Born in Aberystwith, Cardiganshire, Watkins was the son of Richard Edgar Watkins (1872–1947), a bank manager, the son of a brewer in Llandovery, and his wife Katherine Levi (1876–1954), the daughter of a Methodist minister, who had married in Aberystwith in 1906.
A number of his works have been adapted for film and television, including his West End hit comedy For Better, for Worse[3] and his 1952 costume play The Moonraker set during the English Civil War.
His play Out of Bounds ran for 31 weeks at Wyndham's Theatre in 1962[6] before being adapted into the West German film A Mission for Mr. Dodd in 1964.
[1] At the time of his death, Watkins was living at Half Moon Cottage, Balcombe, West Sussex.
His younger brother Leonard V. Watkins, a holiday camp administrator, was his executor, and his estate was valued at £60,433,[9] equivalent to £1,421,927 in 2023.