My friend Siân Orrells, who has died of complications related to multiple sclerosis aged 56, was a television scriptwriter whose work ranged from soap operas to A Touch of Frost to her own original series, Jack of Hearts.
Her credits included episodes of EastEnders, Thief Takers (ITV), Wycliffe (ITV) and Touching Evil (ITV), and she also wrote and directed the short film The Landlord for S4C. In 1999 her original drama series, Jack of Hearts, starring Keith Allen as a probation worker and set in Cardiff, was broadcast on BBC1.
Born in Port Talbot, South Wales, to Mair (nee Walters) and David Orrells, who both worked for British Steel, Siân went to Ystalyfera school before taking her A-levels at Dyffryn comprehensive in Port Talbot.
She was a student at Aberystwyth University, where she studied English and drama, before transferring to Swansea University, gaining a degree in English and art. After university she moved to London, where she worked at Zwemmer’s bookshop on Charing Cross Road and, in 1989, married Frank Watkins, a teacher, whom she had first met in Swansea. Later they moved to Cardiff, where they lived for most of the rest of Siân’s life.
She had started writing scripts while in London, and began to make an impact after one of them, Swimming Back to Malta, was runner-up in the Radio Times drama awards in 1991. On the strength of this she gained an agent at Curtis Brown.
I first met Siân when the two of us were commissioned to write a drama series developed through BBC Wales, after which we were invited to write episodes of A Touch of Frost. We met regularly in pubs and cafes to discuss everything related to TV drama – but also to talk about football, for throughout her life Siân was a passionate supporter of Liverpool FC.
She was good, outspoken company, full of enthusiasm, opinions and humour. I visited her at home on a number of occasions, and her enormous Newfoundland dog, Rhum Bear, almost broke the door down whenever I arrived. Very Siân, that. A poodle was never going to suit.
Siân was diagnosed with MS in 1989. As her condition deteriorated after her success with Jack of Hearts, Frank became her full-time carer, a role he assumed for more than 20 years with true love and devotion. To ensure the best possible care for her, he and Siân moved to Margam, near Port Talbot, in 2001.
She is survived by Frank and by her father.
