Brian Horace Clemens OBE was probably best known to cult TV fans for his work on the iconic British television series, The Avengers, which later returned as the rebooted, The New Avengers, both of which I'm certainly a big fan. Clemens work on The Avengers certainly helped give the show its unique style, fusing drama and sci-fi, with a sprinkling of odd ball comedy.
His other major series was the popular crime/action drama, The Professionals staring Gordon Jackson as the no nonsense head of CI5, George Cowley, Lewis Collins was agent Bodie and Martin Shaw as agent Doyle, Clemens went on to produce a rebooted version of that with none of the original cast called CI5: The New Professionals. Personally, for me it's only memorable redeeming feature was the casting of actor Edward Woodward (Callan/ The Equaliser) as new CI5 boss, Harry Malone.
Although, Clemens created, wrote and produced many film and TV series, which will no doubt be covered in the many glowing tributes that will appear, it is his early work I'm most fond of.
He wrote several scripts for the legendary Danziger Brothers, who produced many low budget but popular series in the fifties and early sixties. One show was Saber of London aka The Vice which starred Donald Gray - later to voice Colonel White in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
While working on the Avengers, he wrote several scripts for some of my favourite ITC series, sometimes using the pseudonym, Tony O'Grady (I believe O'Grady was his mother's maiden name) for contractual reasons.
One such script was The Maze written for The Baron TV series. It contained many trademark Clemens elements of hallucinogenic dream sequences. A similar story containing similar imagery turned up in the Avengers episode Death's Door.
Brian Clemens OBE: Scriptwriter and Producer 1931 -2015
Clemens was absolutely one of my writing heroes: someone whose work I not only watched and enjoyed, but rewatched to study and take mental notes as to how he told stories and developed plots and characters.
ReplyDelete(The one I’ve watched most often is probably The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, not something you’d think of in this context but the pacing and character development in that screenplay has some unexpected and enlightening similarities to Clemens’ work on The Avengers. Good writing is good writing, no matter the genre.)
Among his other script credits was the very first episode of Danger Man, which in an interesting coincidence involved location filming at a place called Portmeirion, a location Patrick McGoohan remembered a few years later when he was developing his next series. So Clemens was indirectly connected to the birth of The Prisoner as well.
You're obviously a fan Richard. As to that first Dangerman episode , Veiw from a Villa, yeah you're absolutely right. Portmeirion did figure in it quite a lot. I do like Dangerman and the Prisoner, thanks for pointing out the connection
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