Kevin Laffan

Kevin Barry Laffan (24 May 1922 – 11 March 2003) was a British playwright, screenwriter, author, actor and stage director. Laffan is best known for creating the 1972 ITV soap opera Emmerdale Farm, titled since 1989 Emmerdale. Raised in a family of fourteen children, Laffan's Catholic upbringing formed the inspiration for many of his plays. Laffan's theatrical career began with a position as a call boy at the Theatre Royal in Bilston, and would eventually lead to him founding a repertory company in Reading. In later life, Laffan also branched out into fiction, publishing his début novel, Virgins are in Short Supply, in 2001.