John Chapman

John Chapman initially trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After three years on stage, he decided to turn his skills away from the spoken word and towards the text itself. His first play, DRY ROT, opened at the Whitehall Theatre, London, in 1954. It proved to be a resounding success, and ran for three and a half years, totalling 1,475 performances. As a result, he decided to concentrate on his playwriting. His next play, SIMPLE SPYMAN, also ran for over three years and was followed by THE BRIDES OF MARCH, DIPLOMATIC BAGGAGE and OH! CLARENCE. John Chapman is well known for his collaborations with Carla Lane in THE LIVER BIRDS; and Ray Cooney in the ever-popular comedies MOVE OVER MRS. MARKHAM, MY GIDDY AUNT, NOT NOW DARLING, and THERE GOES THE BRIDE. The early sixties witnessed the start of a long relationship between Chapman and the B.B.C. He wrote two hundred TV comedies, including "Blandings Castle," for Sir Ralph Richardson, "Happy Ever After" (co-written with Eric Meriman), as well as twenty-six episodes of a highly successful Thames Television series, "Fresh Fields", with Julia McKenzie and Anton Rogers, which won the Emmy Award in America for the most popular comedy. John Chapman died in 2001, survived by his wife, actress Betty Impey, and their four sons.