Glenn Wilhide

Glenn Wilhide (born 1958) is an American screenwriter and television producer.

Early life and family

Wilhide was born in Maryland, USA, to American parents. His family moved to the UK when he was a child and he was educated at Leighton Park School in Reading, Berkshire, and the University of York where he read English and History of Art. He is married to Jennifer Caron Hall.

His paternal grandfather, also called Glenn Calvin Wilhide, was the inventor of the first hand power drill, for the Black and Decker company in Towson, Maryland.[1]

Producer

Glenn Wilhide was co-founder of the independent production company called ZED Ltd in 1985, and he and partner Sophie Belhetchet went on to produce documentaries, talk shows, and dramas including The Camomile Lawn, The Manageress and The Peacock Spring, the latter starring Naveen Andrews, Wilhide's wife Jennifer Hall, and Hattie Morahan in her first role.

Wilhide's first full producer credit was a feature film at Zed titled The Road Home, directed by Jerzy Kaszubowski and shot in Poland for Channel 4 in 1985, when Wilhide was 27 years old.[2][3] It was released as ‘’Cienie’’ in Polish one year later.

Wilhide disbanded ZED Ltd in 1996, and began working as a freelance producer at Granada TV, developing projects primarily with Gub Neal in the drama department.

The Royle Family Series 1

In 1997 Wilhide produced the first series of the award-winning comedy The Royle Family starring Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash, which they co-wrote with Henry Normal. It was first broadcast on BBC2 on 14 September 1998. Reviews for The Royle Family immediately recognised the ground-breaking nature of the comedy and its production quality.[4] .[5][6][7] Tim Hulse in the Express, wrote on October 31: "It's as if Samuel Beckett had been commissioned to write a sitcom." "Banal, repetitive, vulgar...and very funny" said the Time Out critic on October 10. The Guardian reviewer imagined the distinguished playwright Samuel Beckett endorsing the first series above all subsequent series of the show.[8][9][10][11] Of the second episode, the Guardian critic Nancy Banks-Smith wrote: "This is a rivetingly original slice of life, like a bomb-damaged house displaying its vacancy to the world...The comedy is in the beautiful truth of observation, which hits the nail on the thumb." By late December The Royle Family had won Best New Television Comedy at The British Comedy Awards, and it ranks 31 in the BFI TV 100.

Other work

The following year Glenn Wilhide produced Mrs Merton and Malcolm with the Royle Family team; both shows were made by Granada TV for the BBC.

The drama Metropolis (2000) (Granada Television for ITV), about a group of recent graduate friends finding their feet in London, was both produced and directed by Glenn Wilhide, with addition direction by Tim Whitby [12] and it was written by Peter Morgan.[13]

Wilhide produced The Camomile Lawn (1992), directed by his father-in-law Peter Hall and starring Felicity Kendal, Jennifer Ehle, Toby Stevens, Tara Fitzgerald and a young Rebecca Hall. It was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Drama Series and won the BAFTA for Best Costume. In 2018 it was named No 4 in The 60 Best British TV Shows of All Time by The Daily Telegraph.[14]

Also at Zed and with Sophie Belhetchet, Wilhide produced The Manageress (1993) about a female manager of a football club. Cherie Lunghi starred as boss Gabriella Benson, co-stars included Tom Georgeson and Warren Clarke, and it was commissioned for a second series. The Manageress was said to be ahead of its time and to influence how women viewed football. A year after the second series finished, Karren Brady became the first female managing director of a club - (the Birmingham City Football Club). A BBC documentary made about her was titled The Real Life Manageress.[15][16][17]

TV and film producer
Year Title Director Studio(s) Notes
1984 A TV Dante Peter Greenaway/Tom Phillips Artifax for Channel 4 Associate Producer (Pilot)
1984 26 Bathrooms Peter Greenaway Artifax for Channel 4 Associate Producer (Pilot)
1985 The Possessed Yuri Lyubimov/Jolyon Wimhurst Zed Ltd for Channel 4 Associate Producer (Televised Play 3 hrs)
1986 Le Tango Stupéfiant Anne Foreman Zed Ltd for Channel 4/La Sept Producer (TV Cabaret)
1987 The Road Home Jerzy Kaszubowski Zed for Film 4/ Film Poski Producer (Feature Film)
1988 HOPPLA Anne Teresa de Keersmaker Zed Ltd for C4/ La Sept Producer (TV Ballet 60 mins)
1988 The Manageress I Chris King Zed Ltd for C4/ECA Producer (6 x 1 hour Series)
1989 The Manageress II Chris King Zed Ltd for C4/ECA Producer (6 x 1 hour Series)
1989 The Missing Reel Charles Rawlence Zed Ltd for C4/La Sept/Bravo Producer (75 min Drama Doc)
1992 The Camomile Lawn Peter Hall Zed Ltd for C4/ABC Producer, BAFTA Best Costume (5 x 1 hr drama series)
1994 Why East Grinstead? Ian Sellar Zed Ltd for Channel 4 Producer (Documentary, 1 hour)
1994 Loach on Location - the making of Ken Loach's Land and Freedom Larry Boulting Zed Ltd for BBC2 Producer (Documentary, 1 hr)
1995 The Peacock Spring Christopher Morahan Zed Ltd for BBC1 Producer (2 x 90 mins drama)
1998 The Royle Family s1 Mark Mylod Granada for BBC2 Producer (Comedy Series 6 x 30 min)
1995 Mrs Merton and Malcolm John Birkin Granada TV for BBC1 Producer (Comedy Series 6 x 30 mins)
1999 Metropolis Glenn Wilhide and Tim Whitby Granada TV for ITV Producer and Director (drama series 7x 30 mins and 1x 60 mins)

Screenwriting

Wilhide's first feature film screenplay, a financial thriller called Extreme Cities, was optioned by Overbrook Entertainment and set to begin filming directed by Roger Donaldson under the title of first Cities and then Icarus Factor starring Clive Owen, Anil Kapoor, Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom in the spring of 2012, but the project stalled.[18][19][20]

References
  1. "Design for a Portable power driven tool D129 046 S". Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents. August 1941.
  2. "The Road Home (1987)". Time Out.
  3. "The Road Home (1987)". BFI.
  4. Christy, Desmond (23 September 1999). "A right Royle farce". The Guardian.
  5. Hogan, Michael (2 July 2016). "Caroline Aherne:she bestrode Nineties TV like a colossus". The Daily Telegraph.
  6. "Mrs Merton and Malcolm". BBC Comedy.
  7. Viner, Brian (29 March 1999). "Time for a heated debate". The Independent.
  8. Christie, Desmond (24 September 1999). "A right Royle farce". The Guardian.
  9. Wickham, Phill. "The Royle Family". BFI Screenonline.
  10. Barber, Nicholas (20 Sep 1998). "Watching television:it's the real thing". The Independent.
  11. Reese, Beccy (October 1998). "The humour of recognition". Socialist Review.
  12. Billen, Andrew (8 May 2000). "Friends Together". New Statesman.
  13. "Six-packs of twentysomethings". Irish Times.
  14. "From I Claudius to... : 60 Best British TV Shows of All Time". The Daily Telegraph. 25 April 2018.
  15. Thacker, Gary. "Football on the Small Screen 2: The Manageress". The Football Pink.
  16. "Karren Brady". BBC One - Young Apprentice.
  17. "Women in football". Wales Online. 24 November 2003.
  18. Variety
  19. Hollywood Reporter
  20. Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom join cast, THR
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