Early years

Hall was born in Essex, England, and educated at University College School, Hampstead from 1952 until 1955, when he embarked on a career in insurance industry. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1958 and continued to work in insurance, also performing in amateur theatre in Wellington New Zealand. He later attended Wellington Teachers’ College and Victoria University of Wellington, and became at teacher at Berhampore School, Wellington.

Career

Hall's best-known work in New Zealand is probably Glide Time (1976), which depicts the frustrations and petty triumphs of a group of workers in a government office. It gave rise to the popular 1980s television series Gliding On and a sequel play, Market Forces (1995), set in the "restructured" public service environment of the post-Rogernomics era.

The characters of The Share Club (1987, before the Stock Market crash) and After the Crash (1988) were also adapted for television in Neighbourhood Watch.

Hall's best-known works internationally are Middle Age Spread (1978, revised 1980), which had a run in the West End and was also filmed in 1979, and Conjugal Rites (1991) which was made into a situation comedy series in the UK starring Gwen Taylor and Michael Williams .

Hall was a Burns Fellow in 1977. He was the subject of a television documentary in 2006.