[Afamilyatwar-list] The Writers

[Veit, Richard]

Hello, All.

I have been so intrigued by Scott Filderman's discussions of the Dutch box of A FAMILY AT WAR that I purchased a set of my own and am now binge-watching it. I just saw Episode 34 ("For the Duration"), which tells of John's return to accountancy work and another tumultuous visit by Gwyn Roberts.

This time through, one thing that strikes me is how consistent the 52 episodes are, in terms of story line and character, despite the fact that 18 writers were involved in creation of the various scripts. For instance, "For the Duration" was written by David Weir, but Gwyn's personality is retained perfectly from his appearance in Episode 3 ("Lines of Battle"), which was written by Stan Barstow.

How to explain this remarkable consistency? Each episode in the series ends with the words "Series devised and edited by JOHN FINCH," and I suspect that his editing is responsible for the seamless connections from one to the other. If a character strayed too far from John's conception, no doubt he would have the final say on whether to let it stand. This is yet another element that makes A FAMILY AT WAR such a fundamentally strong series, from beginning to end.

By the way, here is a list of the series writers:

John Finch - 29
Alexander Baron - 6
David Weir - 3
Geoffrey Lancashire - 2
Jack Ronder - 2
Roy Russell - 2
Stan Barstow - 1
James Brabazon - 1
John Foster - 1
Robert Furnival - 1
Harry V. Kershaw - 1
Elaine Morgan - 1
Susan Pleat - 1
Jonathan Powell - 1
Philip Purser - 1
Leslie Sands - 1
John Stevenson - 1
John Wiles – 1

(This totals 56 because 4 of the 52 episodes were co-authored by John Finch and someone else.)

Richard Veit
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