Juliet Ace facts for kids

Ann Juliet Ace (born June 27, 1938) is a talented writer who creates plays for stage, radio, and television. She is known for her work on popular TV shows like EastEnders and The District Nurse. Juliet Ace also wrote many original stories and adaptations for BBC Radio drama, including the long-running show The Archers. One of her films, Cameleon, won a special award called the Golden Spire Award in 1998 at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Early Life and Education

Juliet Ace was born on June 27, 1938, in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, South Wales. She was the third daughter of Charles and Glenys Ace. She went to Llanelli Girls' Grammar School and later studied drama and art at City of Coventry Training College. This college later became part of the University of Warwick. She also trained at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama.

After her studies, Juliet Ace taught for three years in St Mary Cray. She then joined a children's theatre company. Later, she worked in weekly repertory at the Grand Theatre, Swansea. In 1964, she started working with children who had special needs.

In 1966, she married Richard Alexander and moved to Dartmouth, Devon. There, she raised her two children, Daniel and Catherine. Daniel is now a business consultant, and Catherine is a theatre director and drama teacher. Juliet continued to work with special-needs children and also directed and acted in local drama groups.

Writing for Stage and Radio

Juliet Ace started writing plays in 1976 after taking a writing course. In 1979, she won an award that helped her work with professional directors and actors. This led to her first play, Speak No Evil, which was performed on stage and then as a radio play.

She later began writing for television. She helped create the popular BBC show EastEnders. She also worked on The District Nurse and the short-lived show Eldorado.

Juliet Ace's plays often show her rich imagination. For example, a main character in her radio play Lobby Talk is a parrot! She also uses her own life experiences in her writing. She created a character named Mattie Jones, who grows up in South Wales. Mattie appears in several radio plays, showing her journey from childhood to adulthood. An older Mattie, played by actress Patricia Hodge, appears in plays like The Captain's Wife.

From 1985 to 1987, Juliet Ace taught theatre students at Dartington College of Arts. She also taught writing and directing at Goldsmiths College from 1995 to 2005. She helped judge the Koestler Trust awards for writing by prisoners. She is also a jury member for BAFTA, which gives awards for film and television.

In 1988, her play A Slight Hitch was included in a book called New Plays, Volume 1. This book featured works by famous playwrights.

In 2014, Juliet Ace published a book about actor Terence Rigby, called Rigby Shlept Here: A Memoir of Terence Rigby 1937–2008. The book shares details about Rigby's work with famous directors and actors. It includes Juliet's diary entries about their friendship, interviews, and parts of Rigby's own unfinished autobiography.

In October 2013, Juliet Ace was diagnosed with serious cancer. Her radio plays The Captain’s Wife and Skin had already explored her earlier experiences with illness. Despite the doctors' predictions, she continued to live and write. In May 2018, her play Moving the Goalposts was performed in London. This play showed the funny and frustrating parts of her survival beyond what doctors expected. Actress Cheryl Campbell played Mattie in the stage version. The play was later broadcast by the BBC in March 2020, with Welsh actress Pam Ferris taking on the role of Mattie.

Recognition and Later Life

Juliet Ace lives in London. In September 2014, she was made a fellow of the Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance. This is a special honor given to people who have made important contributions to theatre.

Selected Radio Plays

Other Works

Radio and Audio

• The Archers BBC Radio 4: Juliet Ace wrote twenty-five episodes for this very popular radio soap opera.
• Brassic BBC Radio 5: An eight-part series for teenagers (1991).
• Kiss Me Quick BBC Radio 5: Another serial for teenagers (1994).
• Westway BBC World Service: A soap opera for a global audience, including a pilot and 24 episodes (from 1997).
• Patricia Hodge is Mattie – A Liberated Woman AudioGo: An Audiobook collection of plays featuring the character Mattie.
• Moving the Goalposts: A stage play performed in London in 2018, exploring themes of surviving cancer.

Television Series

• The District Nurse: Juliet Ace wrote four episodes for this series (1984-1987).
• EastEnders: She wrote twenty-five episodes for this famous BBC soap opera (1985-1989).
• Eldorado: She contributed twelve episodes to this BBC soap opera (1992).

Films for Television

• Out of Order BBC 2: A TV movie from 1984.
• Llygad Y Ffynnon S4C: A feature-length film for the Welsh language channel in 1994.
• Cameleon: A prize-winning Welsh film from 1997 about a soldier hiding during World War II.

Publications

• Speak No Evil. Bristol Playwrights Company. 1981.
• New Plays, Volume 1 (edited by Peter Terson) OUP ISBN: 9780198312567.
• Rigby Shlept Here: A Memoir of Terence Rigby 1937-2008, 2014.