Jimmie Chinn- Playwright

By Katie Dixon

Jimmie Chinn was born on the 30th March 1940 in Middleton and spent his
early years in Oldham and Manchester. He lived with his mother and was a
lonely child. He had a difficult start to life and had a rough up bringing.
Jimmie showed an interest to drama and performing at an early age. He
acted with amateur theatre groups in Lancashire, before deciding to train
professionally. Jimmie moved to London in 1959, and won a place at RADA
(The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts). Jimmie had a short career as an
actor and in 1960 started working for Leaders, a reputable box office and
ticket agency in the Royal Arcade, serving Londons theatres. In the
1970s, Jimmie decided to go to Whitelands College, Putney. He started of
as a mature student, eventually gaining an honours degree in drama and
English. Jimmie started writing plays for the stage and radio. Jimmie would
keep fellow students mesmerised with funny stories of his mother and
neighbours back in Lancashire when he was little. This was a formative
time for Jimmie as a writer. Jimmie taught at at Dormers Wells School in
Middlesex and progressed onto being senior teacher and housemaster. In
1984 he decided to become a full-time writer. Even though he was now a
full-time writer, he continued to teach evening classes with the prestigious
student group at the Questors Theatre in Ealing. Jimmies work soon
attracted TV companies, such as BBC and ITV. Jimmie contributed his
talent of writing and wrote for a majority of long running soaps. For
example, Jimmie helped write Emmerdale and Corination Street. Jimmie
wrote episodes of Emmerdale from 1987-1993. Even though Jimmie was
now writing for TV companies and TV shows, he continued writing for the
stage and his radio. Jimmie was diagnosed with COPD in 2000, the
development of his lung condition caused Jimmie to get pneumonia in
2011, sadly passing away on the 29th January.

Jimmie had a lot of success as a playwright. Some of his plays were: Our
Linda Our Carol and Freda, In Room Five Hundred and Four, To the
Island, After September, Albert Make Us Laugh, But Yesterday, Home
Before Dark- The Saga of Miss Edie Hill, In By the Half, Interior Designs,
Pity About Kitty, A Respectable Funeral, Something to Remember You
By, Sylvias Wedding, Take Away the Lady, Too Long an Autumn, The
Garden Party- co-written with Hazel Wyld, A Diferent Way Home and
Audrey and Me. The play Albert Make Us Laugh is a play based on
Jimmies own boyhood experiences in the North. I think Jimmie wrote
Albert Make Us Laugh to show his own personal views on his upbringing.
Also to show how his mother struggled bringing him up, even though she
gave him the best she could, she might have been poor and mentally
unwell (as two of the themes in the play is poverty and mental health).
Jimmies plays are warm, toughing, amusing and some funny, even though
some of them include human tragedies.