Kay Mellor, the author of Fat Friends and Band of Gold, has died at the age of 71

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17th May, 2022. 06:41 pm
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Kay Mellor, the author of Fat Friends and Band of Gold, has died at the age of 71

The writer and actor were best known for writing shows such as Girlfriends and The Syndicate, for which she received an OBE in 2009.

Kay Mellor, the author of hit shows like Band of Gold and Fat Friends, died at the age of 71. She wrote multiple hit TV shows throughout the course of her 30-year career.

“It is with profound regret that we announce the untimely and tragic departure of our beloved friend, mentor, and colleague Kay Mellor on Sunday 15 May 2022,” a representative for her TV production firm, Rollem Productions, said in a statement. At this time, we ask that you respect the privacy of the family and friends.”

Mellor started from fringe theatre to television writing in the 1980s. She worked on Coronation Street for a while and was one of the show’s first female writers.

“It was a male-dominated workplace, dominated by powerful, wealthy men.” In 2021, she told the Guardian that the only other woman in the room will be a secretary. “I’d always respond, ‘but she’d have to worry about her kids.’ I noticed the blank stares.”

By the 1990s, she was working on the ITV miniseries Band of Gold, which received praise for its humane portrayal of sex workers. Geraldine James, Cathy Tyson, and Samantha Morton starred in the Bradford-set show, which had its first two seasons transformed into novels, both of which Mellor co-wrote with author John Burke.

Mellor moved into children’s television with the Bafta-winning drama Children’s Ward. The show, set in the children’s department of the fictional South Park Hospital (known as Sparky’s), was co-written by Paul Abbott and gave Russell T Davies an early break as a writer and producer.