Pauline Devaney

{{short description|British actress, writer and artist|bot=PearBOT 5}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014|cs1-dates=y}}

{{Use British English|date=January 2014}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Pauline Devaney

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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1937|01|27|df=y}}

| birth_place = Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, England

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| occupation = Actress, writer

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Pauline Devaney (born 27 January 1937){{refn|{{Cite book |last=Handley-Taylor |first=Geoffrey |url={{GBurl|id=YgoOAQAAMAAJ|p=20|q="Pauline Devaney"}} |title=Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire Authors Today: Being a Checklist of Authors Born in These Counties |date=1972 |publisher=Eddison Press |isbn=978-0-8564-9004-0 |location=London |lccn=73160176 |oclc=813616476 |ol=5457820M}}}}{{refn|{{Cite web |title=Pauline Devaney |url=https://www.saatchiart.com/account/profile/72163 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180927163835/https://www.saatchiart.com/account/profile/72163 |archive-date=2018-09-27 |access-date=2022-05-02 |website=Saatchi Art |language=en-GB}}}} is a British actress, writer, and artist, best known for her television writing in partnership with Edwin Apps.{{refn|{{Cite web |title=About |url=https://www.paulinedevaney.com/about |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220502054644/https://www.paulinedevaney.com/about |archive-date=2022-05-02 |website=Pauline Devaney}}}}

Devaney was born in Stoke-on-Trent, and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.{{refn|{{Cite magazine |last=Ozanne |first=Christine |date=2005 |title=50 Years On |url=http://www.aprz88.dsl.pipex.com/mags/rada28.pdf |url-status=dead |magazine=RADA: the Magazine |language=en-GB |issue=28 |page=11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304061110/http://www.aprz88.dsl.pipex.com/mags/rada28.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-04 |access-date=2022-05-02}}}} She and Apps both began their careers as actors but branched into screenwriting while between jobs, originally writing under the name "John Wraith",{{refn|{{Cite web |date=2014-10-28 |title=All Gas and Gaiters |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/allgasandgaiters/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220502060145/https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/allgasandgaiters/ |archive-date=2022-05-02 |access-date=2021-12-25 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}} }} with All Gas and Gaiters (1966–71), the series that brought Derek Nimmo into the public eye.{{refn|{{Cite news |last=Hayward |first=Anthony |date=1999-02-26 |title=Obituary: Derek Nimmo |language=en-GB |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-derek-nimmo-1073206.html |url-status=live |url-access=registration |access-date=2021-12-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220109023136/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-derek-nimmo-1073206.html |archive-date=2022-01-09}}}} The book All Gas and Gaiters: The Lost Episodes, published in June 2015 by Durpey-Allen, ({{ISBN|978-1-910317-02-0}}) is the first of four in which all the scripts of the wiped episodes of the first five series are published, together with Devaney's and Apps' memories of writing and producing television comedy decades earlier and, because Devaney was the first woman to ever do so, some of the difficulties they encountered with the hierarchy of the BBC.{{refn|{{Cite web |title=French Relish |url=http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/french_relish/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160719151611/https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/french_relish/ |archive-date=2016-07-19 |access-date=2022-05-02 |website=British Comedy Guide |language=en-GB}}}}

Devaney appeared in leading roles on television during the 1960s, With Edwin Apps, she appeared in two comedy series by N. F. Simpson: Three Rousing Tinkles (1966) and Four Tall Tinkles (1967). She also appeared in The Avengers 1967 episode entitled The 50,000 Pound Breakfast. During the 1980s, she wrote a one-woman stage play, To Marie with Love, based on the life of Marie Stopes, which she took to the Edinburgh Festival in 1985 where it won a Fringe First Award. There is a script of this play in the British Library and a sound recording of the original production in the National Archives. She toured extensively with ‘Marie’ both in the UK and abroad for a number of years.

Devaney began studying art in 1999. After winning the Winchester Art Competition in 2001, she took up art as a full-time career, and now lives in Lewes, Sussex.