Don’t Forget To Write

1 9 7 7 (UK)
1 9 7 9 (UK)
12 x 50 minute episodes

If you were a literary type and understood the in-jokes, this BBC series was a hoot. It starred George Cole as Gordon Maple – a writer swinging between elation and despair.

Gordon was a moody, struggling screenwriter, supplying scripts for feature films that were never actually made, dealing with awkward movie producers who made his life difficult with their niggling demands.

He was also prone to bouts of writer’s block and, to compound the agony, his writer friend and rival Tom Lawrence (Francis Matthews) was altogether more successful.

Gwen Watford played his long-suffering wife, Mabel, with Claire Walker and Ron Emslie as their children, Kate and Wilfred.

The series lasted for 12 episodes, by which time Gordon the moody writer had become dodgy Arthur Daley in Minder.

Don’t Forget To Write had its origins in two plays – A Bit Of A Holiday and A Bit Of A Family Feeling – which, like the series, were written by Charles Wood. Both had previously screened on Yorkshire Television – in 1968 and 1971 respectively.

Gordon Maple
George Cole
Tom Lawrence
Francis Matthews
Mabel Maple
Gwen Watford
Kate Maple
Claire Walker
Wilfred Maple
Ron Emslie
Mrs Field
Daphne Heard
Jenny Lawrence
Renny Lister