My friend Annie Wood, who has died of cancer aged 64, was one of an exclusive group of EastEnders writers who scripted more than 100 episodes. She was also on the writing teams of Family Affairs, Grafters and Grange Hill.
Born in Stoke Newington, north London, to Edward Lambert, foreman in a wood yard, and his wife, Doris (nee Unicombe), a machinist in a clothing factory, Annie left Clissold Park school at 16 with modest ambitions and a certificate in shorthand and typing. She worked at IPC Magazines, where I met her in 1977, and went from secretary on Woman’s Own and Ideal Home to feature writer on Oh Boy! and Number One, in the heady heyday of teen and music magazines.
After marriage to Laurence Wood in 1988 and the birth of her two sons, Annie joined a playwriting class at the City Lit, run by Olwen Wymark. Early scripts showed a wit, warmth and humanity that were her hallmark. The producer Humphrey Barclay commissioned her first TV script for the hospital sitcom Surgical Spirit in 1994, and her career soon took off.
Annie worked on EastEnders between 1994 and 2010. Her voice suited the show and she cared deeply about it, was never cynical and didn’t see her job as a stepping stone to something else. She fought for her favourite characters and would stick up for them at script meetings if potential storylines suddenly sent them off the straight and narrow. The cast loved her bittersweet scripts; it was Annie who wrote the famous break-up scene between Pat and Frank Butcher, where Frank concludes by criticising Pat’s awful earrings.
Annie’s marriage ended in 2001 and, after she stopped writing for EastEnders, she moved to Whitstable in Kent, then later to Westgate-on-Sea. She set up in business sourcing and selling vintage jewellery, although she often gave it away to friends or to a passing customer she took a shine to. Annie had a great eye for 50s and 60s collectables and her business was successful, despite her soft heart.
Annie was a member of Material Girls, 11 women who initially joined forces 25 years ago to write together but became – and remain – a close-knit group of friends. Her humour was warm and self-deprecating; she knew how to tell a terrific anecdote, often at her own expense. She is survived by her sons, Danny and Alex, her twin sister, Sue, her siblings, Alan and Tricia, and her granddaughter, Darcey.
