Freda Kelsall

Freda Margaret Kelsall (born April 1938 in Southport, Lancashire, England)[1][2] is a British writer, theatre director and former teacher who is best known as the main writer (1975–1996; occasionally also a presenter in the last few of those years) of the schools television series How We Used To Live.[3]

Early career

In the 1960s, she was a schoolteacher in London and had a novel published.[4] In this period she appeared in epilogues for Rediffusion, the then ITV franchise holder; in October 1967, when she was "just starting a teaching career", she contributed to a series of epilogues on religious education[2][5] and also discussed a number of books in similar epilogues under the title 'Outlook and Insight',[2] for example William Mayne's Earthfasts,[6] Ivan Southall's To the Wild Sky[7] and Mollie Hunter's The Kelpie's Pearls.[8]

Later career

In 1970, she moved to Alresford, Hampshire, where she initially continued her teaching career, also inspiring Colin Firth to begin his acting career.[4] In 1980, heavily committed to work for Yorkshire Television,[4] she briefly moved to Leeds and then in 1982, to Heptonstall, just outside Hebden Bridge[2] where she founded the Bridge Theatre Company in 1987, and ran it for many years.[2][9] She continued to direct plays for this company until at least 2006.[10] On 31 March 1981, her play The Reason of Things, produced by YTV, was networked by ITV.[11] She had two further plays networked in 1984, Sweet Echo on 22 January, produced by Yorkshire,[12] and Grand Duo on 29 July, produced by LWT.[13] Her play The Index Has Gone Fishing, made by Central Television and filmed in Pershore, Worcestershire,[4] was networked by ITV on 28 June 1987.[14] In 1987 she wrote an episode of the BBC drama series One by One.[15] She also wrote six episodes of Emmerdale Farm in the spring of 1981, and six further episodes that autumn.[16] Her most recent television work credited by the British Film Institute consists of three episodes of Heartbeat in the mid-1990s.[17]

She is also the author of a number of books based around How We Used to Live, and of a number of stage plays which have appeared in print.[18] In 2010, she presented a retrospective of the How We Used to Live series at Hebden Bridge's 500th anniversary festival.[19] In December 2017, she spoke to a local history society on the history of her home.[20]

References
  1. "Search Results for Civil Births in Birth, Death, Marriage and Parish Records". Find My Past. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  2. "Wildrose Arts - Tag results". 17 November 2015. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  3. The Kaleidoscope British Independent Television Drama Research Guide, pages 2194–2206, Kaleidoscope Publishing, 2010
  4. Kelsall, Freda. "Alresford Remembered". Alresford.org. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  5. The Times, p. 16, 17 October 1967
  6. The Times, p. 12, 12 January 1968
  7. The Times, p. 14, 25 March 1968
  8. The Times, p. 14, 24 June 1968
  9. "Bridge Theatre Company - A History". 17 November 2015. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  10. "Amanda Howard, Actor, West Yorkshire". Mandy.com. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  11. The Times, p. 29, 31 March 1981
  12. The Times, p. 23, 21 January 1984
  13. The Times, p. 31, 28 July 1984
  14. The Times, p. 23, 27 June 1987
  15. "One by One - BBC One London - 18 April 1987 - BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 18 April 1987. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  16. The Kaleidoscope British Independent Television Drama Research Guide, pages 1700 & 1701, Kaleidoscope Publishing, 2010
  17. "Freda Kelsall". Explore.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  18. "Amazon.co.uk: freda kelsall: Books". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  19. "Hebden Bridge 500". Hebden500.co.uk. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  20. "From Crime Scene to Holiday Camp: Stories of Hawdon Hall". hebdenbridge.co.uk. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
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