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.

Early life

Dennis was born in Tottenham, Middlesex<!-- Do not change to London; Tottenham was in Middlesex until 1965-->. 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. 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.

Gerry Anderson series

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, Spooner's work on the early Anderson programmes was also his first regular work for ITC Entertainment.

Doctor Who

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.

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.

However, Spooner had already been pressed into service on another programme that Terry Nation was script-editing. Enticed by the prospect of working on a programme that would receive attention in the lucrative American market, Spooner left Doctor Who to help Nation write the majority of the scripts for The Baron in 1966. but he was not exclusively bound to the company.&mdash;Spooner still longed for some success in the United States. To this end he rejoined Brian Clemens. In 1973 Clemens had begun Thriller, an ATV/ITV anthological mystery series that was shown in the United States under the title ABC Mystery Theatre. Although Spooner wrote only two episodes, he was one of only two writers other than Clemens himself to have done so. When Clemens made his next assault on American television, The New Avengers, Spooner played a much larger role: he and Clemens wrote the overwhelming majority of the scripts. So great was Spooner's contribution to New Avengers that, if considered alongside his work for the parent programme, it makes him the third-most prolific writer for The Avengers, and second only to Clemens for the length of his association with the programme. While this gave Spooner the greatest continuous work of his latter career, neither it nor Thriller led to a long-term presence in the United States. He continued to try to break into the American market, but sold only one idea to a prime time network show: the third season Remington Steele episode "Puzzled Steele" gave story credit to Spooner, Clemens and fellow scriptwriter Jeff Melvoin.

Bridge playing

Spooner was a well-known bridge player and wrote two books, Useful Hints for Useless Players and Diary of a Palooka. The contents of the latter often appeared first under a column of that name in the publication Popular Bridge Monthly. He often added a subtle reference to bridge to his scripts, such as naming a villain who owned two nightclubs "Stayman" (after the Stayman convention).

Family and death

Spooner and his wife Pauline had three children.

Having heart problems,

Writing credits

{| class="wikitable"

! Production

! Notes

! Broadcaster

|-

|Coronation Street

|

  • "Episode #1.87" (1961)

|ITV

|-

|The Avengers

|

4 episodes (1961-8):

  • "Girl on the Trapeze" (1961)
  • "Please Don't Feed the Animals" (1961)
  • "Split!" (1968)
  • "Look – (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) – But There Were These Two Fellers..." (1968)

|ITV

|-

|No Hiding Place

|

4 episodes (1962):

  • "A Job for Johnny" (1962)
  • "Car in Flames" (1962)
  • "Time to Kill" (1962)
  • "Unfinished Business" (1962)

|ITV

|-

|ITV Television Playhouse

|

  • "No Cause for Alarm" (1962)

|ITV

|-

|Fireball XL5

|

9 episodes (1962-3):

  • "Space Pen" (1962)
  • "Space Vacation" (1963)
  • "Robert to the Rescue" (1963)
  • "Dangerous Cargo" (1963)
  • "Mystery of the TA2" (1963)
  • "Whistle for Danger" (1963)
  • "Invasion Earth" (1963)
  • "Faster Than Light" (1963)
  • "Space City Special" (1963)

|ATV

|-

|Hancock

|

  • "The Early Call" (1963)

|ATV

|-

|Comedy Playhouse

|

2 episodes (1963-4):

  • "The Plan" (1963)
  • "The Siege of Sidney's Street" (1964)

|BBC1

|-

|Foreign Affairs

|

  • "Episode #1.4" (1964)

|ITV

|-

|Stingray

|

13 episodes (1964–1965):

  • "Loch Ness Monster" (1964)
  • "Set Sail for Adventure" (1964)
  • "An Echo of Danger" (1964)
  • "Titan Goes Pop" (1964)
  • "In Search of the Tajmanon" (1964)
  • "A Christmas to Remember" (1964)
  • "Rescue from the Skies" (1965)
  • "Treasure Down Below" (1965)
  • "Stand By for Action" (1965)
  • "The Invaders" (1965)
  • "Count Down" (1965)
  • "Sea of Oil" (1965)
  • "The Golden Sea" (1965)

|ATV

|-

|Doctor Who

|

Script editor for 26 episodes of Season 2 (1965).<br>

21 episodes (1964–1966):

