Colin Welland is widely respected both as an actor and writer for television. the cinema, and the stage. Rotund and unfailingly good-humored, he has given invaluable support in a range of plays and serials.

     Welland first became a familiar face on British television when he landed the role of Constable David Graham, one of the original characters based at New­ town police station in the long-running police serial Z Cars in the 1960s. The series broke new ground. introducing a fresh realism to police dramas. and the regular stars all became household names. Welland stayed with the show for some time. as PC (Police Constable) Bert Lynch's second partner on the beat, before even­tually leaving for new pastures. He reappeared, together with other stars from the early years of the show. when the last episode was filmed in 1978.

     Thus established in television as a performer, Welland went on to star in various plays and television movies. often also contributing the scripts (he was voted Best TV Playwright in Britain in 1970, 1973, and 1974). True to his Lancashire roots. his plays often had an earthy northern humor and dealt with themes accessible to the working-class ..man in the street." He also enjoyed huge success as a writer for the cinema. notably with his screenplays for Yanks and Chariots of Fire, an Oscar-winning smash that was heralded (somewhat prematurely) as signaling a new golden era in British moviemaking. Welland himself picked up an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. Among subsequent films that have garnered their share of praise have been A Dry White Season, a drama dwelling on the cruelties imposed by the policy of apartheid in South Africa (co-written with Euzhan Paley). and The War of the Buttons, delving into the often dark and violent world of children. Also much admired were his appearances in such films as Kes, in which he played the sympathetic Mr. Farthing, and Willy Russell's Dancing Through the Dark. which was set in familiar northwestern territory, in the bars and clubs of Liverpool.

     Perhaps the most memorable image from Welland's lengthy career as a television actor came in 1979. when he was one of a first-class cast that was chosen to appear in Dennis Potter's award-winning play Blue Remembered Hills, which recalled the long-lost days of his own childhood. In company with Helen Mirren. Michael Elphick, Colin Jeavons, and John Bird. among others. all of whom were adults playing the roles of young children, Welland cavorted gleefully around woods and fields. his bulk grotesquely crammed into a pair of hoy's shorts. Potter's brilliantly realized play. exposing the native cruelty beneath the outwardly innocent world of children, was hailed as a masterpiece. and Welland himself, not for the first time in his distinguished career, was singled out for special praise.