Writing

Ted Willis

Born — Died

1918-01-13 — 1992-12-22

Place of birth

Tottenham, Middlesex, England, UK

Known for

Writing

Credits

21 titles

Known for

The Horsemasters poster
7.0

American students are having a difficult time at a prestigious English riding school. Dinah Wilcox is overly cautious because of memories of an accident, but Danny Grant gives her confidence. The strict, but admired, instructor fears she must sell her favorite horse because of school tradition, but the students end up taking up a collection to buy it back for her.

The Horsemasters

1961

No artwork available
NR

An anthology series with the premise that there is a story behind every door.

Knock on Any Door

1965

No artwork available
NR

It's 1953 and a street party is held in Bethlehem Street, London, to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation.

Street Party

1977

One Good Turn poster
6.2

Norman is the oldest orphan at Greenwood Children's Home and now acts as their caretaker. All the orphans are very happy and well cared for. The adventures start when a nasty property developer who is also the chairman of the orphanage board wants to close the orphanage and build a factory on the site. The children are sent to Brighton for the day and Norman is very excited because he's "Never seen the Sea". When they get back they discover the plan to close the orphanage and have to decide what to do

One Good Turn

1955

The Blue Lamp poster
6.6

P.C. George Dixon is a long-serving traditional copper who is due to retire shortly. He takes a new recruit under his aegis and introduces him to the easy-going night beat. Dixon is a classic ordinary hero but also anachronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of the 1950s.

The Blue Lamp

1950

Good-Time Girl poster
6.4

Sent to a home for "problem" girls, incipient juvenile delinquent Gwen receives a crash course in petty crime. Back on the outside, she falls in with the usual bad crowd, and suffers spectacularly as a result.

Good-Time Girl

1948

Series credits

Behind the camera

The Horsemasters poster
7.0

American students are having a difficult time at a prestigious English riding school. Dinah Wilcox is overly cautious because of memories of an accident, but Danny Grant gives her confidence. The strict, but admired, instructor fears she must sell her favorite horse because of school tradition, but the students end up taking up a collection to buy it back for her.

The Horsemasters

1961

No artwork available
NR

It's 1953 and a street party is held in Bethlehem Street, London, to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation.

Street Party

1977

One Good Turn poster
6.2

Norman is the oldest orphan at Greenwood Children's Home and now acts as their caretaker. All the orphans are very happy and well cared for. The adventures start when a nasty property developer who is also the chairman of the orphanage board wants to close the orphanage and build a factory on the site. The children are sent to Brighton for the day and Norman is very excited because he's "Never seen the Sea". When they get back they discover the plan to close the orphanage and have to decide what to do

One Good Turn

1955

The Blue Lamp poster
6.6

P.C. George Dixon is a long-serving traditional copper who is due to retire shortly. He takes a new recruit under his aegis and introduces him to the easy-going night beat. Dixon is a classic ordinary hero but also anachronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of the 1950s.

The Blue Lamp

1950

Good-Time Girl poster
6.4

Sent to a home for "problem" girls, incipient juvenile delinquent Gwen receives a crash course in petty crime. Back on the outside, she falls in with the usual bad crowd, and suffers spectacularly as a result.

Good-Time Girl

1948

Flame in the Streets poster
6.3

Domestic difficulties develop in a working-class family when their daughter falls in love with a Jamaican man.

Flame in the Streets

1961

Bitter Harvest poster
6.2

A pretty young woman will do anything to escape her deadly dull existence in the backlots of Wales. But when she reaches the bright lights of London is the price too high?

Bitter Harvest

1963

Hot Summer Night poster
9.0

Jacko, a respected union man, is fighting for the promotion of a Jamaican colleague to chargehand, but when his daughter brings home her black boyfriend, he realises that racial prejudice is rife within his own home. This powerful drama exposes the deep-seated racial tensions hidden in British family life during the late 1950s. Written for the stage by Unity Theatre's Ted Willis, this television recording was filmed a few weeks after the play's successful West End run, and most of the stage cast repeat their roles here, including the terrific John Slater, Andree Melly and Lloyd Reckord. The drama's interracial kiss is probably the first to be shown on British TV.

