Carla Lane created three of the most well-known of all television comedies. And in them (The Liver Birds, Butterflies and Bread) she wrote particularly memorable female characters. She was adept at exploring the complications of women’s lives, especially those, as she put it, who were “galloping towards forty with so much to do, so little time to do it".
She was born Romana Barrack in Liverpool in 1937 and after a conventional upbringing and early married life became determined to succeed as a writer, which she did in 1970 when her scripts for The Liver Birds (BBC, 1969-78; 1996) were accepted.
Butterflies (BBC, 1978-80; 1983) explored the theme of marital boredom but still managed to be sharp and funny and is probably her best-loved work. In Bread (BBC, 1986-91) and in the character of Nelly Boswell the working-class matriarch, she drew once again on her home city of Liverpool for inspiration, exploring the hopes and dreams of a Catholic family as they tried to make ends meet amidst poverty and unemployment in the late 1980s.
She was awarded an OBE in 1989 but returned it in 2000 in protest at the award of a CBE to Brian Cass managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences. Tony Blair wrote to her personally saying that she deserved the honour and that it would be kept in case she changed her mind and wanted it back.
She now devoteds her time and energy to campaigning passionately for animal rights.