British poet and dramatist (1926–2024)
Bernard Kops (28 November 1926 – 25 February 2024) was a British dramatist, memoirist, poet and novelist.
Early life.
Born in the East End of London, the son of Dutch-Jewish immigrants, Kops was evacuated from London in 1939, and recounted that experience in episode two of Thames Television's TV series, "The World at War", first broadcast in 1973.
Career.
His first play, "The Hamlet of Stepney Green", was produced at the Oxford Playhouse in 1957. It is considered to be one of the keystones of the "New Wave" in British 'kitchen sink' drama.
His subsequent plays include "Enter Solly Gold" (1962), "Ezra" (1981, about Ezra Pound), "Playing Sinatra" (1991) and "The Dreams of Anne Frank" (1992, about Anne Frank). He also wrote extensively for radio and television. His radio play "Monster Man" (1999) is about the creator of "King Kong", Willis O'Brien.
Kops wrote the television movie script "Just One Kid" for director/producer John Goldschmidt; the film was broadcast on the ITV Network in 1974, and won a Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago Film Festival. Kops then wrote the television film "It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow" (1975), about the Bethnal Green tube disaster of 1943, also for John Goldschmidt, and this was nominated for an International Emmy Award for Drama Series.
He published volumes of poetry, autobiography, several novels, and a memoir of the East End, "Bernard Kops' East End" (2006). He also wrote travelogues, including a series of articles about a trip to the United States (1999) and another about a journey to China (2000), both written for "The Guardian".
Personal life and death.
In 1975, suffering from drug addiction, Kops made a suicide attempt; he wrote about the incident and his successful journey to sobriety in his second autobiography, "Shalom Bomb: Scenes from My Life".
Kops died on 25 February 2024, at the age of 97.
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