Ted Willis, Baron Willis

[8][9] He often spoke at meetings during the Second World War in favour of opening a second front, in order to help the Red Army, which was bearing the brunt of the Nazi onslaught.

His passion for drama first manifested in plays he wrote for the Unity Theatre, based in a former chapel near St Pancras, during the war.

Willis created several British television series such as Virgin of the Secret Service, The Adventures of Black Beauty, Sergeant Cork and Mrs Thursday.

[10] He was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most prolific writer for television; he also wrote 34 stage plays and a number of feature films.

[11] Announced on 23 December 1963 he was awarded a life peerage,[12] which was created on 21 January 1964 with the title Baron Willis, of Chislehurst in the County of Kent,[13] on a Labour Party nomination.

[14] Willis was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1959 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the club at the BBC's Lime Grove Studios, in London's Shepherd's Bush.