Ray Jenkins Dies: ‘The Sweeney’ & ‘The Outsiders’ Screenwriter Was 87

British screenwriter Ray Jenkins, who wrote on some of the UK’s biggest TV hits across several decades, has died aged 87. Jenkins died last month and leaves behind his two children, Pascale and Ceri.

Across a successful and lengthy career, Jenkins wrote for numerous highly acclaimed British police and justice-related drama series including Z Cars, The Outsiders, The Brothers, This Man Craig, Callan, The Sweeney, Special Branch, Juliet Bravo, Gentle Touch, The Chief and The Brief. This is to name but a few.

Jenkins also adapted Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White starring Ian Richardson and Jenny Seagrove for the BBC, along with Tom Hart’s novel The Aura and The Kingfisher as The Innocent for the silver screen, starring Liam Neeson and Miranda Richardson, with cinematography by Roger Deakins.

His most recent project was TV movie Circles of Deceit: Kalon, which he wrote in the mid-1990s, and he is a former Chair of the Writers’ Guild.

Jenkins was born on September 1, 1935 and died on January 16.