T. E. B. Clarke

Who was T. E. B. Clarke?

Thomas Ernest Bennett "Tibby" Clarke was a movie scriptwriter who wrote several of the Ealing Studios comedies. His scripts always feature careful logical development from a slightly absurd premise to a farcical conclusion. In 1952 he was awarded a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his script for The Lavender Hill Mob, making him one of just a handful of Britons to receive this award. He continued to work as a scriptwriter after Ealing ceased production in the mid-fifties, his later contributions including Sons and Lovers and the Disney film The Horse without a Head.

Clarke was also a novelist and writer of non-fiction, and was not above presenting his fictions as fact – most notably the 1981 book Murder at Buckingham Palace, which purports to tell the story of a hushed-up murder in the Royal residence in 1935. Despite its including 'documentary' photographs, there is no external evidence that the book is anything but pure fiction.

Clarke was the younger brother of military deception pioneer Dudley Clarke.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1960 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.