Pact is greatly saddened by the news that Kay Mellor OBE, Writer, Actor, Director, and Founder of long-standing Pact Member Rollem Productions, has died at the age of 71.

Kay’s career in TV spanned more than three decades and included many hit series.

She began in the 80s working for Granada Television, becoming one of the first women to write for Coronation Street. She also wrote many episodes of Channel 4’s first soap, Brookside.

In the 90s, Kay created and co-wrote the bafta-winning children’s programme, Children’s Ward with Paul Abbott and went on to write many ground-breaking and memorable series which often put working class northern women front and centre, including Playing the Field, Fat Friends, The Syndicate, Love, Lies & Records, and Girlfriends, amongst others. She also wrote a number of successful films and stage plays.

Kay founded the Leeds-based indie Rollem Productions in 2000, which produced many of the series she created. She was passionate about developing local talent and bringing more women into key roles both on- and off-screen. She was also part of the consortium which, in 2018, was successful in its bid for Channel 4’s HQ to move to Leeds, and helped Pact to launch our Leeds office in 2019. In what would become her final TV appearance just last month, Kay argued strongly against the privatisation of Channel 4, advocating on behalf of indies.

In 1997, Kay was the recipient of the BAFTA Dennis Potter Award for Outstanding Writing in Television. In 2015 the WGGB presented her with its Outstanding Contribution to Writing Award. The following year she was made a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and was awarded Broadcast's Special Recognition Award in 2020.

Kay’s two daughters, Yvonne and Gaynor, both followed their mum into the television industry, becoming a successful producer and actor respectively.

From everyone at Pact, we send our thoughts and condolences to Kay’s family, friends and all at Rollem Productions.
 

“The script is the acorn from which the great oak tree grows”

In 2019 we interviewed Kay as part of our Pact Member interview series. She discussed running her indie as ‘truly a writer led production company’ and more. You can read the interview here.