Sitcom writer Carla Lane has died this morning in Liverpool at the age of 87. Carla was one of the most prolific sitcom writers of her time, creating TV classics such as The Liver Birds, Bread and Butterflies.
Born Romana Barrack, Carla’s family announced her death in a statement: “With heavy hearts we said goodbye to our darling Carla today.
“But with smiles on our faces we also take this opportunity to reflect on her incredible achievements, all of which make us so unbelievably proud to be part of her family. We were very lucky that her quick wit, determination and passion brought Liverpool to life on screen for others to share.”
Carla married whilst still in her teens and had two sons. Each night while her family was asleep she sat up writing. In 1969 her script for what became The Liver Birds, created with Myra Taylor whom Carla met on a writing workshop, was accepted by the BBC and it became a successful sitcom that ran for nine series about a pair of young women flat sharing in Liverpool.
Carla quickly established herself a writer able to capture female characters and their relationships like no one else, such as in her 1978 hit Butterflies which told the story of a woman who was considering an affair to alleviate the boredom and her dissatisfaction with being a stay at home mother in her early 40s. Carla also penned the show Bread, detailing a family struggling to live in Thatcher’s Britain. Carla wrote and created other shows over her 40 year career.
An active supporter of animal rights, Carla was awarded the OBE in 1989 and in 2002 she returned the award to protest the CBE being awarded to the head of a scientific firm known of animal testing.
