KEITH DEWHURST was born in 1931 and worked in a cotton mill and as a travelling reporter with Manchester United before becoming a playwright. Three of his seventeen stage plays were premiered at the Royal Court Theatre and six, including his adaptation of Flora Thompson's 'Lark Rise', at the National Theatre. He wrote two movies, eighteen TV plays, of which 'Last Bus' won the Japan Prize, and episodes for many series, including the original 'Z-Cars'. He was a Guardian columnist, a member of the Production Board of the British Film Institute, Writer in Residence at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and a presenter of TV arts programmes and a Granada comedy show. He has written two football books and co-wrote (with Jack Shepherd) a theatrical memoir.