  • "The Reign of Terror", Parts 1-6 (1964)
  • "A Land of Fear"
  • "Guests of Madame Guillotine"
  • "A Change of Identity"
  • "The Tyrant of France"
  • "A Bargain of Necessity"
  • "Prisoners of Conciergerie"
  • "The Romans", Parts 1-4 (1965)
  • "The Slave Traders"
  • "All Roads Lead to Rome"
  • "Conspiracy"
  • "Inferno"
  • "The Time Meddler", Parts 1-4 (1965)
  • "The Watcher"
  • "The Meddling Monk"
  • "A Battle of Wits"
  • "Checkmate"
  • "The Daleks' Master Plan", Parts 6 & 8-12 of 12, with the remaining episodes written by Terry Nation, 1965
  • "Coronas of the Sun"
  • "Volcano"
  • "Golden Death"
  • "Escape Switch"
  • "The Abandoned Planet"
  • "Destruction of Time"
  • "The Power of the Daleks", Part 1 of 6 (co-written with David Whitaker, 1966) - uncredited
  • "Episode 1"

|BBC1

|-

|Pardon the Expression

|

  • "The Little Boy Lost" (1965)

|ITV

|-

|Thunderbirds

|

6 episodes (1965–1966):

  • "The Mighty Atom" (1965)
  • "Vault of Death" (1965)
  • "End of the Road" (1965)
  • "Day of Disaster" (1965)
  • "The Impostors" (1966)
  • "Cry Wolf" (1966)

|ATV

|-

|The Baron

|

14 episodes (1966–1967):

  • "Diplomatic Immunity" (1966)
  • "Enemy of the State" (1966)
  • "The Persuaders" (1966)
  • "And Suddenly You're Dead" (co-written with Terry Nation, 1966)
  • "There's Somebody Close Behind You" (co-written with Terry Nation, 1966)
  • "Time to Kill" (1967)
  • "A Memory of Evil" (co-written with Terry Nation, 1967)
  • "You Can't Win Them All" (1967)
  • "Masquerade", Part 1 of 2 (co-written with Terry Nation, 1966) - uncredited
  • "The Killing", Part 2 of 2 (co-written with Terry Nation, 1966) - uncredited
  • "The High Terrace" (1967)
  • "The Edge of Fear" (1967)
  • "Long Ago and Far Away" (1967)
  • "So Dark the Night" (co-written with Terry Nation, 1966)

|ITV

|-

|Man in a Suitcase

|

Creator, with Richard Harris, of series running 29 episodes (1967–1968)

|ITV

|-

|The Champions

|

Creator, with Monty Berman, of series running 30 episodes (1968–1969)<br>

3 episodes (1968–1969):

  • "The Beginning" (1968)
  • "The Search" (1968)
  • "The Interrogation" (1969)

|ITV

|-

|Department S

|

Creator, with Monty Berman, of series running 28 episodes (1969–1970)<br>

|ATV

|-

|Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)

|

Creator, with Monty Berman, of series running 26 episodes (1969–1970)<br>

|ITV

|-

|UFO

|

  • "Destruction" (1970)

|ITV

|-

|Doomwatch

|

2 episodes (1970–1971):

  • "Burial at Sea" (1970)
  • "The Logicians" (1971)

|BBC1

|-

|Paul Temple

|

  • "Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?" (1971)

|BBC1

|-

|Jason King

|

Creator, with Monty Berman, of series running 26 episodes (1971–1972)<br>

3 episodes (1971–1972)

  • "Wanna Buy a Television Series?" (1971)
  • "An Author in Search of Two Characters" (1972)
  • "That Isn't Me, It's Somebody Else" (1972)

|ITV

|-

|The Adventurer

|

Creator, with Monty Berman, of series running 26 episodes (1972–1973)<br>

|ATV

|-

|The Protectors

|

  • "The Bodyguards" (1973)

|ATV

|-

|Thriller

|

2 episodes (1975–1976):

  • "Terror from Within" (1975)
  • "Fear Is Spreading" (1975)

|ITV

|-

|Comedy Premiere

|

  • "What a Turn Up" (1975)

|ATV

|-

|The New Avengers

|

9 episodes (1976–1977):

  • "Cat Amongst the Pigeons" (1976)
  • "Target!" (1976)
  • "Three-Handed Game" (1976)
  • "Faces" (1976)
  • "Gnaws" (1976)
  • "Medium Rare" (1977)
  • "Complex" (1977)
  • "Forward Base" (1977)
  • "Emily" (1976)

|ITV

|-

|The Professionals

|

2 episodes (1978):

  • "Stake Out" (1978)
  • "Rogue" (1978)

|ITV

|-

|Bergerac

|

3 episodes (1981–1983)

  • "Portrait of Yesterday" (1981)
  • "Late for a Funeral" (1981)
  • "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie" (1983)

|BBC1

|-

|Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense

|

  • "And the Wall Came Tumbling Down" (1984)

|ITV

|-

|Remington Steele

|

  • "Puzzled Steele" (1984)

|NBC

|-

|Dramarama

|

  • "Flashback" (1986)

|ITV

|}

References

  • Dennis Spooner at The Playwrights Database