TED WILLIS

According to Wikipedia: "Edward Henry Willis was a British playwright, novelist and screenwriter who was also politically active in support of the Labour Party. In 1941 he became the Secretary General of the Young Communist League, the youth branch of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Born in Tottenham, Middlesex, Willis was elected Chairman of the Labour League of Youth as the candidate of the left in 1937.He was also drama critic for the Daily Worker.

Willis enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers in 1939, subsequently serving in the Army Kinematograph Service. He often spoke at meetings during the Second World War in favour of opening a second front, in order to help the Red Army, which was bearing the brunt of the Nazi onslaught.

His passion for drama first manifested in plays he wrote for the Unity Theatre, based in a former chapel near St Pancras, during the war. He was best known for writing the television series Dixon of Dock Green, based on the stories of Gordon Snashall, a local Chislehurst policeman with whom he was great friends; the series ran for more than twenty years. He was Chairman of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain from 1958 to 1964. Willis created several British television series such as Virgin of the Secret Service, Hunter's Walk, The Adventures of Black Beauty, Copper's End, Sergeant Cork and Mrs Thursday.

He was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most prolific writer for television; he also wrote 34 stage plays and a number of feature films."