Top of the Hill – Maurice Gran – “From Crouch End to Hollywood”

We are honoured to have the well-known script-writer Maurice Gran speaking to us.

Maurice was born in  London and lived in Finsbury Park as a child. His father managed a fabric shop in Soho.  In her youth, in the 1920’s, Maurice’s mother was a keen essayist, writing poems and articles, mostly for Zionist magazines.  She very much encouraged Maurice’s writing while he was still at school and with her encouragement he was able to consider this as a career.  He attended William Ellis Grammar School in Highgate. 

Maurice will speak about his and his partner Lawrence Marks’ short but eventful sojourn to Hollywood, in the USA, back in 1985 and what happened when they returned.

Together with Lawrence, Maurice has written many scripts. They are best known as TV scriptwriters – Shine on Harvey Moon, The New Statesman, Birds of a Feather and Goodnight Sweetheart are perhaps the best remembered.  The New Statesman won both a BAFTA and an International Emmy.

This century they have moved into writing for the theatre – the play “Dr Freud Will See You Now, Mrs Hitler” is their latest effort and this will be showing at Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate throughout September.  It was originally broadcast on Radio 4 as radio drama is another of their loves.

The duo had begun writing together after they met at a drama group called “Player-Playrights”. It is here that they first had their work performed and discussed.  They are now Presidents of that organisation, having learnt many of their skills there. The organisation still meets most weeks in Kilburn.