Lucy Gannon (born 1948) is a British playwright and television writer, and producer.
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Lucy Gannon once worked as a military policewoman, a residential social worker, as well as a nurse and lived in a concrete council house with no central heating. Now she resides in a converted barn, in Derbyshire, and is one of the most sought-after TV writers around
She started in 1987, to enter the Richard Burton Award for New Playwrights. Her offering, Keeping Tom Nice, about a disabled boy whose father commits suicide, earned her the award and a six-month writer-in-residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1988 Keeping Tom Nice was staged to acclaim at the Almeida Theatre in London, and in 1989 shown as a BBC TV Screenplay starring Linus Roache.[1]
Gannon has a bulging portfolio of successful single dramas, including Dad, Tender Loving Care, Trip Trap, The Gift, and Big Cat.
Lucy Gannon has criticised the BBC, claiming that delays in commissioning programmes threatens writers and producers.[2] In spite of this, she has written scripts for Eastenders, particularly the Ronnie Branning Baby Swap storyline.
In 2010, Gannon's new play Broken Hearted will premiere at Derby Theatre (formerly Derby Playhouse).
She won the 1990 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
Lucy Gannon has a lot to answer for. Thanks to her, we have had to endure the sight and sound of Robson and Jerome. She is the woman responsible for Soldier, Soldier - the army drama that launched the tuneless twosome to the top of the charts and on to every teenage girl's wall in the land. Not content with that, Gannon also devised the hugely successful Peak Practice (doctors in beautiful surroundings) and Bramwell (doctors in beautiful costumes). To create one top-rated ITV drama is more than most writers could ever dream of managing; to create three just looks greedy. She has also developed a nice little sideline in single dramas such as Tender Loving Care, in which Dawn French played a murderous nurse. Gannon is now one of a very few writers whose name alone is sufficient to give the green light to any project to which it is attached. So how has she done it? Does she, like the makers of Coca-Cola, possess a secret formula?[4]