This is the first full-length study of the screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin, whose work for film and television includes Z Cars, The Italian Job, Kelly’s Heroes, The Sweeney, Reilly – Ace of Spies and Edge of Darkness. With a career spanning six decades Troy Kennedy Martin has seen the rise and fall of the television dramatist, making his debut in the era of studio-based television drama in the late 1950s prior to the transition to filmed drama (for which he argued in a famous manifesto) as the television play was gradually replaced by popular series and serials, for which Kennedy Martin did some of his best work.

Drawing on original interviews with Kennedy Martin and his collaborators, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of the film and television career of one of Britain’s leading screenwriters. Also included is a chapter examining Kennedy Martin’s significant contribution to innovative and experimental television drama - his 1964 ‘Nats Go Home’ polemic and the six-part serial, Diary of a Young Man, plus his 1986 MacTaggart Lecture which anticipated recent developments in television style and technology.

Written in an easily accessible style, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in television drama, screenwriting, and the history of British television over the last fifty years.