Editing Peter Nichols (playwright)

{{Short description|English playwright (1927–2019)}}
{{distinguish|text=Peter Nichols, a pseudonym of science fiction writer [[John Christopher]] or [[Peter Nicholls (disambiguation)]]}}
{{more citations needed|date=August 2019}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Peter Richard Nichols
| honorific_suffix   = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE|FRSL}}
| image = Peter Richard Nichols 2 (1).jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1927|7|31}}
| birth_place = [[Bristol]], England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2019|09|7|1927|7|31}}
| death_place= [[Oxford]], England
| occupation= Playwright, screenwriter, director, journalist 
}}

'''Peter Richard Nichols''' (31 July 1927 – 7 September 2019)<ref name="GuardianDeath">{{cite web |title=Peter Nichols, playwright best known for Joe Egg, dies aged 92 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49637439 |publisher=BBC News |date=9 September 2019 |access-date=1 October 2019}}</ref> was an English playwright, screenwriter, director and journalist.

==Life and career==
Born in [[Bristol]], he was educated at [[Bristol Grammar School]], and served his compulsory National Service as a clerk in Calcutta and later in the [[British Army]]'s [[BFBS Live Events|Combined Services Entertainment Unit]] in Singapore<ref name="bl">{{cite web |title=Theatre Archive Project |url=http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=024M-1CDR0028659X-0100V0.xml |publisher=[[British Library]] |access-date=4 June 2011}}</ref> where he entertained the troops alongside [[John Schlesinger]], [[Stanley Baxter]], [[Peter Vaughan]] and [[Kenneth Williams]],<ref name="Stevens">{{cite book |last=Stevens |first=Christopher |title=Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams |publisher=John Murray |year=2010 |page=351 |isbn=978-1-84854-195-5}}</ref> before going on to study acting at the [[Bristol Old Vic Theatre School]]. He later claimed to have studied acting because there were no dedicated courses for playwrights.<ref name="bl"/> While working as a teacher, he began to write television plays that achieved notice. His first play for the stage was ''The Hooded Terror'', part of a season of new plays at the Little Theatre in Bristol. He later wrote ''[[A Day in the Death of Joe Egg]]'' for the stage.<ref name="Stevens"/> An early film script was ''Catch Us If You Can'' directed by John Boorman.<ref name="three">{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-moguls-nat-cohen-part-three-1962-68/|date=21 January 2025|access-date=21 January 2025|title=Forgotten British Moguls: Nat Cohen – Part Three (1962-68)}}</ref>

''A Day in the Death of Joe Egg'' is a one-set drama in [[music hall]] style. ''[[The National Health (play)|The National Health]]'' is a fantasy farce, also interrupted by [[vaudeville]]. ''[[Privates on Parade]]'' is a [[musical comedy]], partly inspired by Nichols's own experiences in the Combined Services Entertainments Unit.<ref name="Stevens"/> ''[[Poppy (1982 musical)|Poppy]]'' takes the form of a Christmas [[pantomime]].

Despite the comic style, Nichols' plays deal with the most serious of themes. In ''A Day in the Death of Joe Egg'' the burden of raising a hopelessly [[Disability|handicapped]] child shatters a couple's marriage. The patients of ''The National Health'' suffer and die, as do the singing soldiers of ''Privates on Parade''. In ''Poppy'', a pantomime take on the Chinese [[opium wars]], [[Dick Whittington]]'s girlfriend becomes a drug addict. ''[[Passion Play (Nichols play)|Passion Play]]'' (known as ''Passion'' in the United States) focuses on adultery and betrayal. In ''[[Blue Murder (Peter Nichols play)|Blue Murder]]'', a comic satire about play censorship, a constable investigates a death.

Nichols is often considered an especially autobiographical playwright, and chronicled much of the background to his plays in his published [[#Books|autobiography and diaries]]. ''Joe Egg'' is based on Nichols' own experiences of raising a handicapped child, ''The National Health'' draws on a hospital stay of his own, while ''Privates on Parade'' draws on his own military experiences.

Nichols was appointed Commander of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in the [[2018 New Year Honours]] for services to drama.<ref>{{cite web |author=Entertainment & Arts team |title=In pictures: Entertainment stars recognised in New Year Honours |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42503068 |publisher=BBC News |date=29 December 2017 |access-date=23 March 2017}}</ref>

He died on 7 September 2019 in Oxford, survived by his wife Thelma and three children.<ref name="GuardianDeath"/><ref>{{cite web |last=Quinn |first=Michael |title=Obituary: playwright Peter Nichols – 'Never afraid of tackling the thorniest of issues head-on' |url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/2019/obituary-peter-nichols/ |website=[[The Stage]] |date=10 September 2019 |access-date=1 October 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Nightingale |first=Benedict |author-link=Benedict Nightingale |title=Peter Nichols, Playwright Who Found Comedy in Desperation, Dies at 92 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/theater/peter-nichols-dead.html |website=The New York Times |date=9 September 2019 |access-date=1 October 2019}}</ref>

