coroner's jury, and advocated his theory that the driver of the train had committed suicide by crashing the train.[6][7]
Marks also worked as writer/researcher for Thames Television's current affairs programme, This Week. Following a chance encounter with comedy writer Barry Took, he and childhood friend Maurice Gran got an opportunity to write a radio show for comedian Frankie Howerd, which led to their becoming full-time comedy writers.[1]
Marks subsequently wrote with Gran the TV comedy-drama Shine on Harvey Moon (1982–85, 1995) and the popular sitcoms The New Statesman (1987–92), Birds of a Feather (1989–98, 2014–2020) and Goodnight Sweetheart (1993–99, 2016). They are also the authors of Prudence at Number 10, a fictional diary written as though by a P.A. of UK prime minister Gordon Brown. Their theatre works include Dreamboats and Petticoats, Von Ribbentrop’s Watch, Love Me Do, Playing God, Save the Last Dance for Me, and Dreamboats and Miniskirts.[8]
Marks is an Arsenal fan and wrote the book A Fan for All Seasons (1999), a diary of his life as a writer and an Arsenal supporter. He is a member of the Labour Party.[9]
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