Alun Owen (November 24, 1925 – December 6, 1994) was a British screenwriter, predominantly active in television but best remembered by a wider audience for writing the screenplay of The Beatles' debut feature film A Hard Day's Night in 1964. November 24 is the 328th day (329th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Screenwriters, scenarists or script writers, are authors who write the screenplays from which movies and television programs are made. ... The Beatles were a British rock music group from Liverpool, England held in very high regard for both their artistic achievements and their considerable commercial success, and have amassed an enormous worldwide fanbase that continues to exist to this day. ... This article is about the film. ...

Born in Menai Bridge in Wales, Owen was raised in the English city of Liverpool, where his family moved when he was eight years old. After a short career with the Merchant Navy, for two years Owen worked down a coal mine as a "Bevin Boy", before moving into repertory theatre as an assistant stage manager. From there he moved into acting, first with the Birmingham Repertory Company and then various other companies, appearing in small roles in films and to a greater degree in the newer medium of television during the 1950s. Menai Bridge (Welsh: Porthaethwy) is a town on Anglesey, Wales. ... For an explanation of often confusing terms such as Great Britain, Britain, United Kingdom and England, see British Isles (terminology). ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the British Isles Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked 1st UK... Liverpool waterfront by night, as seen from the Wirral. ... In most seafaring countries, the merchant marine (or merchant navy) is a fleet of ships used for commerce that sometimes complements the navy. ... Wyoming coal mine Coal mining is the mining of coal. ... A Bevin Boy was a young British man conscripted to work in the coal mines of the United Kingdom, from December 1943 until the end of World War II. Chosen at random from among the conscripts, nearly 48,000 Bevin Boys performed vital but largely unrecognised service in the coal... Properly, repertory is a style of a number of repertory companies which rehearsed and performed plays in a fortnight. ...

By the late 1950s, however, Owen was beginning to realise that his real ambitions lay in writing rather than performing, and he began to submit scripts to BBC radio. His first full-length play, Progress to the Park, was produced by the Theatre Royal, Stratford East following its radio debut, and later in the West End. A second play, titled The Rough and Ready Lot, was adapted for television by the BBC in September 1959. BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. ... The Theatre Royal Stratford East is a theatre in Stratford, London, which opened in 1884. ... West End is the name of some places in the world, including: The West End of London, England West End Theatre, is where many of Londons major theatres are located and premier cinema screenings take place. ...

His next play was his first to be written directly for television. Titled No Trams to Lime Street, the Liverpool-set piece was presented in ABC Television's Armchair Theatre anthology strand, for which Owen continued to write plays into the 1960s. He also made his feature film scriptwriting debut in 1960, penning The Criminal from a storyline originally by Jimmy Sangster. ABC logo, 1960s ABC Television or ABC Weekend TV was the British Independent Television (ITV) (commercial television) contractor on Saturdays and Sundays in the Midlands and North of England between 1956 and 1968. ... Armchair Theatre was a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 until 1968 in its original form, and was intermittently resurrected at various points during the 1970s. ... Jimmy Sangster is a British screenwriter and director born on 2nd December 1924. ...

In 1964, when director Richard Lester was hired to produce The Beatles' first film, he remembered Owen from their previous work together on Lester's ITV television programme The Dick Lester Show in 1955. The Beatles were also keen on Owen, having been impressed with his depiction of Liverpool in No Trams to Lime Street, and Owen spent some time associating with the four band members to gain an ear for their characters and manners of speech. His resulting script for A Hard Day's Night earned him a nomination for the 1965 Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay. Richard Lester (born January 19, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a UK based film director famous for his work with The Beatles. ... Current ITV logo. ... The Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. ...

Television continued to be his main medium, however, and he concentrated mainly on single plays for the small screen, in strands such as BBC2's Theatre 625. He carried on writing for television into the 1970s and 80s, with his final produced work being an adaptation of R. F. Delderfield's novel Come Home Charlie and Face Them for ITV in 1990. BBC Two (or BBC2 as it was formerly styled) was the second UK television station to be aired by the BBC. // History The channel was scheduled to begin at 7:20 pm on April 20, 1964 and show an evening of light entertainment, starting with the comedy show The Alberts... Theatre 625 was a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. ... Ronald Frederick Delderfield (February 12, 1912 - June 24, 1972) was a popular British novelist and dramatist, many of whose works have been adapted for television and are still widely read. ...

He died in London in 1994. London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ...

References

• Vahimagi, Tise. Owen, Alun (1925-1994). British Film Institute Screenonline website. URL accessed February 7, 2006.

The British Film Institute (BFI) is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and... screenonline is a website devoted to the history of British film and television, and to social history as revealed by film and television. ... February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Alun Owen at the Internet Movie Database.