Julian Mitchell is an English screenwriter and occasional novelist.
Mitchell is best known as a playwright and screenwriter for TV, producing many original plays and series episodes, including at least ten for Inspector Morse. He has written nine produced plays, including Another Country, which won the SWET (now Oliviers) award for best play of the year (1981). He has also written the screenplay for five movies, starting by co-writing Arabesque (1966), and including the 1984 film adaptation of Another Country, Wilde and Vincent & Theo.After leaving school, Mitchell performed national service in submarines 1953-55. He then went to St Antony's College, Oxford, where he received a BA with first class honours. This was followed by a period as a Harkness Fellow in the USA (1959-61). Since 1962 has been a freelance writer.
In the late 1960s, Mitchell co-wrote the teleplay Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) with Ray Davies of The Kinks. It was never produced, though it gave rise to the band's concept album. Originally intended to be a full 'rock opera', the project got to final planning stages before collapsing through lack of proper financing.
In 2007 he wrote for BBC4 the drama Consenting Adults about Sir John Wolfenden and his celebrated 1957 report.
Julian Mitchell has lived with philosopher Richard Rowson since the late 1960s.
Julian Mitchell in The Guardian on 50 years of gay liberation in Britain.