Kay Mellor, writer of hit TV dramas Fat Friends and The Syndicate, dies aged 71

Kay Mellor, who wrote hit TV dramas Fat Friends and The Syndicate, has died aged 71.

Born in Leeds, the writer, who began with plays, died on Sunday.

Other TV credits included Band of Gold and football series Playing The Field.

Mellor also worked on Coronation Street and created the award-winning children’s drama Children’s Ward.

Fat Friends, about the members of a slimming group in Leeds, starred James Corden, Ruth Jones, Alison Steadman and Mellor’s youngest daughter, Gaynor Faye, and was later turned into a musical.

Jones, who went on to write and star in Gavin and Stacey with Corden, said Mellor was “such a down-to-earth, funny, big-hearted person whose brilliance lay in seeing the extraordinary in the day to day”.

She added: “(Mellor) was a great mentor to me when I first started writing. Fat Friends was a massive turning point in my career and I will be eternally grateful to her for what she did for me. British television has lost one of its greats.”

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Mellor chose the Fat Friends theme tune, The Beautiful South’s Perfect 10, when she appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 2017, saying that every time she heard it she would “get excited and get butterflies”.

Emmerdale’s Lisa Riley said Mellor had been “taken far far far to young” and was the “best boss to work for”.

A spokesperson for Mellor’s TV production company, Rollem Productions, said: “It is with profound sadness that we announce the untimely and sudden passing of our beloved friend, mentor and colleague Kay Mellor on Sunday 15th May.

“We have lost a phenomenal talent and a true luminary. We ask that you please respect the privacy of the family and friends at this time.”

Actress Sunetra Sarker, whose credits include Playing the Field, Casualty and Cold Feet, tweeted: “I remember how comfortable (Mellor) made me feel when I worked with her, so clever and witty. From the iconic Band of Gold to (the) present day she truly championed women.”

Kym Marsh said she had the “pleasure of working with Kay briefly last year and it was an absolute honour”, adding that Mellor was a “huge talent, a huge personality, a wonderful lady”.

The BBC’s chief content officer, Charlotte Moore, said Mellor “wrote with such heart, humanity, humour and passion with strong female characters often taking centre stage”.

Mellor and her husband Anthony were married in 1968 and had two daughters, actress Faye and television producer Yvonne Francas.

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