William Humble, who has died of prostate cancer aged 75, was a television dramatist whose best plays were based on real life, telling remarkable stories of triumph over adversity and portraying the flawed characters of those in the public eye.
He made his first impression on screen with the moving but unsentimental BBC production On Giant’s Shoulders (1979), about Terry Wiles, born with disabilities caused by the drug thalidomide, and how these affect the poverty-stricken couple who adopt him. Wiles played himself; Judi Dench and Bryan Pringle, as the middle-aged, childless adoptive parents, displayed the gamut of emotions from warmth and sympathy to pragmatism, bitterness and resentment.
