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Dennis Spooner
Dennis Spooner (1 December 1932 – 20 September 1986) was an English television writer and script editor, known primarily for his programmes about fictional spies and his work in children's television in the 1960s. He had long-lasting professional working relationships with a number of other British screenwriters and producers, notably Brian Clemens, Terry Nation, Monty Berman and Richard Harris, with whom he developed several programmes. Though he was a contributor to BBC programmes, his work made him one of the most prolific writers of televised output from ITC Entertainment.
Dennis was born in Tottenham, Middlesex. Following a brief spell as a professional footballer with Leyton Orient, Dennis completed his National Service with the Royal Air Force where he met Tony Williamson, with whom he formed an amateur writing partnership. During the 1950s Dennis returned to office work, and met and married Pauline.
Dennis did not desire a career in business and tried to break into the entertainment industry through performance, forming a comedy double act with Benny Davis, now a journalist living in Spain. They worked the London circuit but found only moderate success. Spooner then turned to writing and began selling half-hour comedy scripts to the BBC TV comedian Harry Worth. This eventually led to his writing several scripts for Coronation Street in 1960. He also contributed to the ITV police procedural series No Hiding Place and Ghost Squad as well as to the top-rated comedy series Bootsie and Snudge and to ATV's attempt to revive Tony Hancock's career in Hancock (1963).
Around this time Spooner met Brian Clemens; they struck up a partnership that lasted for the rest of Spooner's career. Clemens offered the writer work on The Avengers which was near the beginning of its nine-year run on ITV. Clemens bought two more of Spooner's scripts in that first year, making Spooner a fairly important writer during the Ian Hendry era of the programme.
While his work in the spy fiction genre was the dominant feature of his writing career, Spooner also made several key contributions to children's drama. Most active in the genre from 1964 to 1966, he was a contributor to both the Gerry Anderson programmes and Doctor Who. It was to this genre that he returned at the end of his life. His final sale was the episode "Flashback" for the children's supernatural anthology, Dramarama.
After Spooner befriended Gerry and Sylvia Anderson in the early 1960s, they offered him a chance to write for their new Supermarionation puppet TV series, Supercar. Although these scripts were unused, Spooner successfully submitted scripts for the Andersons' next programme, Fireball XL5 in 1962. After two episodes there he received more substantial work on Stingray and Thunderbirds, writing almost 20 episodes for the two series. Although Thunderbirds was the last major work that he did for the Andersons, he returned in the 1970s to write single episodes of the more adult-oriented UFO and The Protectors. His final work for the Andersons was to write some additional scenes required to knit the first and 17th episodes of Space: 1999 into a feature-length release, known as Alien Attack. Spooner's work on the early Anderson programmes was also his first regular work for ITC Entertainment.
Spooner worked on Doctor Who almost exclusively in the formative William Hartnell era. He served as script editor for 6 months from The Rescue to The Chase. By the time Spooner left, the only remaining original character was the Doctor himself and one of Spooner's major goals during this period was to prove that the programme could survive major cast changes. This was partly achieved through the gradual introduction of humour, as is evident in the scripts Spooner himself wrote. The BBC's episode guide notes that "it is for its innovative use of humour that The Romans will always be best remembered, and in this respect it represents a worthwhile attempt at finding new dramatic ground for the series to cover". It was a change that resounded with the public, helping an episode of The Romans to receive the highest-ever share in the history of the series.[citation needed]
Spooner was also responsible for helping to foster a new paradigm for the historical type of adventure. It was he who fully developed the notion of the pseudo-historical with his story The Time Meddler. A gag in the previous story, The Chase, had been that Daleks were responsible for the disappearance of the Mary Celeste. In The Time Meddler, however, the central plotline was that actual historical events were a backdrop for a battle between the Doctor and an alien opponent. In sustaining the notion for a full serial, Spooner gave birth to an approach to historical events that has continued through to the most recent series of the programme. The Time Meddler also represents the first time that another member of the Doctor's race, not yet identified as the Time Lords, appeared (other than his granddaughter, Susan).
