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Photo of Nigel Balchin

Nigel Balchin

Writer, Additional Credits
Born December 3, 1908Died May 17, 1970 (61 years)
​Nigel Balchin was an eminent 20th-century novelist and screenwriter. Born in Wiltshire in 1908, he had a successful early career as an industrial psychologist. Whilst seconded to Rowntree’s, he was intimately involved in the launch of Black Magic chocolates. During World War Two, Balchin worked first for the Ministry of Food and later for the Army, ending the War as Deputy Scientific Adviser to the Army Council, with the rank of Brigadier. Balchin’s wartime employment provided him with plenty of original and interesting material and served as the springboard for his career as a novelist. Between 1942 and 1962 he produced a string of commercial and critical successes, including Darkness Falls From the Air, The Small Back Room, Mine Own Executioner, A Sort of Traitors, Sundry Creditors, The Fall of the Sparrow and Seen Dimly Before Dawn. He also found fame as a scriptwriter, adapting several of his own works, including Mine Own Executioner, and writing screenplays for films such as Mandy, Twenty-Three Paces to Baker Street, The Man Who Never Was (for which he won the 1956 BAFTA) and The Singer not the Song. In addition, Powell and Pressburger produced a highly acclaimed film version of The Small Back Room in 1949. Nigel Balchin died in London in 1970.

Known For

  • The Man Who Never Was
  • Separate Lies
  • The Small Back Room
  • 23 Paces to Baker Street
  • Barabbas
  • The Barbarian and the Geisha
  • The Singer Not the Song
  • Malta Story
  • Crash of Silence
  • Mine Own Executioner
  • The Risk
  • ITV Saturday Night Theatre

Filmography

2005
Separate Lies · as Novel
1969
1961
1961
The Singer Not the Song · as Screenplay
1960
The Risk · as Novel
1960
Circle of Deception · as Screenplay
1959
1956
23 Paces to Baker Street · as Screenplay
1956
The Man Who Never Was · as Screenplay
1955
Josephine and Men · as Screenplay
1955
ITV Play of the Week (TV Series) · as Novel
1953
Malta Story · as Screenplay
1952
1949
1947
Mine Own Executioner · as Screenplay
1947
Fame Is the Spur · as Screenplay

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