The brothers-in-film have been brilliant and Tony Scott will be sadly missed. He and Sir Ridley have also been part of a fascinating process: the creation of an unreal world beloved of London - and therefore of the UK's decision-makers
It had songs, jokes and politics – and was a hit with intellectuals and miners. Playwright Lee Hall on the thrill of bringing Close the Coalhouse Door to 21st-century audiences
Paul Allen writes: Alan Plater was everything Michael Coveney described in his fine obituary (26 June) – and more. Notably, he was the most generous supporter of other writers, formally through the Writers' Guild, but also through direct contact.
Alan Plater was a writer's writer. He combined an industry with an ease and fluency that was not only incredibly rare, but almost painfully irksome to any other writer in his orbit
Obituary: The stage and television director, Bill Hays was one of the brightest, most versatile and certainly most cavalier of the generation to emerge in the 1960s and 70s. By Alan Plater.
Tristram Powell obituary