User:Jheald/sandbox/Jeremy Paul (writer)

Jeremy Paul (29 July 1939–3 May 2011), born Jeremy Paul Roche, was a playwright and scriptwriter who wrote for television series including Upstairs, Downstairs and Granada Television's Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett, as well as creating a number of original plays for the stage.

Life
Jeremy Paul was born in 1939 in Bexhill, East Sussex, the son of Dominic Roche, a theatrical producer, and Joan Haythorne, a West-End actress. The couple were not married, and Paul had no knowledge of his father, initially believing him to have been killed in the Second World War; when he learnt the truth, Paul dropped the surname Roche, thereafter using his middle name Paul.

Paul was evacuated to Wolverhampton during the war, where he became a follower of Stoke City football club. He then attended King's School, Canterbury, thanks to the generosity of an aunt, where he was particularly interested in cricket and drama, playing Othello in a school production at the age of 18.

After working briefly as an assistant stage manager, he was accepted by St Edmund Hall, Oxford, to read English; but left after the end of his first year to take up a three-year contract with Associated Television to write three plays a year, having sold his first script Mr Morecambe whilst still a student.