Terence Frisby

Terence Frisby (1932-2020) was a British playwright, actor, director and producer. His most famous play, There’s a Girl in My Soup, was London’s longest-running comedy (six and a half years) 1966-1972 and a worldwide smash hit, with long runs on Broadway, and in Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Sydney, Rome, Vienna, Prague and many other places. It is still constantly played wherever there is theatre. His script of the equally successful film, which starred Peter Sellers and Goldie Hawn, won the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award in 1970 for the Best British Comedy Screenplay.

His other stage plays include The Subtopians (Arts Theatre, 1964), The Bandwagon (Mermaid, 1969), It’s All Right If I Do It (Mermaid, 1977), Seaside Postcard (Young Vic, 1978), Rough Justice (Apollo, 1994) and Funny About Love (two UK national tours, 1999–2000). All of his plays are published by Samuel French.

Frisby also wrote many plays for television, two of which were nominated for awards. His comedy series include Lucky Feller with David Jason (1976) and That’s Love with Jimmy Mulville, Diana Hardcastle and Tony Slattery, (1988–92), which won the Gold Award for Comedy at the 1991 Houston International Film Festival. His radio play Just Remember Two Things: It’s Not Fair And Don’t Be Late for BBC Radio 4 won The Giles Cooper Play of the Year Award and achieved some sort of record by being broadcast ten times in a few months on Radio 4 and BBC World Service. A stage play with music of this was produced at the Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple, in 2004. It was again tried out in 2011 as a full musical, with the new title of Kisses on a Postcard. The book of Kisses On A Postcard was published by Bloomsbury Press in 2009. It has sold and is selling many thousands.

His first book was Outrageous Fortune, an autobiographical story about his fifteen years as a litigant-in-person in the High Court following his spectacularly awful divorce. Outrageous Fortune, both hilarious and nightmarish, created shock waves throughout the legal world and helped reform divorce law.

Besides his work as a writer, Terence worked extensively for over fifty years as an actor, director and producer. He played leads and directed in the West End, Young Vic and all over the country. As a producer, his favourite presentation was the South African, multi-award-winning Woza Albert! at the Criterion Theatre in 1983, subsequently Off-Broadway and worldwide.