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Dennis Spooner
Dennis Spooner (1 December 1932 – 20 September 1986) was an English television writer and script editor, known primarily for his programmes about fictional spies and his work in children's television in the 1960s. He had long-lasting professional working relationships with a number of other British screenwriters and producers, notably Brian Clemens, Terry Nation, Monty Berman and Richard Harris, with whom he developed several programmes. Though he was a contributor to BBC programmes, his work made him one of the most prolific writers of televised output from ITC Entertainment.
Dennis was born in Tottenham, Middlesex. Following a brief spell as a professional footballer with Leyton Orient, Dennis completed his National Service with the Royal Air Force where he met Tony Williamson, with whom he formed an amateur writing partnership. During the 1950s Dennis returned to office work, and met and married Pauline.
Dennis did not desire a career in business and tried to break into the entertainment industry through performance, forming a comedy double act with Benny Davis, now a journalist living in Spain. They worked the London circuit but found only moderate success. Spooner then turned to writing and began selling half-hour comedy scripts to the BBC TV comedian Harry Worth. This eventually led to his writing several scripts for Coronation Street in 1960. He also contributed to the ITV police procedural series No Hiding Place and Ghost Squad as well as to the top-rated comedy series Bootsie and Snudge and to ATV's attempt to revive Tony Hancock's career in Hancock (1963).
Around this time Spooner met Brian Clemens; they struck up a partnership that lasted for the rest of Spooner's career. Clemens offered the writer work on The Avengers which was near the beginning of its nine-year run on ITV. Clemens bought two more of Spooner's scripts in that first year, making Spooner a fairly important writer during the Ian Hendry era of the programme.
While his work in the spy fiction genre was the dominant feature of his writing career, Spooner also made several key contributions to children's drama. Most active in the genre from 1964 to 1966, he was a contributor to both the Gerry Anderson programmes and Doctor Who. It was to this genre that he returned at the end of his life. His final sale was the episode "Flashback" for the children's supernatural anthology, Dramarama.
After Spooner befriended Gerry and Sylvia Anderson in the early 1960s, they offered him a chance to write for their new Supermarionation puppet TV series, Supercar. Although these scripts were unused, Spooner successfully submitted scripts for the Andersons' next programme, Fireball XL5 in 1962. After two episodes there he received more substantial work on Stingray and Thunderbirds, writing almost 20 episodes for the two series. Although Thunderbirds was the last major work that he did for the Andersons, he returned in the 1970s to write single episodes of the more adult-oriented UFO and The Protectors. His final work for the Andersons was to write some additional scenes required to knit the first and 17th episodes of Space: 1999 into a feature-length release, known as Alien Attack. Spooner's work on the early Anderson programmes was also his first regular work for ITC Entertainment.
Spooner worked on Doctor Who almost exclusively in the formative William Hartnell era. He served as script editor for 6 months from The Rescue to The Chase. By the time Spooner left, the only remaining original character was the Doctor himself and one of Spooner's major goals during this period was to prove that the programme could survive major cast changes. This was partly achieved through the gradual introduction of humour, as is evident in the scripts Spooner himself wrote. The BBC's episode guide notes that "it is for its innovative use of humour that The Romans will always be best remembered, and in this respect it represents a worthwhile attempt at finding new dramatic ground for the series to cover". It was a change that resounded with the public, helping an episode of The Romans to receive the highest-ever share in the history of the series.[citation needed]
Spooner was also responsible for helping to foster a new paradigm for the historical type of adventure. It was he who fully developed the notion of the pseudo-historical with his story The Time Meddler. A gag in the previous story, The Chase, had been that Daleks were responsible for the disappearance of the Mary Celeste. In The Time Meddler, however, the central plotline was that actual historical events were a backdrop for a battle between the Doctor and an alien opponent. In sustaining the notion for a full serial, Spooner gave birth to an approach to historical events that has continued through to the most recent series of the programme. The Time Meddler also represents the first time that another member of the Doctor's race, not yet identified as the Time Lords, appeared (other than his granddaughter, Susan).