Alan Janes
| Alan Janes | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
16 May 1951 West Ham |
| Alma mater | East 15 Acting School |
| Occupation | Writer, producer |
| Notable work | Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story |
Alan Janes (born 16 May 1951) is an English writer and producer who has worked extensively in TV, Films, Radio and Theatre. His best known work is the musical Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story (widely credited with being the first of the so-called ‘jukebox musicals’) which ran for over 14 years and almost 6,000 performances in London’s West End, and has been on tour in the UK for 17 years. Buddy has also played Broadway, 5 U.S. National Tours, 8 years in Germany, 3 years in Australia and New Zealand and countless other productions around the world leading to the show being named as ‘The World’s Most Successful Rock ‘n’ Roll Musical’.
Janes was born in West Ham, one of 5 children of a Jewish East End family who were originally from Russia and Poland. Janes left school at 15 and worked as a trainee cutter in an East End sweat shop by day and backstage at Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop at Stratford East by night. He then went on to East 15 Acting School to study stagecraft and direction. Janes was expelled at the end of his first year for taking the Acting School’s theatre lights, without permission, to light his own play which he had written and directed as part of the East London Arts Festival at the Shoreditch Town Hall.
Janes then worked in the London Docks before moving on to become assistant to Chris Stamp, the co-manager of rock group The Who. Spare time was dedicated to writing and in 1973 one of his early stage plays was taken up by the BBC and turned into an episode of Z-Cars.
Following his first Z-Cars episode, Two Wise Monkeys, Janes contributed further episodes to Z-Cars; Bit Of Business; Fat Freddy B.A., and then moved with producer Ron Craddock to write the first episodes of the ground-breaking and hard-hitting hospital drama Angels.
Janes continued to write while working at the BBC Television Script Unit and wrote many further episodes for Angels and original plays and classic series adaptations for BBC Radio including Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence, Our Man In Havana and Brighton Rock by Graham Greene, Plain Murder by CS Forester, Lord Raingo by Arnold Bennett.
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