martin allen born in wakefieldyorkshire is an english playwright and screenwriterhis first play the oneact taking the floor 1982 formed part of an entertainment at the bloomsbury theatre for the launch of a new album by the passions in 1983 his play red saturday for paines plough directed by tim fywell toured the uk and played at the new end theatre in hampstead it won the 1983 samuel beckett award and in 1984 transferred to the royal court theatre upstairs then under the auspices of danny boyle it was published by faber in 1985 as part of the thames tv playwrights scheme he was writer in residence at hampstead theatre where his play particular friendships directed by michael attenborough won thames tvs best play award for that year it was also published by faberin 1986 his original screenplay song of experience was directed by stephen frears for the bbc screen two series he then wrote the screenplay for paul greengrass debut feature resurrected st pancras films channel 4 which was entered in competition at the 1989 berlin film festival where it won both ocic and interfilm awards for best film it was given a uk theatrical release later that yearin 1991 he joined the writing team at coronation street and has since written over 300 episodes as part of the team he was winner of the writers guild award for best drama serial in 1993 2009 and 2013in 1998 his original screenplay touch and go a bbc screen two film directed by tim fywell achieved the highest viewing figures for a bbc 2 drama that yearbetween 1999 and 2002 he wrote 9 episodes for the first 4 series of bad girlsprojects of note which remain unproduced include the unyellow years 1987 for st pancras films tracing van goghs early career in the netherlands the glasnost special 1990 a comedy for skreba films white lies 1990 a fourpart thriller set on antarctica for sleeping partners paul greengrass andy harries and channel 4 going critical 1993 for the royal shakespeare company then under the tenure of adrian noble hell to pay 1995 a rehearsed reading at the vaudeville theatre in association with michael codron spring and port wine 2001 a pilot for a tenpart series based on the bill naughton play for carlton tv charles elton and jonathan powell and the master cut 2005 a play about the music business