Allan McKeown

Allan McKeown
McKeown at the 1990 Emmy Awards
Born	John Allan McKeown[1] (1946-05-21)21 May 1946 Ealing, London, England
Died	24 December 2013(2013-12-24) (aged 67) Los Angeles, California, US
Occupation	Producer
Years active	1979–2013
Spouse	Tracey Ullman ​ (m. 1983)​
Children	2

Allan McKeown (born John Allan McKeown; 21 May 1946 – 24 December 2013) was a British television and stage producer.^[1]

Early life

McKeown was born in Ealing, London^[1] on 21 May 1946. His parents Edith Mabel (née Humphries) and Albert Victor McKeown moved first to Hackney and then to Hainault, Essex. His father was the Clerk of Works at the new estate. Educated at Beal Grammar school in Ilford, he left early and became a trainee hairdresser at Vidal Sassoon in Bond Street. He was a figure in the London scene of the 1960s, and in 1966 he opened his own salon. As a hairdresser, he worked on the TV show Sunday Night at the London Palladium and the films if.... (1968), Villain and Get Carter (both 1971).^[1]

Television producer

In 1969, he changed course and became a producer at James Garrett and Partners, at the time the largest TV commercials producer in the UK. He was appointed managing director shortly after joining. He left to form a production company WitzEnd with Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Initially making commercials, then the feature film Porridge (US: Doing Time, 1979). McKeown was the executive producer for Central Television's Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, with Clement and La Frenais as the show's main writers.^[2]

He was one of the first independent television producers in the UK. McKeown not only produced in Britain with his company, WitzEnd, but also produced in the US for all of the networks. In 1986, Witzend acquired SelecTV, a company at that time primarily concerned with operating then-novel cable TV networks in the UK, and in the process became a public company. By 1988, all interest in SelecTV continuing as a cable operator was dropped, with the disposal of all related assets. The company was now solely focussed on production, and grew as it added Alomo, a venture with writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran to its stable of production companies. In 1990, McKeown was a founding member of the Meridian consortium. The consortium was awarded the ITV television franchise for the South East of England.

McKeown was responsible for all of Meridian's comedy programming. In 1994 SelecTV (a cable TV channel re-using the name of the former operator) launched its programming, mainly programs produced by McKeown and selected Yorkshire TV offerings. In March 1996, McKeown accepted £51 million for SelecTV, now a broadcaster and a major supplier of television programs, from Pearson, then owner of the Financial Times. McKeown returned to the US producing the HBO comedy series, Tracey Takes On... for wife, Tracey Ullman. The series won six Emmy Awards. McKeown invested in the media launching web site itstv.com, an international distribution web site. The company was sold in March 2000. In 2007, McKeown launched Allan McKeown Presents, Ltd. The company produced the Indian comedy series, Mumbai Calling as well as Tracey Ullman's State of the Union (2008–10).

Stage

McKeown was involved in the West End production of Anyone For Denis? (Whitehall Theatre, 1981) via Witzend Productions, and the Broadway show, The Big Love in 1991, a one-woman show starring Ullman.^{[citation needed]} He produced the highly successful Jerry Springer: The Opera, winning an Olivier Award for Best Musical. He also produced Lennon, a musical based on the life of John Lennon.

Personal life

McKeown and Tracey Ullman married in 1983. They had two children and lived in both England and the United States. In 2006, McKeown and Ullman topped the "Wealthiest British Comedians" list, with an estimated net worth of £75 million.^[3]

Death

McKeown died of prostate cancer in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve 2013, at the age of 67.^[4]

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Notes
1979	Doing Time	Producer
	To Russia... With Elton	Documentary short; producer
1980–1981	The Other 'Arf	TV series; executive producer
1981–1983	Astronauts	TV series; executive producer
1982	Dead Ernest	TV series; executive producer
	Shine on Harvey Moon	TV series; executive producer
	P.O.S.H	TV short; executive producer
1983	Sunset Limousine	TV movie; producer
1983–1986	Auf Wiedersehen, Pet	TV series; executive producer
1985	Mog	TV series; executive producer
	Roll Over Beethoven	TV series; executive producer
1985–1986	Girls on Top	TV series; executive producer
1986–1994	Lovejoy	TV series; executive producer
1988	Jake's Journey	TV movie; producer
1989–1994	Birds of a Feather	TV series; executive producer
1990	Freddie and Max	TV series; executive producer
1991	So You Think You've Got Troubles	TV series; producer
1992	Love Hurts	TV series; executive producer
	The Old Boy Network	TV series; executive producer
	Stand by Your Man	TV series; executive producer
1993	Tracey Ullman: A Class Act	Executive producer
	Full Stretch	TV series; executive producer
	Westbeach	TV series; executive producer
	Over the Rainbow	TV series; executive producer
	Tracey Ullman Takes on New York	Executive producer
1993–1996	Goodnight Sweetheart	TV series; executive producer
1994	The New Statesman	TV series; executive producer
1994–1995	Men of the World	TV series; executive producer
1994–1996	Pie in the Sky	TV series; executive producer
1995	Sometime, Never	TV series; executive producer
	An Independent Man	TV series; executive producer
1996–1999	Tracey Takes On...	TV series; creator; executive producer
2001–2002	Tracey Ullman's Visible Panty Lines	TV series; executive producer
2003	Tracey Ullman in the Trailer Tales	Executive producer
2005	Jerry Springer: The Opera	Executive producer
	Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed	Executive producer
2007–2008	Mumbai Calling	TV series; writer; executive producer
2008–2010	Tracey Ullman's State of the Union	TV series; executive producer

Film

Year	Title	Notes
1979	Porridge	Producer

Theatre

Year	Title	Notes
1991	The Big Love
2005	Jerry Springer: The Opera
	Lennon

References

1. Hayward, Anthony; La Frenais, Ian (31 December 2013). "Allan McKeown obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
2. Stephenson, John-Paul (27 December 2013). "Auf Wiedersehen Pet producer Allan McKeown dies". GiggleBeats. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
3. "Where the funny money is". Chortle. 29 December 2006.
4. Saperstein, Pat (26 December 2013). "Producer Allan McKeown Dies at 67". Variety. Retrieved 29 December 2013.

External links

• Allan McKeown at IMDb
• Allan McKeown at the Internet Broadway Database
• Allan McKeown – obituary – The Telegraph
• Allan John McKeown Memorial Tribute Archived 13 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine