Brian Clemens, one of the defining writers of British television in the 20th century, has passed away aged 83. Best known for his work on The Avengers and numerous other cult series of the telefantasy genre, he also scripted shows across the pond such as Diagnosis: Murder and created my own personal favourite The Professionals. Still shown on ITV4 to this day, it concerned the adventures of a pair of laddish hard men operating for fictional government department CI5, and put stars Martin Shaw and the late Lewis Collins on the map.
Born in Croydon, Clemens had his first short story published before hitting his teens and went on to write for television and film full time after a stint in advertising. He performed scribbling duties on a wide variety of programmes including Danger Man and Richard The Lionheart, but it was delivering the pilot episode of The Avengers that made his name. Created by Doctor Who‘s Sydney Newman, it featured the exploits of super smooth 1960s agent John Steed (played by Patrick Macnee) with his trademark bowler hat and umbrella plus his array of assistants, most notably Emma Peel. As associate producer and chief scriptwriter Clemens was instrumental in casting Diana Rigg as “Mrs Peel”, who accompanied Steed as they battled a florid line up of villains. For example there were the dreaded Cybernauts, who also appeared in follow-up series The New Avengers co-starring Joanna Lumley. The Avengers was characterized by its depiction of an alternate British society where colonialism had seemingly never died out and proved a big hit in America.
On film, he provided screenplays for horrormeisters Hammer, including the unusual DR JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE and the highly underrated CAPTAIN KRONOS, VAMPIRE HUNTER, one of the studio’s last gasps at big screen success. He also scripted the HIGHLANDER franchise for two entries – the much-maligned THE QUICKENING and episodes of the TV version. His last major hit was Bugs, an action series about tech-savvy crimefighters for the BBC which ended in 1999. The cause of death is not yet known, but the news was broken via The Professionals website.
We at THN would like to offer our condolences to Mr Clemens’ family and friends and salute his contribution to what is seen by many as a golden age of weekly programming.
Source: Inquisitr.com
