Carla Lane

BRITISH WRITER

Born in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, Carla Lane enjoyed first successes as writer for television in collaboration with Myra Taylor, notably with The Liver Birds. Subsequently, she embarked on long series of successful solo series and was awarded an OBE, 1989. Carla returned her OBE in 2002 in protest at the award of a CBE to Brian Cass, managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences. HLS has been at the centre of numerous animal rights protests for its use of animals in the development and testing of drugs. Upon returning her award, she received a handwritten reply from Tony Blair saying that she deserved the honour and that it would be returned if she so chose.

Carla Lane is accepted as one of the most successful of all British sitcom writers--she has conceived of and written numerous shows which have proved tremendously popular, and contributed to many others. Lane carries particular significance within British television, as she is one of few British counterparts to the women writers, directors and producers of American prime-time sitcoms.

Carla Lane broke directly into television when she and Myra Taylor created The Liver Birds, a BBC sitcom based on two young women sharing a Liverpool bedsit and their mainly amorous adventures. Having moved to London from her native Liverpool at a time when, Lane reports, being from Liverpool wasn't something people were interested in, she succeeded in demonstrating her writing skills precisely by flaunting Liverpool culture. Over the following ten years and nearly one hundred episodes a highly recognisable style began to develop in Lane's writing of The Liver Birds. The characteristics of her work include themes based on sexual and personal relationships, highly identifiable, contemporary characters, and narratives more real than British television comedy had hitherto allowed. Ironically, Carla Lane's comedy has always been distinctive and identifiable for its lack of jokes, and can be best defined as comedy-drama. She describes herself as writing dialogue not jokes, with humour emerging through characters and speech rather than action.

Butterflies, Lane's next popular success, marked an increasing seriousness, not to mention melancholic tone, in her sitcoms. Another long-running BBC show (1978-83), Butterflies presented an intimate and studied portrait of middle-aged, suburban housewife Ria (Wendy Craig) as she became attuned to the shortcomings of her life. Initially the BBC argued with Lane that comedy was not ready for a married woman stricken by another man, but Lane persevered and Ria was embarked on an adulterous affair. Although far from being a champion of women's issues, it has been central to Lane's style that she writes from a woman's experience and point of view, a concept clearly evident in the relationships defined in Butterflies. Her shows are, consequently, favourites with women viewers.

Lane furthered many of her earlier themes in the ensuing sitcoms, including Solo, The Mistress (both starring Felicity Kendal), Leaving, and I Woke Up One Morning (all BBC). In addition to creating portraits of life up and down the social scale, these and other shows took social issues as a backdrop for character development, focusing by turns on adultery, divorce, alcoholism. Unemployment, another such issue, was the typically unconventional background of Lane's next major show, Bread (BBC, 1986-91), which was once again informed and inspired by Liverpool, and revolved around the Boswells, a working-class family consisting of a matriarch and her unemployed children. Bread was in no sense an instant success--it took a while for viewers to warm to the indulgent, staunchly Catholic mother and her family of unashamed scroungers--but within two years the sitcom had gained almost soap status, and came close to overtaking top soap EastEnders in the ratings.

Whilst Lane's contribution to British television has been officially recognised by an OBE, her work has not always received critical approval. There has often been an aversion to her subtle, anecdotal and often poignant approach to programmes that have been labeled as comedy. However the BBC's recognition of the popular appeal of her writing has invariably been confirmed in the ratings. Lane's phenomenal popular success can be seen to have stemmed from her insight into character construction, and her skill at allowing humour to flourish in situations not conventionally considered to allow for such potential, yet which exist as everyday realities.

Nicola Foster

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