Rodney David Wingfield

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Rodney David Wingfield ( RD Wingfield ) (born June 6, 1928 in Hackney , Great Britain ; died July 31, 2007 ) was a British novelist and radio play writer. Wingfield became known through Detective Inspector Jack Frost , main character in a radio play series and the television series A Touch of Frost .

life and work

RD Wingfield was born in Hackney in 1928, which at the time was not yet part of London. He attended Cooper's Company School in the East End of London , with which he was evacuated to Frome , Somerset, during the Second World War . After leaving school, Wingfield did various office jobs for a furniture factory and in the docks of the Port of London and then worked in the Petrofina sales department . In his spare time he wrote short radio plays. After BBC Radio Drama became aware of Wingfield in 1968 and he was able to sell three radio plays, he gave up his job and devoted himself exclusively to writing 45- to 60-minute radio plays for the station. Wingfield's first radio play Compensating Error was broadcast in August 1968 and is set in a bank where a new manager starts who only cares about the productivity of the employees. It is about the typical everyday office life of the 1960s and the plan of two older employees to get what they think they are entitled to. His pieces are known for subtle plot changes and surprising resolutions. After a dispute with the BBC editorial team, Wingfield submitted the six-part radio play series A Killing Season in 1984 under the name Arthur Jefferson , the actual name Stan Laurels . In 1988 Wingfield wrote his last radio play as T. Smith with Hate Mail and then devoted himself exclusively to writing his books.

Wingfield created the character of Detective Inspector Jack Frost in 1972 for a crime novel commissioned by Macmillan Publishers . After Macmillan had rejected this novel "Frost at Christmas", Wingfield processed the character of Jack Frost in 1977 in the radio play "Three Days with Frost", in which Ronnie Barker was intended for the role of Frost, but who had to cancel. As a result, the actor Leslie Sands, best known for his roles as a police officer, took over the role that would remain Wingfield's favorite for the detective inspector.

RD Wingfield lived in seclusion in Basildon , Essex . He didn't like going out in public and was rarely photographed. Due to a mix-up in the translation, the Italian edition of one of his books has a photo of Kenneth Williams on the cover as the author's picture. Wingfield died on July 31, 2007. His last book, A Killing Frost , was published posthumously in 2008.

Works (selection)

Radio plays

  • 1968: Compensating Error
  • 1969: Better never than late
  • 1970: The Night they deliver the Money
  • 1971: Cat and mouse game
  • 1972: The tenth anniversary
  • 1973: Second class risk
  • 1974: Murder locked out
  • 1976: Winner takes the kitty
  • 1977: Three Days with Frost
  • 1977: Post Mortem Shock
  • 1979: The Cellar
  • 1982: A Touch of Frost
  • 1984: A Killing Season - under the pseudonym Arthur Jefferson
  • 1988: Hate Mail - under the pseudonym T. Smith

Books

  • 1989: Frost at Christmas (1984 in Canada; written 1972)
  • 1990: A Touch of Frost
  • 1992: Night Frost
  • 1995: Hard Frost
  • 1999: winter frost
  • 2008: A Killing Frost

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mike Ripley: RD Wingfield. Obituary on theguardian.com dated August 4, 2007, accessed July 20, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Wingfield, Rodney David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jefferson, Arthur (pen name); Smith, T. (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British radio play writer and crime novelist
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Hackney , County of London , England
DATE OF DEATH July 31, 2007