Born in 1934 in Liverpool, Welland grew up in the Kensington area of Liverpool before moving to Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, (now Merseyside); while still a young child. His parents were John Arthur (Jack) and Norah Williams. He attended Newton-le-Willows Grammar School and after National Service he studied at Goldsmiths College and Bretton Hall College of Education, where he gained a teaching diploma and qualified as a teacher.

Welland married Patricia Sweeney in 1962, the marriage producing a son and three daughters. He was a lifelong rugby league fan who played and supported the sport, on the field and in writing newspaper columns.

When Welland appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 1973 he said that most of his own plays “usually champion the individual against the system”. He said: “I usually find that it’s one man’s effort to break through what is usually expected of an individual.”

As an actor, Welland appeared as PC David Graham in the BBC Television series Z-Cars from 1962 to 1965. He was a sympathetic schoolteacher in a BAFTA-winning performance in the film Kes (1969), and a detective in the Richard Burton film Villain (1971). He appeared as a villain in one 1975 episode of The Sweeney, and was in the series’ first cinema spin-off Sweeney! (1977) as Frank Chadwick, a newspaper editor. His other film appearances include Dennis Potter’s Blue Remembered Hills (1979) as the character Willie, and Dancin’ Thru the Dark (1990). He was also in the television series Cowboys (1980), a comedy about a dodgy builder, with Roy Kinnear.

Welland died in London in his sleep on 2 November 2015 at the age of 81. He had been afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease for several years prior to his death.