Dennis Spooner

Dennis Spooner
Birth date:	1 December 1932
Death date:	20 September 1986
Work in the DWU
Main jobs:	Writer, Script editor
Stories:	See credits section
Main time period active:	1964-1966
Career highlights
Notable non-DWU work:	The Avengers, No Hiding Place, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, The Baron, Man in a Suitcase, The Champions, UFO, Doomwatch, Paul Temple, The Adventurer, The Protectors, The New Avengers, The Professionals, Bergerac
IMDb profile

Dennis Spooner (1 December 1932-20 September 1986) was a script editor for Doctor Who and the author of several television stories.

Career

Spooner's writing debut was an episode of Coronation Street, after which he wrote scripts for various Gerry Anderson puppet series such as Fireball XL5, Stingray and Thunderbirds.

Soon after leaving as script editor on Doctor Who, he and Terry Nation served as the principle writers of the ITC action adventure series The Baron. Spooner spent the majority of the next five years at ITC, for which he co-created Man in a Suitcase. Along with Monty Berman, he helped create various successful series for ITC, such as The Champions, Department S, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and Jason King. He served as script consultant on all four, but only wrote for the latter. During this time he wrote an episode of The Avengers, having previously written two scripts for it in 1961.

In the 70s and 80s, Spooner wrote scripts for Doomwatch, Paul Temple and Bergerac for the BBC, UFO and The Protectors for ITC, Thriller for ATV and The Professionals for LWT.

Death

Spooner died of a heart attack in 1986.

Legacy

The documentary Dennis Spooner: Wanna Write a Television Series? celebrated Spooner's life and career.

Bibliography

• The Reign of Terror
• The Romans
• The Time Meddler
• The Daleks' Master Plan Episodes 6, 8-12
• The Power of the Daleks, uncredited (DWM 180)

External links

• Dennis Spooner at the Internet Movie Database