Barrie Keeffe

Who is Barrie Keeffe?

Barrie Colin Keeffe is an English dramatist and screenwriter, best known for his screenplay for the 1981 film The Long Good Friday.

Keeffe was educated at East Ham Grammar School. He joined the National Youth Theatre as an actor, but actually started work as a journalist. His first television play, Substitute, was produced in 1972 and his first theatre play, Only a Game, in 1973, and in 1975 he became a full-time playwright. He was writer-in-residence at the Shaw Theatre in 1977, resident playwright with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1978, and associate writer with the Theatre Royal Stratford East from 1986 to 1991. He taught dramatic writing at City University, London from 2002 to 2005. In 2010 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Warwick.

His second wife was the writer Verity Bargate. After her death in 1981, he played an active role in setting up and administering the Verity Bargate Award.