Ann McManus

Ann McManus (6 October 1957 – 16 August 2025) was a Scottish television screenwriter best known as the creator and writer of the television series Waterloo Road, and for her work on series including Coronation Street.

Early life and education Ann McManus was born in Ayr, Scotland on 6 October 1957, to James and Frances McManus. Her father was a railwayman. Her mother was an administrative assistant prior to having children; after raising them she later became a special education teacher. McManus was the second of six children. After seeing a newspaper ad, she enrolled in a distance learning course to learn to write short stories. Her first screenwriting was for the soap opera Take the High Road. McManus went on to work on a range of long-running and successful drama series including Coronation Street, Waterloo Road, Bad Girls, and Footballers' Wives.

She was creative director and co-founder of Shed Productions with ITV manager Eileen Gallagher and writer Maureen Chadwick. Shed produced Bad Girls, set in a women's prison, for ITV in 1998. Bad Girls featured British TV's first long-term lesbian relationship. Footballers' Wives ran for several seasons as primetime TV from 2002 to 2006. Waterloo Road for the BBC drew on McManus' own experience of working in schools.

After her career in writing for television brought her success, McManus later established a master's program in television fiction writing at Glasgow Caledonian University to support new screenwriters.

Personal life and death In 1980, McManus married Peter Breeze, whom she had met in university. They divorced in 1990. In 2006, she and Eileen Gallagher entered a civil partnership.