When Colin Welland, who has died aged 81 after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, was handed the Oscar for his screenplay of Chariots of Fire in 1982, he waved it in the air like a battle mace and declared: “The British are coming!” In fact, it was some years before another British film received an Academy award. But Welland as a screenwriter had certainly arrived.
Hollywood recognition for Chariots of Fire, which was based on the true story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics, gave him immense satisfaction. He later wrote that the initial American reaction to the idea had been: who wants a story about two runners from long ago? “When we showed it at Twickenham, a Hollywood producer left after 10 minutes, came back at the end and said that they wouldn’t have anything to do with it. When it won four Oscars, I don’t know where he hid himself.”
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