Colin Welland

Actor and writer Colin Welland will perhaps be forever remembered for his triumph at the 1982 Academy Awards when he won the Best Screenplay Oscar for his screenplay for the hit film Chariots of Fire proclaiming The British are Coming As an actor his first film appearance is perhaps still his bestloved the sympathetic Mr Farthing in Kes 1969 for which he won a BAFTA Born in Liverpool but raised in Leigh Welland initially started out as an art teacher before moving into acting and becoming a household name playing the role of PC Graham in the long running BBC police serial Z Cars Aside from Chariots of Fire he wrote many other plays and films including the BAFTA winning Kisses at Fifty later remade for Hollywood with Gene Hackman as Twice in a Lifetime Leeds United based on the rag trade strike that his own motherinlaw was active in Yanks A Dry White Season and War of the Buttons As a film and TV actor his credits include Kes Straw Dogs Blue Remembered Hills Cowboys and Sweeney He died at the age of 81 on November 2 2015 having suffered from Alzheimers disease for several years