William Harold Strutton (23 February 1918 – 23 November 2003) was an Australian screenwriter and novelist. He worked on television shows such as ''

Ivanhoe ''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...

'', '' The Saint'', '' The Avengers'', ''

Riptide A rip tide, or riptide, is a strong offshore current that is caused by the tide pulling water through an inlet along a barrier beach, at a lagoon or inland marina where tide water flows steadily out to sea during ebb tide. It is a strong tidal f ...

'' and '' Doctor Who''.

Early life

Born in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, Bill Strutton won a state scholarship to university at 14 but dropped out after two years to work as an office clerk in Adelaide. At the outbreak of World War II, he joined the Australian army. He was captured by the Germans in Crete and sent to

Stalag In Germany, stalag (; ) was a term used for prisoner-of-war camps. Stalag is a contraction of "Stammlager", itself short for ''Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschaftsstammlager'', a literal translation of which is "War-prisoner" (i.e. POW) "enlisted" "ma ...

VII, learning to swear in several languages. It was there he also began to take an interest in writing. He once said: "My first year as a prisoner-of-war was the most interesting in my life. The ensuing three were the most boring, but more instructive, I think, than any university. I learned several languages: German from a Serbian horse-doctor; Spanish from a Basque; a Parisian taxi-driver bequeathed me a startling vocabulary. I also ran a camp newspaper, caught up on my reading, and finally celebrated my liberation by tearing up a novel." After being demobbed, he lived in England. In 1961, he lived with his Australian wife, Marguerite and two children in Woddingham, East Surrey.

Career

After the war, he began a career in journalism, and started to write military books in the mid-fifties. These included ''

The Secret Invaders ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

'', ''

A Jury of Angels A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

'' in 1957 and '' Island of Terrible Friends'' in 1961. Also, three films. In 1958, he scripted the ''

'' television series which starred

Roger Moore Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 1 ...

. He wrote for more than fifteen television series in eleven years, the last of which was ''

Strange Report ''Strange Report'' is a British television crime drama series starring Anthony Quayle as Adam Strange. It was produced by ITC Entertainment and first broadcast in 1969 on ITV In the United States, NBC broadcast ''Strange Report'' between 8 ...

'', starring

Anthony Quayle Sir John Anthony Quayle (7 September 1913 – 20 October 1989) was a British actor and theatre director. He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his supporting role as Thomas Wolsey in the film '' Anne of the Thousand Days'' (196 ...

, and several episodes of ''

Paul Temple Paul Temple is a fictional character created by English writer Francis Durbridge. Temple is a professional author of crime fiction and an amateur private detective. With his wife Louise, affectionately known as 'Steve' in reference to her jo ...

'' before retiring in 1978 following a heart attack. His '' Doctor Who'' story was '' The Web Planet'' in 1965. It is remembered as a unique ''Doctor Who'' serial. It was the first programme to feature a completely alien cast, including Martin Jarvis as a butterfly Menoptera, and introduced the menacing Zarbi. Two of its six episodes are amongst the handful of ''Doctor Who'' instalments to be seen by more than 13m people on original transmission. Strutton went on to adapt the serial as the third ''Doctor Who'' novel in 1965. In 1972, he submitted another storyline to ''Doctor Who'' entitled ''The Mega'', but this was rejected. It was later adapted as an audio drama that was released in 2013.

Death

Bill Strutton died on 23 November 2003, the day of ''Doctor Whos fortieth anniversary, aged 85 years.

References

External links

* 1918 births 2003 deaths British television writers British science fiction writers British male screenwriters Australian television writers Australian screenwriters 20th-century Australian non-fiction writers British male television writers 20th-century British screenwriters 20th-century Australian screenwriters Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Australian male television writers {{UK-writer-stub