Career
Plater was born in Jarrow, England, although his family moved to Hull in 1938. He attended Kingston High School.
Jarrow was much publicised as a severely economically depressed area before the Second World War (Plater joked that his family left Jarrow just after the Great Depression to catch Hull just before the Blitz). He trained as an architect at King's College, Newcastle (later the University of Newcastle), but only practised in the profession briefly, at a junior level. He later stated that it was shortly after he was forced to fend off a herd of pigs from eating his tapemeasure while he was surveying a field that he left to pursue full-time writing. Plater stayed in the north of England for many years after he became prominent as a writer and lived in Hull.
He first made his mark as a scriptwriter for Z-Cars (1962-65), along with its spin-offs Softly, Softly (1966-69) and Softly, Softly: Task Force (1969-76). His subsequent credits include The Reluctant Juggler in the series The Edwardians (1972), Shoulder to Shoulder (1974), The Stars Look Down (1975), Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt!, The Journal of Vasilije Bogdanovic, the musical Close the Coalhouse Door with songwriter Alex Glasgow from the writings of Sid Chaplin, Get Lost! (1981), On Your Way, Riley (1982), The Beiderbecke Trilogy (1985–1988), Misterioso (an adaptation of his novel, 1991), Oliver's Travels (1995), an adaptation of J.B. Priestley's The Good Companions (1980) for Yorkshire Television, a film adaptation of George Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Belonging and the theatre play Peggy for You, based on the life of Plater's former agent Peggy Ramsay, which was nominated in 2001 for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award.
He also contributed to the BBC series Dalziel and Pascoe, and adapted Chris Mullin's novel A Very British Coup (1988) for television. He was the driving force behind the TV version of Flambards, which under his influence was claimed to be slanted well to the political left of K. M. Peyton's original books. Jazz is a recurring motif through much of Plater's work, often referenced explicitly as well as underpinning his story structures.
He was a supporter of Hull City A.F.C.. His play Confessions of a City supporter on his lifelong relationship with the club was staged during the first ever run of performances at the new home of the Hull Truck Theatre Company.
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