14 March 2013 Last updated at 07:42

New Tricks' Nigel McCrery honoured at Nottinghamshire school

Screenwriter Nigel McCrery created New Tricks in 2005

The writer of BBC dramas Silent Witness and New Tricks has been honoured at a Nottinghamshire school.

A new centre of dyslexia at the George Spencer Academy, in Stapleford, was named after Nigel McCrery, who suffers from the condition.

The screenwriter, who attended the school in the 1960s, said he wanted to prove there was nothing the pupils could not do in their lives.

"l left school under a cloud destined to do not much at all," he said.

"Dyslexics were written off as thick and stupid and treated as such."

About 4% of the population have severe dyslexia, while a further 6% experience mild to moderate problems.

Nigel McCrery

• Born 30 October 1963, in London
• His family later settle in Toton, Nottinghamshire
• Joins the BBC graduate scheme in 1990
• Creates BBC One drama Silent Witness in 1996
• Writes New Tricks in 2005

It is caused by differences in the areas of the brain that deal with language.

Mr McCrery said following school he worked in numerous dead-end jobs before joining Nottinghamshire Police in 1978, which he also found hard due to his dyslexia.

He left the force in 1987 when he was accepted at Trinity College, Cambridge, and started writing to keep his "head above the waves".

The screenwriter later joined the BBC and worked on the critically acclaimed Our Friends in the North, which starred Dr Who actor Christopher Eccleston and the future James Bond, Daniel Craig.

Mr McCrery said: "Today there is lots of help with [dyslexia], and people with the condition do anything.

"I need to get that across to people so they don't feel the condition will hold them back."