Jim Allen (writer)

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For the Montserratian first-class cricketer, see Jim Allen (cricketer).

Jim Allen (1926 — 1999) was a British writer from Manchester known for his many collaborations with film director Ken Loach.

Allen was a Roman Catholic from the Miles Platting area of Manchester. He worked as a miner and became convinced of the validity of Trotskyism. He joined the Revolutionary Communist Party, and as a member of a successor organisation, The Club, he edited a rank and file newspaper The Miner, which rapidly ran foul of the authorities. As a punishment and warning he was put on 'permanent nights' and would write his editorials by the light of his lamp whilst sitting at the coal face. He was eventually black-listed on every coal mine in Lancashire and became a builder instead (which inspired his first TV play The Lump). As a builder he helped build the Langley estate of Middleton where he lived with his family, and where he set both The Spongers and Raining Stones. He would find success as a writer for the popular soap opera Coronation Street for which he wrote during a two year period.

His collaborations with Loach included the mini-series Days of Hope', the films 'Hidden Agenda, Raining Stones and Land and Freedom and various one-off dramas for the acclaimed BBC series Play for Today. He wrote numerous other Play for Today TV plays including The Spongers and United Kingdom with Roland Joffe, and Willie's Last Stand. His work was always concerned with political issues, told from a left-wing perspective.

He wrote the play Perdition (1987) for the Royal Court Theatre which deals with alleged collaboration between Zionists and Nazis up to, during and after WW2. A controversial work owing to its factual inaccuracies and anti-semitism, the court cancelled the production while it was still in rehearsal.

Allen was a Manchester United supporter, which according to actor Ricky Tomlinson in an episode of the South Bank Show, showed he had a "sense of humour".