Hot Summer Night

1959

The Large Rope poster
6.0

After being framed for a murder he didn't commit, Tom Penney (Donald Houston) serves his time and returns to his rural English home to establish a quiet life. When another victim is found, however, Tom is blamed for the crime and flees rather than returnng to prison. Hoping to find the real killer -- or killers -- Tom investigates while keeping a low profile to elude his pursuers, and a vital clue leads him on the path to possible redemption.

The Large Rope

1953

The Huggetts Abroad poster
6.8

Life is not going well for the Huggetts. Father has lost his job. Jimmy and his wife cannot get to South Africa where he has a new job. So the family decide that they should go to South Africa by truck. With their travelling companion they travel across the desert which includes a brush with the law.

The Huggetts Abroad

1949

Woman in a Dressing Gown poster
6.3

A married, middle-aged woman is shocked to discover that her husband, who she thought was content in their marriage, has become infatuated with a beautiful younger woman and is planning to leave his family for her.

Woman in a Dressing Gown

1957

Trouble in Store poster
6.1

Norman is working in the stock room of a large London department store, but he has ambition (doesn't he always !!), he wants to be a window dresser making up the public displays. Whilst trying to fulfill his ambition, he falls in love (doesn't he always !!), with one of the shopgirls. Together they discover a plot to rob the store and, somehow, manage to foil the robbers.

Trouble in Store

1953

No Trees in the Street poster
5.8

Based on the play by Ted Willis, the film is set in the years just before World War II, when England hadn't completely dug itself out of the worldwide depression. Melvyn Hayes is featured as an aimless teenager, who tries to escape his squalid surroundings by entering a life of crime. He falls in with local hoodlum Herbert Lom, who holds the rest of the slum citizens in the grip of fear including Hayes' own family. No Trees in the Street chronicles Hayes' sordid progress from nickel-and-dime thefts to murder.

No Trees in the Street

1959

Burnt Evidence poster
6.0

Duncan Lamont plays Jane Hylton's jealous husband. In a confrontation, Lamont accidentally shoots Hylton's lover. Convinced that he's a murderer, he heads for the hills as a police hunt begins... Classic British thriller from the creator of Dixon Of Dock Green.

Burnt Evidence

1954

It's Great to be Young! poster
6.8

IT’S GREAT TO A YOUNG stars John Mills as Dingle an easygoing high school teacher. When autocratic new headmaster Frome (Cecil Parker) begins imposing all sorts of repressive rules, Dingle does his best to stand up for his students, only to be dismissed for his troubles. The kids conspire to not only reinstate their favourite teacher, but to circumvent Frome's refusal to purchase new instruments for an upcoming music festival.

It's Great to be Young!

1956

A Boy, a Girl and a Bike poster
4.9

The lives of the members of a West Yorkshire cycling club are complicated by romantic entanglements and a series of bike thefts.

A Boy, a Girl and a Bike

1949

No artwork available
7.0

Aboard a BOAC plane departing an unnamed Iron Curtain country, a stowaway has convinced a flight attendant to conceal him so he can defect on arrival in London. However, a high-ranking secret police officer posing as a passenger informs her that the man she's protecting is not wanted for his politics; actually, he is a murderer.

The Scent of Fear

1959

The Undefeated poster
7.0

Looking at how soldiers injured and disabled during WWII would be helped to live as normal a life as possible in the post war years.

The Undefeated

1950

The Young and the Guilty poster
6.2

Parents veto the romance of two high-school students, forcing them to meet in secret.

The Young and the Guilty

1958

No artwork available
8.0

A mystery thriller intended for US TV.

The Wallet

1952