T.E.B. "Tibby" Clarke briefly pursued careers in advertising
and journalism after graduating from Cambridge. Clarke also worked as
a London police offer, a wide-ranging experience that would ever after
serve as grist for his creative mill. Though he authored fifteen novels,
a stage play, and several dramatic screenplays, Clarke is best remembered
for his droll, lightly satirical scripts for the Ealing
Studios from 1943 and 1957.
He was honoured with an Academy Award for The
Lavender Hill Mob (1951), which hopefully compensated for the mere
£1500 pounds that Ealing paid him. Clarke scripted some of Ealing's
best-loved comedies including Hue
and Cry (194), Passport
to Pimlico (1949) and The
Titfield Thunderbolt (1953). A former police reserve during WWII,
Clarke's admiration for The Met shines through in The
Blue Lamp (1950). Intermittent work subsequently involved films
and television (Gideon's Day for John Ford, 1958; Sons and Lovers, 1960).
