This Is Your Life: T E B Clarke

T E B CLARKE OBE (1907-1989)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Thomas Ernest Bennett Clarke, screenwriter, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the foyer of the BBC Television Centre following a meeting about a future television programme.

'Tibby', as he was known, was born in Watford and attended Charterhouse School and Clare College, Cambridge, where he studied law for a year before travelling to Australia and Canada. He returned to England and worked as a journalist and writer for various magazines before signing up as a reservist policeman during the Second World War.

He was employed as a screenwriter at Ealing Studios in 1943, initially writing in collaboration with others. His first solo writing credit was Hue and Cry in 1947, the first of a series of enduring comedies about English eccentricities, which include Passport to Pimlico, The Titfield Thunderbolt and The Lavender Hill Mob, which won him the 1952 Academy Award for Best Story and Screenplay.

"References to the only racehorse I ever owned made me nervous in case he was led on to the stage. The horse never liked me, and I was scared to go near him..."

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