Peter Nichols

Peter Nichols was a highly respected British playwright, screenwriter and sometimes actor who was appointed the prestigious Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2018. Born and raised in Bristol, England, Nichols' love of the stage came from his father, who would often take his young son to see plays. Nichols' loved watching the energy of the performers, and imagined making a career for himself in the theater. In his late teens, however, Nichols began a stint in the British armed services. He was stationed in Singapore and served in the Combined Services Entertainment Unit, which allowed him to entertain his fellow troops on a nightly basis. After his military service was through, Nichols decided to enroll in the Bristol Old Vic Theater School to earn his formal acting training. He would go on to make some minor appearances in a few plays, but quickly realized that he wasn't quite suited for acting. To pay the bills during this period, Nichols worked primarily as a teacher. Although his acting dreams were dashed, Nichols still had a visceral love for the theater and desperately wanted to be a part of it. So he started writing plays for both the stage and television. As a writer, Nichols had much better luck. Several of his TV plays aired during the 1960s, including several episodes of "ITV Television Playhouse" (ITV, 1967-1983), as well as the screenplays for the films "Having a Wild Weekend" (1965) and "Georgy Girl" (1966). By the late 1960s Nichols also began earning praise for his playwriting. He began earning both widespread critical praise, as well as accolades, for his plays "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" (1967), "The National Health" (1969), and "Forget Me Not Lane" (1971). The glowing admiration for his playwriting work only grew in the ensuing decades, with plays "Privates on a Parade" (1977), "Passion Play" (1982), "Poppy" (1982), and "Blue Murder" (1995) all receiving widespread praise. By the 1970s, several of Nichol's plays were made into movies, including "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" (1972), "The National Health" (1973), and "Privates on Parade" (1983). Nichols wrote the screenplays for all three films. Even a few of Nichols' plays were adapted into TV movies. These included: "Forget-Me-Not-Lane" (1975), "Chez Nous" (1980), and "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" (2002). Once again, Nichols wrote the screenplay adaption for all three works. By the turn of the century Nichols' playwriting output slowed, but his prestige in the British theater world only grew, with many of his earlier works, most notably "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg," earning newfound praise for their widely successful revivals. In 2018 he was appointed the Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his decades of service to the British theater. The honor would come just a year before Nichols' death on September 7, 2019 in Oxford, England. He was 92.