Anne Valery (née Firth) (24 February 1926 – 29 April 2013) was an English screenwriter, author and actress noted for co-writing episodes for the BAFTA-nominated drama Tenko in the early 1980s.
The daughter of actress Doriel Paget, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in World War II and later became part of Fitzrovia's literary scene, establishing friendships with several writers.
[3] Just before she turned 18, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service,[2] and was taught commando tactics such as parachute jumping behind enemy lines and twisting a bayonet to cause the maximum amount of injury.
[1] Valery's acting career began in 1949 by winning a role in the Sid Field comedy Cardboard Cavalier,[4] and portrayed the mistress of Ascoyne D'Ascoyne (Alec Guinness) in Kind Hearts and Coronets that same year.
[2] However, Valery's career in acting was not established, so she gave her attention to presenting on television, working for the ITV company Associated-Rediffusion and on afternoon programmes for the BBC.
[1] Valery became settled as a full-time writer in the mid 1970s by not only writing her autobiography volumes but wrote scripts for the television soaps Crossroads and Emmerdale as well as The Passing Out Parade and Nanny Knows Best.
[2] Valery's script for The Passing Out Parade created issues for the six male directors who told her that women did not speak in that manner and that the drama was considered "too difficult" for early 1970s television.
[2] Valery later wrote the 1986 drama series Ladies in Charge which was about an employment agency established after World War I to aid women leaving the front lines with their independence.