Peter Barnes (playwright)

[2] Barnes was educated at Marling School in Stroud, Gloucestershire and performed his national service with the Royal Air Force.

[3] Bored with his job, Barnes took a correspondence course in theology and began to visit the British Museum Reading Room, which he used as an office on a daily basis.

[4] Following a successful three-month run in the West End, Barnes adapted the play for the 1972 film of the same name, which featured a highly acclaimed performance by Peter O'Toole.

[14] For BBC Radio 3 he wrote a series of monologues entitled Barnes's People, for which he attracted a large number of well known actors: Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, Peggy Ashcroft, Judi Dench, and Ian McKellen.

[8] Barnes, who desperately sought but received no American media attention for his movies and US television miniseries in later life, became a father again at the age of 71.