Private School News

RENOWNED TELEVISION AND FILM WRITER JOURNEYS BACK TO SCHOOL

Pupils and staff at Bishop’s Stortford College were delighted to welcome back Old Stortfordian Dick Clement who, in partnership with Ian Le Frenais, is one of the leading TV and film scriptwriters of the 20th century. Following a chance meeting in the 1960s whilst Clement was working at the BBC, the pair began working together, building their reputation primarily on four iconic TV series The Likely Lads, Whatever happened to the Likely Lads?, Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen Pet.

Their list of credits is impressive and includes films such as The Rock (with Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage), The Commitments, Goal! and Flushed Away. With four films out in the past four years, the dynamic partnership shows no sign of slowing down. As Le Frenais puts it, they are “Hollywood’s most successful couple!”

Clement has also written many film versions of some of their television successes, which he often directed too. He is now commonly known as the Hollywood “script doctor”, working on series such as The Tracey Ullman Show and films like Never Say Never Again. He was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s 2007 birthday honours list.

As well as sharing stories from his career during his lecture at Bishop’s Stortford College, Clement also recalled some favourite memories of his time as a boarder at the Hertfordshire-based independent school in the 1950s, including being taught and influenced by artist and linguist, Walter Strachan, a teacher he claimed “he learnt a great deal from that wasn’t on the syllabus”. He described his time at the College overall as time well spent, “sneaking down to the cinema” and “becoming involved in drama”, which strongly influenced his career path.

As a leading scriptwriter for over 40 years, he is loved and known for his interest in portraying ordinary people, his ability in capturing everyday speech and relationships and his distinctive regional accents. It was a great honour to have such a significant, yet modest, role model return to Bishop’s Stortford College to inspire another generation of writers and directors.