Ray Mort News Today

Last modified on Mon 17 May 2021 14.47 EDT Douglas Livingstone, who has died aged 86 of heart failure, enjoyed parallel careers as an actor and writer for television and radio. His compelling six-part small-screen adaptation of The Day of the Triffids (1981), a rare excursion into sci-fi, remained faithful to John Wyndham’s novel, apart from re-setting the story from the 1950s to the near-future. One critic described it as “the most effective TV realisation of Wyndham’s writing”. Living...

Last modified on Thu 15 Apr 2021 13.20 EDT In 1967 the National Youth Theatre in London performed the first new play it had ever commissioned, with 80 performers arranged on a set depicting a football stand. The play would be revived with new casts eight times over the next 20 years, and again at Wilton’s Music Hall in London in 2017. It was televised twice, and entered the school curriculum. The play was Zigger Zagger, and its writer was Peter Terson, who has died aged 89. The story of teena...