==Plays==
His plays include:
* ''Promenade'', an original play for television ([[ITV Granada|Granada Television]], 1959)
* ''Ben Spray'', an original play for television (Granada Television, 1960)
* ''[[The Hooded Terror|The Hooded Terror (Rehearsed Reading)]]'' (Little Theatre, Bristol, 1964)
* ''[[A Day in the Death of Joe Egg]]'' ([[Citizens Theatre]], Glasgow, 1967)
* ''[[The Wednesday Play#The Gorge|The Gorge]]'', a play in ''[[The Wednesday Play]]'' series (BBC, 1968) 
* ''[[The National Health (play)|The National Health]]'' ([[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre Company]] at the Old Vic, 1969)
* ''[[Forget-me-not Lane]]'' ([[Greenwich Theatre]], 1971)
* ''[[Chez Nous (play)|Chez Nous]]'' ([[Gielgud Theatre|Globe Theatre]], 1974)
* ''[[Harding's Luck]]'' (Greenwich Theatre, 1974)
* ''The Freeway'' (National Theatre Company at [[The Old Vic]], 1976)
* ''[[Privates on Parade]]'' ([[Royal Shakespeare Company]] at the [[Aldwych Theatre]], 1977)
* ''[[Born in the Gardens]]'' ([[Bristol Old Vic]], 1970; Globe Theatre, London, 1980)
* ''[[Passion Play (Nichols play)|Passion Play]]'' ([[Royal Shakespeare Company]] at the [[Aldwych Theatre]] 1981; [[Adelphi Theatre|Adelphi]], London, 1982)
* ''[[Poppy (1982 musical)|Poppy]]'' ([[Royal Shakespeare Company]] at the [[Barbican Centre|Barbican Theatre]], 1982)
* ''[[A Piece of My Mind]]'' ([[University of Southampton#Highfield Campus|Nuffield Theatre]], Southampton, 1987; [[Apollo London]], London, 1987)
* ''[[Blue Murder (Peter Nichols play)|Blue Murder]]'' ([[Show of Strength Theatre Company]], Bristol, 1995)
* ''[[So Long Life]]'' ([[Show of Strength Theatre Company]], Bristol, 2000)
* ''[[Nicholodeon]]'' ([[Show of Strength Theatre Company]], Bristol, 2000)
* ''Lingua Franca'' ([[Finborough Theatre]], London, 2010)

==Books==
*''Feeling You're Behind'', an autobiography by Peter Nichols ([[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]], 1984) {{ISBN|0-297-78392-0}}
'Whatever interest my life may have had must have been exhausted. Yet there were better reasons than vanity – I needed the advance the publishers offered, which was far more generous than any given to me for a play; the theatre itself, once so alluring, now seemed past its best, the wrinkles showing, the kisses dry and dutiful; it would be a bitter pleasure to describe my disenchantment and blame the people who'd done me down; and if I didn't write a book about me, it was clear no one else would." Peter Nichols' preface, page xi.

*''Peter Nichols: Diaries 1969–1977'' by Peter Nichols (Nick Hern Books, 2000) {{ISBN|1-85459-474-5}}
"Did you know that [[Maggie Smith]] once accused [[Laurence Olivier]] of having "a tin ear and two left feet"? That's one of many enjoyably acerbic snippets in ''Peter Nichols' Diaries 1969–77'', a period that stretches from the composition of his ''[[The National Health (play)|The National Health]]'' to the conception of his masterpiece, ''[[Passion Play (play)|Passion Play]]''....Nichols tends to be touchy, crusty, disappointed with himself....yet wonderfully observant, honest and likeable." [[Benedict Nightingale]], ''The Times'' 13 December 2000.

==Sources==
*''[[Theatre Record]]'' and its annual indexes
*''London Stage in the 20th Century'' by [[Robert Tanitch]], Haus Books (2007) {{ISBN|978-1-904950-74-5}}
*''The National: The Theatre and its work 1963–1997'' by [[Simon Callow]], Nick Hern Books (1997) {{ISBN|1-85459-323-4}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*http://www.alanbrodie.com/thumbnails/hrm8qmpl403/Peter-Nichols
*[http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=024M-C1142X000265-0100V0.xml Interview with Peter Nichols] for the [[Theatre Archive Project]]
*[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3336 'Peter Nichols (1927–)'] in The Literary Encyclopedia
*[http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/whatson/downloads/index.html British Library Podcast] Peter Nichols discusses the archiving of his own papers in the [http://searcharchives.bl.uk/IAMS_VU2:IAMS032-002038067 British Library Manuscripts Collections] as part of the international [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928012455/http://www.literary.org.uk/conference.php Manuscripts Matter] conference
*{{IBDB name}}
*[https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/apr/10/jonathan-meades-on-my-radar-vladimir-nabokov-marty-feldman-thomas-hardy On my radar: Jonathan Meades’s cultural highlights]
* https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/2017/peter-nichols-at-90-playwriting-was-my-dream-acting-was-just-a-stopgap/
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/theater/peter-nichols-dead.html Peter Nichols, Playwright Who Found Comedy in Desperation, Dies at 92]
*https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/2019/obituary-peter-nichols/
*[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49637439 Peter Nichols: British playwright dies aged 92]
*{{NPG name|id=10832}}

{{John Whiting Award}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nichols, Peter}}
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:2019 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Bristol]]
[[Category:People educated at Bristol Grammar School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School]]
[[Category:Writers from Bristol]]
[[Category:English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:20th-century British Army personnel]]