Al Hunter Ashton 1957 - 2007

Al Hunter Ashton - actor, writer and former Guild member - has died at the age of 49.

During his long career as a writer Al won the prestigious Prix Europa and the Monte Carlo Golden Nymph for two of his films: The Firm starring Gary Oldman and Alive and Kicking starring Lenny Henry and Robbie Coltrane. There was also a BAFTA for his controversial film about homeless kids called Safe. He appeared in and wrote for Brokers Man for BBC 1 alongside Kevin Whately, a close friend, was a regular writer for Doctors, EastEnders and Holby City,

In between all this work Al still managed to write and appear in his own children's TV series: See How They Run! [written with award winning TV Director Tim O'Mara] which won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Children's drama, and the Australian Film Institute award for the same category. The series was also BAFTA nominated as was Al for his first attempt at directing - a 30 minute drama called Alison for the BBC Scene strand which remains the most repeated Drama on BBC schools TV to this day.

There have been obituaries for Al in The Independent, The Stage, and The Guardian:

"He was incredibly prolific: in a single evening on BBC television, 5 million viewers would watch Al in his children's drama See How They Run at 5.30pm; then at 7.30pm, 12 million tuned in to one of his episodes of EastEnders; at 9pm another 10 million would catch him as Vinny in The Broker's Man. If it was a winter schedule, viewers could also settle down to more vintage Ashton in London's Burning, as the infamous Pitbull. He was in six series from 1996 to 2001. Al was one of those people who oiled the engine of television."

Martin Jameson in The Guardian

An online book of condolences has been created on Al's website.