Section:GDN 1J PaGe:8 Edition Date:191101 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 31/10/2019 17:49 cYanmaGentaYellowbl • The Guardian Friday 1 November 2019 [email protected] 8 Obituaries @guardianobits Birthdays want any “costume crap”. In the same anthology format – the fi rst featuring sci-fi stories – she created Rick Allen, rock Out of This World (1962). drummer, 56; Newman took Shubik with him Mark Austin, to the BBC in 1963 and she was story broadcaster, 61 ; editor on Story Parade (1964-65), Susanna Clarke, dramatisations of modern novels author, 60; Toni for the newly launched BBC2. In Collette, actor, 47; 1965, with Out of the Unknown, she Tim Cook, chief became a producer, and she stayed executive, Apple, in that role for Thirteen Against Fate 59; Sharron (1966), Hugh Leonard ’s adaptations Davies, Olympic of Georges Simenon stories. swimmer and Before switching to ITV, Shubik broadcaster, 57; worked on the BBC2 anthology Lou Donaldson, series Playhouse (1973 -76). Her alto saxophonist, commissions included half a 93; Lord (Bruce) dozen original dramas about the Grocott, Labour paranormal from writers such as politician, 79 ; Brian Hayles and Trevor. Mark Hughes, She left Granada before The Jewel football manager, in the Crown went into production 56; Jeremy Hunt, because she was asked by Columbia Conservative MP Pictures to work on the screenplay of and former health The Girl in a Swing (1988), based on seemed to “sabotage” the potential secretary, 53 ; Richard Adams ’s novel. However, it of Edna, the Inebriate Woman to Roger Kellaway, did not go beyond a fi rst draft. Irene Shubik have a similar impact on the public. composer and In 1991 Shubik was embroiled After launching Rumpole of the pianist, 80; in industry controversy when she Bailey on ITV, Shubik focused on Anthony Kiedis, chaired the Bafta TV Awards jury. TV drama producer who historical drama. Her suggestion to singer and She declared Prime Suspect to be the channel that it should turn Paul songwriter, 57; best drama serial, but the seven Scott’s The Raj Quartet into a series Andrew Knight, judges publicly stated that four of enjoyed a popular hit with was met with the idea of trying media executive, them had voted for GBH. The ballot out his later work, Staying On, as a 80; Lyle Lovett, papers no longer existed and no pilot. Julian Mitchell’s adaptation, singer and blame was attached, but the aff air Rumpole of the Bailey produced by Granada and screened songwriter, 62 ; became known as Baftagate. as a single play in 1980, starred Daljit Nagra, poet Shubik had a 10-year relationship Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson and broadcaster, with Andrew Dickson, a Telegraph in a moving portrait of old colonials 53 ; Nick Owen, journalist, who died in 2004. She rene Shubik, who has died Leo McKern as She was similarly a guiding light determined not to return to Britain . broadcaster, is survived by her nieces, Claire aged 89, was a television Rumpole, with for Wessex Tales (1973), adapted Shubik then revisited The Raj 72; Gary Player, and Anna. Her brothers, Martin and drama producer whose work Martin Jarvis, from six short stories by Thomas Quartet to devise The Jewel in the golfer, 84; Philippe, predeceased her. ranged from sci-fi to socially left, as the Rev Hardy. She stamped her mark on it by Crown (1984), working on scripts Aishwarya Anthony Hayward relevant modern stories for Timothy Donkin insisting that each would begin and with the writer, Ken Taylor , and Rai, actor, 46; the BBC’s The Wednesday in a 1988 episode end with a long shot of Wessex, the researching locations for this 13-part Gerald Ratner, Irene Shubik, TV producer, born 26 I Play and its successor, Play of Rumpole of the characters dwarfed by the landscape . high point of TV drama that was put businessman, 70 ; December 1929; died 26 September 2019 for Today, and adaptations Bailey. Shubik, From 1967, as a producer of on a pedestal alongside Granada’s Jim Steinman, of 19th- and 20th-century literature. below right, The Wednesday Play, Shubik’s production of Brideshead Revisited. songwriter and Her greatest legacy was Rumpole of produced the successes included The Last Train Shubik was born in London, the composer, 72 ; Announcements the Bailey , which she commissioned show’s fi rst run Through the Harecastle Tunnel daughter of Jewish immigrants, Sara Jessica Valenti, as a 1975 Play for Today. She was for ITV in 1978 (1969), Peter Terson’s story of a (n ee Soloveychik), from France, feminist writer, instrumental in changing the name RONALD GRANT; trainspotter discovering repressed and Joseph Shubik, who came 41; Prof Paul of John Mortimer ’s liberal defence UNITED NEWS/GETTY homosexuality, dysfunctional from Russia and traded in the fl ax Wellings, IMAGES/POPPERFOTO barrister from Horace Rumbold and marriages and suggestions of market. Shortly after the outbreak ecologist, 66 ; casting Leo McKern in the role, while paedophilia among the strangers he of the second world war, she was Bill Woodrow, the writer wanted Michael Hordern. meets, and Chariot of Fire (1970), Tony evacuated to Canada . On her return, sculptor, 71. When BBC bureaucracy made it Parker’s exploration of the mind of a Shubik gained a master’s in English diffi cult to get a series of Rumpole sex off ender facing release from jail. literature from University College off the ground, Shubik left and However, her commitment to London and, after being turned down took the six scripts she had already the radicalism of The Wednesday by the BBC, emigrated to the US and commissioned to ITV. She produced Play and Play for Today was more began her career as a documentary the fi rst run, in 1978, setting up a questionable. While lauding the scriptwriter for Encyclopaedia much loved drama series. work of Parker, David Mercer and Britannica Films in New York. Earlier, Shubik had made a key Clive Exton , she was less supportive In 1960, after coming back to contribution to TV sci-fi as story of those writing political dramas. Britain, she was appointed as story editor and producer of Out of the Ironically, Edna, the Inebriate editor on the ITV drama series Unknown , a BBC anthology series Woman (1971), Jeremy Sandford ’s Armchair Theatre – and told by featuring adaptations of published tale of a down-and-out played by Sydney Newman, the Canadian- works, along with new ones from Patricia Hayes – the most celebrated born producer, that he did not writers such as William Trevor and Play for Today work commissioned Terry Nation. The Machine Stops , by Shubik and the winner of two adapted from EM Forster’s short Society of Film and Television Arts story, won fi rst prize at the 1967 awards – was one that Shubik herself International Science Fiction fi lm expended much space on criticising She was festival. Shubik was always looking in her 1975 book, Play for Today: The for suitable stories to put on screen Evolution of Television Drama. embroiled and, although she left after the fi rst Sandford rebutted claims she in what two series (1965-67) of Out of the made about the factual accuracy became Unknown to join The Wednesday of both that and his classic 1966 Play, she commissioned most of the play about homelessness, Cathy known as subsequent 1969 run. Come Home . He added that she had ‘Baftagate’.