James Workman (writer)


James Workman was a Scottish-born actor and writer who mostly worked in Australia.

Biography

Workman was born in Scotland in Cove House, Ecclefechan in 1912. In 1914 his family moved to London and he attended a convent school. Workman left school relatively early and attended the HMS Conway a school ship which trained people for the merchant navy. He worked as a sailor for four years on ships such as The City of Exeter and various freighters. Workman then became a policemen in London and started acting in plays in his spare time. He left the police force when he was twenty five. He wrote novels in England but not radio.
Workman moved to South Africa, originally intending to becoming a miner at Benoni, but these plans were thwarted when he realised his lung capacity did not allow him to work underground. He moved to Lourenço Marques in Portuguese East Africa, where he worked for an English-language radio station, announcing and writing scripts, including five-minute serials. He also lived in Rhodesia. During the war he enlisted with the Witwatersrand Rifles and served with the Eighth Army. After his war service Workman toured Africa in shows with Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies. He worked for the South African Broadcasting Commission as an announcer, scriptwriter and producer, writing some serials.

Australia

Workman moved to Australia in 1948 for his wife's health. He worked as an actor at first, mostly on stage, but also on radio. He began writing on radio for Gordon Grimsdale when Grimsdale expressed his frustration getting writers for the series Thirty Minutes to Go; Workman became one of its leading writers.
In 1957-58 he lived in London for 18 months.
When television came to Australia, the market for commercial radio plays went into decline. Workman focusing on novels - he wrote 23 in all. He continued to write for radio and did scripts for television, including the revue Press Gang and the play Reflections in Dark Glasses.
Workman died on 28 March 2001, at the age of 89.

Appraisal

A 1955 article called Workman "One of the finest scripters in the game, a writer with a hatred of the obvious, a constant seeker after new ideas."
Radio historian Jacqueline Kent wrote "His scripts were innovative and, some thought, difficult to produce and act. At a time when most writers let each character say something definite, followed by a speech from another character, Workman’s scripts used parallel conversations... James Workman was writing Pinteresque dialogue long before Harold Pinter; in Australian radio his technique was way ahead of its time."
Workman considered himself a "commercial writer" more at home working for the commercial networks than the ABC.

Films

Television

Novels

Short story collections

  • Shock Stories - "The Castaway", "The Dead Man’s Heart", "The Fungus and the Flower", "Possession", "The Spell", "Spindrift", "Trade-in Bodies"
  • Terrifying Stories - "Dead on Time", "Dogged", "The Flying Fix", "Hanging On", "Mad to Start", "Shadow Men", "A Small Grave Matter"
  • Horror Tales - "The Creep", "Fattened Calf", "The Flare", "The Flashing Scar", "Man on the Run", "Perkins the Pilot"

Other short stories

  • The Reluctant Shadow
  • "Apex" in London Mystery Selection #36, March 1958
  • "The Mummy’s Curse" in Nightmare Stories ed. Charles Higham

Radio

As actor

  • Murder at the Seventh
  • From These Ashes
  • Blue Hills
  • Close Shaves in History
  • Gimme the Boats - actor

As writer

  • Thirty Minutes to Go - various episodes
  • Fares Please
  • There's Nothing New
  • The Last Miracle
  • The Legend of Blue Nose Rock
  • Personal Effects
  • Rhthym of Life
  • Mirror Mirror on the Wall
  • L'innoue The innocent
  • This is My Play
  • This is My Play "The Jackpot"
  • The Tin Hook
  • Heartbeat - also actor
  • A Moment of Peril
  • The Big Squeeze - series - also director
  • Deadline - series - also director
  • The Key - series
  • Call Box
  • Ben Hur
  • Solo Performance
  • Street of Secrets
  • The Thirsty World
  • The Apologetic Tiger - adapted from his novel
  • Cold Fury - adapted from his stage play Eternal Night
  • Countdown
  • Timber Ridge
  • Odette
  • For the Young in Heart
  • ''The Old Poisoner''

Documentary

  • Facing Facts - writer

Stage

  • Love for Love - actor
  • The Circle - actor
  • Midsummer Nights Dream - actor
  • various plays as actor for the Globe Player in Sydney in 1949
  • Duet for Two Hands - actor, producer
  • Macbeth - actor
  • Private Lives - actor
  • Where's Charley? - actor
  • various productions as actor for John Alden Company in 1951-1952 including Hamlet, Midsummer Night's Dream ''King Lear, The Merry Wives of Windsor
  • Why Not Tonight? - actor
  • Eternal Night - writer
  • Hamlet - actor
  • The Love of Four Colonels - actor
  • People of Nowhere - actor
  • The Merchant of Venice - actor
  • The Grotto - actor
  • The Passion Play actor
  • Assault with a Deadly Weapon - actor
  • See you at Philippi - writer
  • Breadfruit for breakfast : a play in two acts - writer
  • Possession : a play in one act / - writer
  • Cold Cure - writer
  • Brain drain : a play in one act - writer
  • Shut-up and Strip : a play in one act'' - writer