Arthur Hopcraft

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Arthur Hopcraft
Born(1932-11-30)30 November 1932
Shoeburyness, Essex, England
Died22 November 2004(2004-11-22) (aged 71)
Occupation
  • Screenwriter
  • journalist
Notable awards BAFTA Writers Award (1986)

Arthur Hopcraft (30 November 1932 22 November 2004) was a British screenwriter, well known for his TV plays such as The Nearly Man , and for his small-screen adaptations such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ; Hard Times , Bleak House , and Rebecca . Before taking up writing for TV, he was a sports journalist for The Guardian and The Observer , writing The Football Man: People and Passions in Soccer. He also had four other books published, including an autobiographical account of his childhood, and wrote the screenplay for the film Hostage . Hopcraft won the BAFTA Writers Award in 1986. [1]

Contents

Career

Hopcraft was born in Shoeburyness, Essex. He soon moved to Cannock, Staffordshire, and as a teen, he started working at local newspapers. By the age of 17, he was reporting on the Stafford Rangers' semi-professional football games using the pseudonym "Linesman." After his service in the military, he worked at the Daily Mirror in Manchester and then The Guardian . He had assignments in west Africa, India and Brazil. In the mid-1960s, he began doing football writing at The Observer as well. From January 1968 he was a regular contributor to the IPC monthly Nova , his articles were mostly stories from his own life.

He was a "self-described loner whose claustrophobia extended to refusing to use the London Underground." [2] He never married, noting that "I tried both sexes, but ended up wishing they would all just go away". [2]

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References

  1. "Television | Writers Award in 1986". BAFTA. Archived from the original on 11 October 2024.
  2. 1 2 Atkin, Ronald (26 November 2004). "Obituary: Arthur Hopcraft". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 11 October 2024.