Sally Abbott

Sally Abbott is a British screenwriter, playwright and former theatre producer, best known for the BBC1 crime drama The Coroner, which ran for two series.

Sally Abbott
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, playwright, theatre director, producer
Known forThe Coroner
Vera
EastEnders

Career

She worked in theatre for 18 years as a producer, young people's director and trainer at Contact Theatre, English Touring Theatre, Liverpool's Everyman Theatre and the National Association of Youth Theatres, before concentrating on writing. She was awarded a place on the BBC Writer's Academy, a programme designed to train new writers for their long running television series, with her horror spec Camp Fear. She went on to write for all four of the BBC's popular continuing dramas: Doctors, EastEnders, Casualty and its spinoff, Holby City.[1][2]

She also wrote for Series 8 of Death in Paradise, Series 12 of Call the Midwife and ITV's Vera. Abbott returned to the theatre, as a playwright, writing the stage monologue Borough Market, One Saturday (2017) and wrote Frantic Assembly's 25th anniversary show I Think We Are Alone (Frantic Assembly, 2020) co-directed by Kathy Burke and Scott Graham.[3][4]

The Coroner

Abbott created The Coroner from an idea by Will Trotter, executive producer and head of BBC Drama Birmingham, about a woman coroner aged about 40 and in a location such as the Cotswolds or Devon. It starred Claire Goose as Jane Kennedy, a coroner based in a fictional South Devon coastal town. Matt Bardock stars as Detective Sergeant Davey Higgins. The series would have self-contained stories with drama and humour; a formula successfully used in Father Brown from the same production team. The characters, Jane and Davey, were based on Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in Adam's Rib with the unresolved sexual tension between them. Abbott wrote the Davey character with Matt Bardock in mind. She created four other characters to complete the cast.[5]

The BBC announced on 2 March 2017 that there would be no further series.[6][7]

Personal life

Abbott was married to actor Michael Begley. She has two children. Her son Tige Burns is a member of the alt-garage band The Sukis.[8][9] She co-created and developed a children's show "My Life Sucks" with her daughter Ella Burns, for Red Planet Pictures and CBBC, whilst Ella was still at school.

References
  1. "BBC - Sally Abbott - Writers Room". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  2. "Writer Sally Abbott Interview". holby.tv. 20 June 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  3. "I Think We Are Alone by Sally Abbott".
  4. "I Think We Are Alone review – Frantic Assembly's tender sweep of connection". TheGuardian.com. 6 February 2020.
  5. Abbott, Sally (12 November 2015). "Creating 'The Coroner' for BBC One". BBC Writers Room. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  6. "The Coroner BBC drama cancelled: fans react with dismay to axing of daytime favourite. BBC1, PBS Masterpiece, ABC, BBC UKTV in Australia". Radio Times. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  7. "The BBC sadly announces the death of The Coroner after two series - and fans want it back". digitalspy.com. 3 March 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  8. "INTERVIEW: Henry Chappell Meets the Sukis | Why Generation?". 6 February 2021.
  9. "The Sukis reflect on their teenage love affairs on "Cherryade"".
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