ON SCREEN: David Hare

David, 70, the writer of crime drama Collateral (9pm, BBC2), is a playwright, screenwriter and director who’s known for a career spanning nearly 50 years…

Stage debut: He launched his career with a controversial play at the Royal Court Theatre in 1970 – and in 1973, his first TV screenplay was broadcast, a Play For Today called Man Above

Men. In 1978, he made his directorial debut, another Play For Today called Licking Hitler.

Post-war dramas: For David, 1985 was a busy year. Plenty, a film based on his 1978 play, was released, with Meryl Streep and Charles Dance. That was followed by Wetherby, a film he wrote and directed about a young man’s suicide, starring Vanessa Redgrave. Both films are dramas concerned with how the Second World War altered the lives of its female leads. Leading ladies: David is also known for his adapted screenplays, among them The Hours (2002) and The Reader (2008). Both were directed by Stephen Daldry, and led to Oscar wins for stars Nicole Kidman (as Virginia Woolf, right) in The Hours and Kate Winslet in The Reader. Teamwork: He and Bill Nighy (centre) have worked together many times. The first was in 1980 Play For Today Dreams

Of Leaving. In 2011, Page Eight was the first of three TV films in which the actor played MI5 officer Johnny Worricker. In 2014, Bill starred in a revival of David’s 1995 play Skylight, directed by Stephen Daldry.