Plater, Alan Frederick (1935– )

English dramatist. He is best known as a writer for television (18 episodes of Z Cars and 30 episodes of Softly Softly). His TV and radio scripts and plays reflect his northern working-class origins, left-wing political beliefs, and love of jazz.

A series of collaborative local musical commentaries began with a coal-mining community in Close the Cookhouse Door (1968), followed by the fiercely anti-establishment Simon Says! (1970). Plater is a great supporter of regional theatre, especially in Hull, for which he wrote Sweet Sorrow (1990), a celebration of the poet Philip Larkin. He has adapted for TV works by Anthony Trollope and Olivia Manning and his own Beiderbecke trilogy (written 1985–92).