Versatile, pioneering and an outstanding talent scout, the writer brought the same urgency and flair for social critique to every project. No wonder Spielberg was a fan
When you name what you think is the ultimate Kay Mellor show, really all you’re naming is your own vintage. To the scriptwriter and director, who died suddenly on Sunday aged 71, there was no “ultimate”.
Mellor brought the same urgency, vividness and deceptively light social critique to every project. You could never guess the tone from her subject matter. For instance, her childrens’ TV drama Children’s Ward – co-created with Paul Abbott in 1989 and set in a hospital in Bolton – sounds like a classic tearjerker, a triumph-over-adversity tale with intermittent dignity-in-the-face-of-tragedy. It was anything but: caustic and edgy, constantly causing friction with Granada executives for including such adult themes (sex offenders, HIV) in a young adult drama.
