Mike Scott

Michael Anthony Stott, playwright, born 2nd January 1944; died 7th September 2009

Mike Stott, died of lung cancer aged 65, was a prolific playwright for the stage, television and radio, renowned for celebrating the quirkiness and robust charm of "ordinary life" in the post-industrial north-west of his native Rochdale and rural Lancashire across to Todmorden, West Yorkshire, where he settled in 1977.

Stott, an only child, was born in Rochdale, where his father was a storekeeper for the gas board and his mother ran a grocery shop. He attended Littleborough primary school and Bury grammar before reading drama at Manchester University, where he studied under Hugh Hunt and Stephen Joseph, and met his future wife, Christine, another drama student.

Radio plays: Norman (2004) for Johnny Vegas, as a chap on the margins of society; and Chloe (2007) for Alison Steadman, as an imprisoned artist. There were 11 episodes, too, of a very funny BBC Radio 4 series, Bunn and Co (2003), set in a Pennines estate agent's office, starring Keith Barron as the flustered boss.

Mike Stott is survived by Christine, who moved from acting into teaching, their daughters, Jesse and Rose, and their son, Joe.