Lesson from Mr Punch

Colin Tucker (1941-2018) was born in Dar-es-Salaam, the setting for this novel, and came to England when he was ten. After his Diploma in Drama from Manchester University, he worked in the theatre, becoming interested in scriptwriting theory when reading plays for the Royal Court and National Theatre. He joined the BBC TV Drama Department as a script editor on Play for Today and worked with writers as diverse as Arnold Wesker, Trevor Griffiths, Jim Allen, Ted Whitehead and Jack Rosenthal. He began to see the serial form as the most appropriate for television and served as producer on episodes of the original Poldark. Colin produced over ninety hours of TV drama including multi-award winners Portrait of a Marriage and Among Women. He then ran workshops across Europe in writing for film, taught screenwriting at the Munich Film School and film in general at the London Film School. He took an MA in Architecture at London Metropolitan University and an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway College, during which he started this novel. Colin is survived by Sarah his wife of 52 years, his three daughters, four granddaughters and four grandsons.