The Philip Mackie Collection

This collection holds the papers of the writer Philip Mackie, including scripts, correspondence, and other documents from his writing career, as well as some personal papers. The collection covers Mackie's novels, stage plays, films, and television productions dating from the 1950s to the 1980s.

British screenwriter and producer Philip Mackie was born in Salford, Lancashire on 26 November 1918. He studied English at University College London, graduating in 1939. After serving in the army in World War Two, he worked for the Ministry of Information, producing documentary films. From 1954 he began a career as a writer, publishing a novel, Hurrah, the Flag! (1957), in addition to scripting several works for theatre and the BBC. He served as Granada Television's Head of Drama from 1958-1962, and then worked primarily as a freelancer for the rest of his career. Many of his productions are adaptations of classic works (Maupassant [ITV, 1963], Raffles [Yorkshire TV, 1977]) or based on the lives of historical figures (The Caesars [ITV, 1968], Napoleon and Love [ITV, 1974]). His best-known work is probably The Naked Civil Servant (ITV, 1975), an adaptation of Quentin Crisp's autobiography. Mackie died on 23 December 1985.

Access is by appointment only. Please email: library.support@solent.ac.uk

The biographical information was gathered from an obituary in The Times (27 December 1985) and the BFI's ScreenOnline. (both of which were last accessed on 6 December 2022).

The collection is copyright protected. It cannot be reproduced without consultation with the archive manager.

The collection was donated by Barbara Mackie in 2006.