Richard Carpenter (screenwriter) explained

Richard Carpenter
Birth Date:1929 8, df=y
Birth Place:King's Lynn, Norfolk, England
Death Place:Hertfordshire, England
Occupation:Screenwriter, author, actor
Yearsactive:1957–2001
Children:2

Richard Michael "Kip" Carpenter (14 August 1929 – 26 February 2012)[1] was an English screenwriter, author and actor. He created a number of British television series, including Robin of Sherwood and Catweazle.

Early life

Carpenter was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, and educated at Downham Market Grammar School (now Downham Market Academy.[2] He attended the Old Vic Theatre School before starting an acting career by working in repertory theatre.

Career

Carpenter appeared in occasional films, but was mostly active on British TV in the 1960s as a character actor, on one occasion opposite Tony Hancock in one of his last shows for the BBC, commonly known as "The Bowmans". Other TV shows in which he appeared in the 1960s included Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, Gideon's Way, Sherlock Holmes and The Baron.

In 1969, Carpenter created Catweazle, the children's series about an unfortunate wizard from the 11th century who is accidentally transported to the present day. This changed the course of his career substantially. Carpenter earned international recognition and a Writers' Guild award for creating the cult children's TV series.[3]

During the 1970s, he wrote the series The Ghosts of Motley Hall (1976–1978), Dick Turpin (1979–1982), parts of the series The Famous Five and Doctor Snuggles, and 17 episodes of The Adventures of Black Beauty for ITV; and Cloud Burst, The Boy from Space and The King's Dragon as part of BBC's Look and Read (1967–2004) programme for schools, He presented all episodes of "Cloud Burst".

In the 1980s came the historical adventures Smuggler (TV series) and its later antipodean-based follow-up Adventurer (TV series) and between them, the lavish HTV production Robin of Sherwood, which ran for three series.

As Anthony Hayward wrote in this cited obituary:

Carpenter then worked on a number of series for children and families in the 1990s (The Winjin' Pom, Stanley's Dragon and Out of Sight), some of which (The Borrowers, The Return of the Borrowers and The Scarlet Pimpernel) were based on classic novels.

Carpenter wrote novelisations of many of the early series he created: Catweazle, Cloud Burst, The Ghosts of Motley Hall, Smuggler, Robin of Sherwood (two books) and two books of Dick Turpin.

Personal life

Carpenter married Annabelle Lee in 1954. They lived in Ayot Bury, Ayot St Peter near Welwyn in Hertfordshire, had two children and remained married until his death.

Death

On 26 February 2012, at the age of 82, Carpenter died in Hertfordshire from a pulmonary embolism.[4] [5] [6]

Filmography

Bibliography

Works by Richard Carpenter in English

Novelisations of Carpenter's work by other authors

by Anthony Horowitz (Corgi Books, 1987)

Works by Richard Carpenter in translation

External links

Notes and References

  1. Anthony Hayward "Richard Carpenter obituary", The Guardian, 5 March 2012
  2. Alistair McGown Carpenter, Richard (1929–2012), BFI screenonline page
  3. News: "Dr. Snuggles" Writer Richard Carpenter Dies at 78 . Ethan . Minovitz . Big Cartoon News . 3 March 2012 . 3 March 2012 . dead . https://archive.today/20121201231006/http://blog.bcdb.com/dr-snuggles-writer-richard-carpenter-dies-78-3308/ . 1 December 2012 .
  4. Abbie Bernstein "In Memoriam: ROBIN OF SHERWOOD creator Richard Carpenter passes at age 78", AssignmentX, 27 February 2012
  5. Alex Farber "Catweazle creator Richard Carpenter dies", Broadcast, 29 February 2012
  6. News: Richard Carpenter, creator of Catweazle, dies aged 78 . BBC News . 1 March 2012 . 2 March 2012.

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