John R. Hopkins
Born in London, John Hopkins spent his early years in Wimbledon. After National Service, he went up to St Catharine’s College, Cambridge to read English. After graduation he joined the BBC as a studio manager, and subsequently, as a Producer. He left the BBC and went to Granada Television for two years, where he began to write; at first for television, subsequently for the cinema, and eventually, for the theatre. He has continued to work in all three dramatic media; most recently, for the theatre, “Without Father, Without Son”, for the cinema, “The Cleaning Lady”, and for television, “Hiroshima”.
Hopkins won the British Screen Writer’s Guild Award for his work on dramatic series two years in succession for “Z Cars” in 1962 and 1963; the British Director’s Guild Award for his mini-series “Talking to a Stranger” in 1966; and in 1969, for his contribution to “Masterpiece Theatre”, an Emmy Award. He was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for his screenplay “Murder by Decree” in 1978; and nominated for a Cable Ace Award in 1995 for his television movie “Hiroshima” on Showtime Cable Television. He also received the Writer’s Guild of America’s Humanitas Prize and the Penn Literary Prize for “Hiroshima”.
John R. Hopkins began writing for television in the early sixties in England: a selection of the work produced includes:
Original television plays
“Break-up” - Granada TV - 1958
“A Woman Comes Home” - BBC - 1961
“A Chance of Thunder” - (six-part thriller serial) - BBC - 1961
“Z Cars” - (police series - 54 episodes) - BBC - 1962/1964
“Walk a Tight Circle” - BBC - 1962
“I Took My Little World Away” - ATV - 1963
“Horror of Darkness” - BBC - 1963
“Some Place of Safety” - (an opera for television) - BBC - 1964
“A Man Like Orpheus” - (a ballet for television) - BBC - 1964
“Fable” - BBC - 1964
“A Game - like - Only a Game” - BBC - 1965
“Talking to a Stranger” - (four plays for television) - BBC - 1965
“Beyond the Sunrise” - BBC - 1967
“Walk into the Dark” - BBC - 1971
“Some Distant Shadow” - Granada TV - 1971
“That Quiet Earth”- BBC - 1971
“Fathers and Families” - (six plays for television) - BBC - 1976
“A Story to Frighten the Children” - BBC - 1978
“Hiroshima” - Showtime Cable TV - 1995
Adaptations
“The Small Back Room” - (play for television from the novel written by Nigel Balchin) - BBC - 1958
“Mine Own Executioner” - (play for television from the novel written by Nigel Balchin) - BBC - 1959
“Dancers in Mourning” - (six-part mystery serial from the novel written by Margery Allingham) - BBC - 1959
“Death of a Ghost” - (six-part mystery serial from the novel written by Margery Allingham) - BBC - 1960
“Parade’s End” - (three plays for television from the novels written by Ford Madox Ford) - BBC - 1964
“The Gambler” - (two-part serial from the novel written by Feodor Dostoevsky) - BBC -1963
“Smiley’s People” - (six-part serial from the novel written by John Le Carre) - BBC - 1984
“Codename Kyril” - (four hour mini series for television from the novel written by John Trenhaile) - Thames Television - 1987
Films
“Two Left Feet “ - British Lion - (shared credit) - 1963
“Thunderball” - United Artists - (shared credit) - 1965
“Virgin Soldiers” - British Lion - (shared credit) - 1967
“The Offence” - United Artists - 1972
“Murder by Decree” - Avco Embassy - 1978
“The Holcroft Covenant” - Universal - (shared credit) - 1985
Plays
“This Story of Yours” - London - (premiere) - Royal Court Theatre - 1968
Stuttgart - 1969
New Haven - 1982
Hampstead Theatre Club - 1987
Buenos Aires - 1995
“Find Your Way Home” - London - (premiere) - Open Space - 1970
New York - (Brooks Atkinson) - 1973
Frankfurt - (Kleist Theatre) - 1995
“Economic Necessity” - Leicester - (premiere) - (Haymarket) - 1973
“Next of Kin” - London - (premiere) - (National Theatre) - 1974
“Valedictorian” - (premiere) - Williston Northampton School - 1978
“Losing Time” - New York - (premiere) - (Manhatten Theatre Club) - 1979
Hamburg - (Berlin and Vienna) - 1983
“Absent Forever” - (premiere) - Great Lakes Theatre Festival - 1987
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