Raymond Allen (scriptwriter)


Raymond Allen is a British television writer and playwright best known for creating the 1970s BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.

Early life

Allen attended Ryde Secondary Modern School on the Isle of Wight. After leaving school he started out as a cub reporter for the Isle of Wight Times at the age of 16. He served in the RAF, then returned to the island, taking jobs washing dishes in hotels and cleaning at Shanklin's Regal Cinema. He wrote around 40 serious plays but was commercially unsuccessful. The script for his first sitcom was rejected by ITV, but his second, which would become Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, was accepted by the BBC, and he was invited to write six further episodes. Two more series followed. He subsequently contributed nine episodes of The Little and Large Show and sold some one-off plays, but was unable to repeat his early success.
In 2016 Allen contributed with some of the dialogue for a special one-off episode of Some Mothers' Do Ave 'em for Sport Relief.

Writing credits

Personal life

Allen lives in Ryde with his wife Nancy, whom he married in 2017.