Prime Suspect screen writer dies after liver transplant operation

Published on Thursday 17 September 2009 22:05

SCREENWRITER Frank Deasy died yesterday following a long-awaited liver transplant.

The award-winning television drama writer died at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary just days after calling for an overhaul of organ donor laws to save the lives of thousands on a transplant "death row".

The father of three, whose best-known work included Prime Suspect, died of complications during the transplant operation, friends and family said.

This week Mr Deasy's calls for a new approach to organ donation created a sensation in his native Ireland, where thousands of people took out organ donor cards after hearing him speak.

His agent, Anthony Jones, said a change in the law to "presumed consent" – where people opt out of being donors, rather than having to opt in – would be a fitting legacy.

Tributes poured in yesterday from the television and film industry for Mr Deasy's professional skills and personal charm. Actor Dougray Scott, starring in forthcoming ITV crime drama Father and Son, written by Mr Deasy, said: "Today, a great, great man was taken away from us.

"He was quite simply the most extraordinary and brilliant writer I have ever worked with, and one of the most extraordinary and beautiful men I was blessed to have met."

Mr Deasy moved to Scotland 12 years ago from his native Dublin to make Robert Carlyle series Looking After Jo Jo for BBC Scotland.

He married Glasgow criminal lawyer Marie Connolly and the couple have three children.

He was diagnosed with cancer of the liver in January. With the rare blood group B, shared by just 10 per cent of the population, he had endured two "false alarms" when it appeared a matching liver was found, friends said.

Ms Connolly said: "Frank passed away from complications during the operation. They'd managed to find a liver for him, but in the end he was just too ill. His body couldn't handle it."

Just five days earlier, Mr Deasy told The Scotsman of his support for presumed consent, which is backed by the British Medical Association. "The majority of people in surveys say they would like to donate. So having the balance in favour of donation would save lives," he said.

Mr Jones recalled Mr Deasy's happy astonishment earlier this week over the impact of his words in Ireland – the health minister came out in support of a rapid change in the law.

"He focused the donorship problem in a big way, and the extraordinary thing is, in a space of a week, he got everybody talking about it," said Mr Jones.

Mr Deasy won an Emmy for Prime Suspect 7, the last instalment of the Helen Mirren series. But his best work was perhaps in front of him, Mr Jones said.

Mirren has been cast to star in his completed screenplay Gaza, and he had written the first two episodes of The Medicis, a major BBC production.

BBC Scotland director Ken McQuarrie said: "Frank is a huge loss to all of us. As a man, he was full of hope, courage, passion and brilliance and his wonderful writing brought all of these qualities to the fore."

Kate Harwood, BBC controller of drama series and serials, said: "Frank Deasy was one of the most gifted writers in television today. He wrote with fierce passion and clarity of thought.

Frank had so much still to give British television and his death is a huge professional and personal loss."