Writing

Jim Allen

Born October 7, 1926 · Manchester, England

Died June 24, 1999 · aged 72

James Allen was a socialist playwright from Miles Platting, Manchester, Lancashire, best known for his collaborations with Ken Loach. Allen began to write during his time as a miner. In 1958, he was involved in the launch and publication of The Miner. In 1964, he submitted a script to Granada TV, and was taken on as a scriptwriter for the soap opera Coronation Street (1965–67), a series for which…

Known For

Hidden Agenda

Hidden Agenda · 1990

MovieDramaThriller

In Ireland, American lawyer Ingrid Jessner and her activist partner, Paul Sullivan, struggle to uncover atrocities committed by the British government against the Northern Irish during the "Troubles." But when Sullivan is assassinated in the streets, Jessner teams up with Peter Kerrigan, a British investigator acting against the will of his own government, and struggles to uncover a conspiracy that may even implicate one of Kerrigan's colleagues.

Land and Freedom

Land and Freedom · 1995

Land and Freedom

Summer 1936: young unemployed communist David Carr leaves Liverpool to join the fight against fascism in Spain. He joins an international group of Militia-men and women, the POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista). After being wounded, he goes to Barcelona, where he joins another group of fighters.

Raining Stones

Raining Stones · 1993

MovieDramaCrime

Proud, though poor, Bob wants his little girl to have a beautiful (and costly) brand-new dress for her First Communion. His stubbornness and determination get him into trouble as he turns to increasingly questionable measures, in his desperation to raise the needed money. This tragic flaw leads him to risk all that he loves and values, his beloved family, indeed even his immortal soul and salvation, in blind pursuit of that goal.

United Kingdom

United Kingdom · 1981

MovieDramaTV Movie

Incendiary 1981 Play for Today, written by Jim Allen and directed by Roland Joffé that tells the story of a group of housing estate residents who attempt to organise against persistent rent rises.

The Spongers

The Spongers · 1978

MovieDramaTV Movie

In the days leading up the Queen's Silver Jubilee, Pauline, a recently separated single mother, receives a visit from a bailiff and is given 15 days to address her overdue rent payments. Meanwhile, the local council is under pressure to cut expenditure, and their decisions result in Pauline's mentally handicapped daughter Paula being transferred from a care home for special needs children to an old people's home, where she is all alone.

Walt, King of the Dumper

Walt, King of the Dumper · 1971

Walt, King of the Dumper

Walt finds the voluptuous Jasmine a more exciting proposition than digging a trench...

The Big Flame

The Big Flame · 1969

MovieDramaTV Movie

After a prolonged industrial dispute in the Liverpool Docks, the striking workers reject management demands of a return to work and decide instead to occupy the docks and run the operation themselves.

The Lump

The Lump · 1967

MovieDramaTV Movie

The Lump is an uncompromising exploration of exploitation and resistance within the building trade.

Filmography

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Hidden Agenda

Hidden Agenda · 1990

MovieDramaThriller

In Ireland, American lawyer Ingrid Jessner and her activist partner, Paul Sullivan, struggle to uncover atrocities committed by the British government against the Northern Irish during the "Troubles." But when Sullivan is assassinated in the streets, Jessner teams up with Peter Kerrigan, a British investigator acting against the will of his own government, and struggles to uncover a conspiracy that may even implicate one of Kerrigan's colleagues.

Writer

Land and Freedom

Land and Freedom · 1995

Land and Freedom

Summer 1936: young unemployed communist David Carr leaves Liverpool to join the fight against fascism in Spain. He joins an international group of Militia-men and women, the POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista). After being wounded, he goes to Barcelona, where he joins another group of fighters.

Writer

Raining Stones

Raining Stones · 1993

MovieDramaCrime

Proud, though poor, Bob wants his little girl to have a beautiful (and costly) brand-new dress for her First Communion. His stubbornness and determination get him into trouble as he turns to increasingly questionable measures, in his desperation to raise the needed money. This tragic flaw leads him to risk all that he loves and values, his beloved family, indeed even his immortal soul and salvation, in blind pursuit of that goal.

Writer

United Kingdom

United Kingdom · 1981

MovieDramaTV Movie

Incendiary 1981 Play for Today, written by Jim Allen and directed by Roland Joffé that tells the story of a group of housing estate residents who attempt to organise against persistent rent rises.

Writer

The Spongers

The Spongers · 1978

MovieDramaTV Movie

In the days leading up the Queen's Silver Jubilee, Pauline, a recently separated single mother, receives a visit from a bailiff and is given 15 days to address her overdue rent payments. Meanwhile, the local council is under pressure to cut expenditure, and their decisions result in Pauline's mentally handicapped daughter Paula being transferred from a care home for special needs children to an old people's home, where she is all alone.

Writer

Walt, King of the Dumper

Walt, King of the Dumper · 1971

Walt, King of the Dumper

Walt finds the voluptuous Jasmine a more exciting proposition than digging a trench...

Writer

The Big Flame

The Big Flame · 1969

MovieDramaTV Movie

After a prolonged industrial dispute in the Liverpool Docks, the striking workers reject management demands of a return to work and decide instead to occupy the docks and run the operation themselves.

Writer

The Lump

The Lump · 1967

MovieDramaTV Movie

The Lump is an uncompromising exploration of exploitation and resistance within the building trade.

Writer

A Choice of Evils

A Choice of Evils · 1977

A Choice of Evils

Cardinal Volponi tries to save his old friend, a priest-turned-militant communist, from being executed by the Nazis alongside 334 other hostages but struggles to reason with either the Vatican, the Nazis or his friend.

Writer

The Rank and File

The Rank and File · 1971

The Rank and File

MovieDramaTV Movie

Wilkinsons glass-works dominates a Staffordshire town. After a small walkout over pay discrepancies, the workers of the factory vote to go on strike, but they are denied support by their trade union.

Writer

Willie's Last Stand

Willie's Last Stand · 1982

Willie's Last Stand

MovieDramaComedy

Every man needs just one night out, off the leash. Willie's attempt to prove himself provides a painfully funny and painfully sad comment on the battle of the sexes.

Writer

Play for Today

Play for Today · 1970

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.

Writer

The Wednesday Play

The Wednesday Play · 1964

The Wednesday Play

An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.

Writer

Crown Court

Crown Court · 1972

Crown Court is an afternoon television courtroom drama produced by Granada Television for the ITV network that ran from 1972, when the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in the legal system of England and Wales, to 1984.

Writer

ITV Saturday Night Theatre

ITV Saturday Night Theatre · 1969

ITV Saturday Night Theatre

Anthology series of dramatic works.

Writer

Thirty-Minute Theatre

Thirty-Minute Theatre · 1965

Thirty-Minute Theatre

An anthology of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known.

Writer

Half Hour Story

Half Hour Story · 1967

Half Hour Story

18 short plays written especially for TV, an opportunity for up-and-coming directors such as floor manager Alan Clarke, who ended up doing 10 of the episodes. Some top ranking performers were attracted to the series.

Writer

Days of Hope

Days of Hope · 1975

A series of four feature-length episodes following the lives of a working-class family from the turmoils of the First World War in 1916 to the General Strike in 1926.

Writer

The Gathering Seed

The Gathering Seed · 1983

The Gathering Seed

The saga of Manchester lad Joe Henshaw, a story that takes in family life, the trials and tribulations of the Labour movement and World War Two

Writer