Denis Johnston Collection

Ulster University, Coleraine

Denis Johnston (1901-1984) was a playwright born in Dublin, educated in Dublin, Edinburgh and Cambridge, where he studied law. He practised law for ten years. In his life time he was primarily a playwright but also a director, war correspondent, broadcaster and later Director of Programmes at the BBC. Johnston gave the University of Ulster a collection of his papers, manuscripts and typescripts, including a large number of broadcast scripts for the BBC. The Collection also includes autobiographical material and his war correspondent's field notebooks.

Strengths

The Denis Johnston Collection at the Ulster University consists of Johnston's papers, recordings and radio and television scripts. The notebooks in this collection cover his period as war correspondent from 1942 to 1945.

Physical characteristics

There are about 100 typescripts of talks for radio and about 20 television scripts. The recordings are held on record and video-tape. There are a number of volumes of press cuttings and scripts of radio and television adaptions of plays. There are also microfilm diaries covering 1917-1939.

Description or Catalogue

There is an itemised handlist for this collection which may be consulted in the Library..

Collection Dates

Coverage

1917

1967

Additional Details

Name(s)

Johnston, Denis (1901-1984), writer and broadcaster

Languages

English

Custodial Information

Accrual

Accrual Policy

Closed

Accrual Method

Donation

Accrual Periodicity

Closed

Added by Ulster University Special Collections | Last updated on: 27 June 2018

Location

Access

The Collection is for reference only.

Collector

Johnston, Denis (1901-1984)

Writer, director, journalist and broadcaster.

Denis Johnston (1901-1984) was a playwright born in Dublin, educated in Dublin, Edinburgh and Cambridge, where he studied law. He practised law for ten years. Johnston worked for a time as a director with the Gate Theatre in Dublin. In his life time he was also a war correspondent and later Director of Programmes at the BBC. He started to work for the BBC as a script writer in the 1930's. He was a...

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Owner

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