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Born 1924 in Humberstone, Lincolnshire, Ivor Wilson spent his early years in Caister. At school he showed a flair for athletics and football, but no high level of academic achievement. In 1941 he enrolled at Sheffield Teacher Training College, cycling the 61 miles from Caister to Sheffield at a time when the blitz meant there were no car, rail or bus services. At Sheffield he played football and cricket for the college teams, and met his future wife Marjorie. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, allowing him to finish his teaching qualification during the Second World War, and became a sub-lieutenant in the Fleet Air Arm undertaking his training at Aylmer in Canada. Upon his return to England, he flew a Corsair fighter aircraft, but suffered severe burns when his plane crashed in December 1944. His injuries necessitated multiple plastic surgeries and a two and a half year hospital recovery period. Ivor and Marjorie were married on 17 March 1945 in a hospital ward whilst he was still recovering at Rooksdown House. At this time, Marjorie had a teaching job in Hull so travelled regularly to Basingstoke to see him in hospital. In 1947, Ivor was invited to a 6 week long Swiss Red Cross retreat as the senior officer of a party of burned Fleet Air Arm and RAF pilots. He and Marjory used this retreat as a delayed honeymoon. His experience led him to become a founding member of the Rooksdown Club association for burns victims, and he would later write a recollections piece for the Club's magazine titled 'The Musings of an Old Gent'. Upon returning from Switzerland. Ivor began a teaching career at Jervis High School in Hull (now Andrew Marvell), where he taught for 14 years. His interest in football led him to referee school matches. During the 1950s, he studied at Hull Art College, and became an accomplished artist, painting in the 'Impressionist' style right up to the end of his life. Whilst raising a young family, he completed a part-time degree in Economics externally through the University of London and obtained a 2:1 classification, before taking up employment at the Hull College of Commerce where he lead courses in economics and politics. In 1975 he started working at Hull College of Higher Education, becoming Dean of Humanities and introducing a Diploma in Higher Education and part-time degree courses to support mature students in the local area.

Outside of his teaching career, Ivor was a prolific writer. Between 1962 and 1965 he wrote four spy thrillers which were published by Collins: But Not For Love, That Feeds On Men, Lilies That Fester, and Empty Tigers. The hero of his novels, Gregory Flamm, was a tougher and grittier take on Ian Fleming’s James Bond who appeared at the same time. Ivor claimed to have become bored with novels and began writing plays. The BBC bought a five part TV series written by Ivor, but it was never produced. He began writing radio plays, the first of which was titled Take Any Day, and was aired by the BBC in 1969 to critical acclaim. He went on to write more than 30 radio plays for the BBC, many of which were also broadcast on the World Service and attracted voice actors from other other shows such as The Archers and Coronation Street. Many of his characters had a remarkable similarity to friends and family, he wrote from experience. He also contributed to a Radio 3 new writers programme, The Northern Drift, and wrote a number of short stories as well as a one-act play titled Trial and Error.He retired from his job at Hull College of Higher Education in 1984 and, after a number of his BBC plays were translated into German to be broadcast on German radio stations, his writing career took off again. He wrote a number of radio plays for German broadcasters in later life, and two of his plays were broadcast in Germany after his death. Ivor died peacefully on 30 January 2002.

Description:

Collection contains radio play scripts written by author and teacher Ivor Wilson, a contemporary and friend of Alan Plater. Many of the scripts were recorded and aired for the BBC and German broadcasters in the later part of the 20th century, broadcast details are included in the descriptions of individual scripts where this is known. Please note that a radio play titled 'Afternoon Call' is known to have been written and broadcast in both the UK by the BBC on 10 Dec 1983 and Germany by Süddeutscher Rundfunk in 1984, however, the script has not survived. Also a play titled 'The Drop' is thought to have been written around 1979, but again no script has survived.