Peter J. Hammond (born c. 1930s; sometimes credited as P. J. Hammond) is a British television writer and novelist.

Career

Hammond's television career began in the 1960s when he began working on

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

police dramas such as ''

Dixon of Dock Green ''Dixon of Dock Green'' is a BBC police procedural television series about daily life at a fictional London police station, with the emphasis on petty crime, successfully controlled through common sense and human understanding. It ran from 1955 ...

'' and ''

Z-Cars ''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police and CID detectives in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by ...

'', on the latter of which he served as

script editor A script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television and radio programs, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas wit ...

for a year from 1969 to 1970. In 1970 he also wrote for the fantasy series '' Ace of Wands'', and later in the decade contributed to the soap opera ''

Emmerdale Farm ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British television soap opera that is broadcast on ITV. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin ...

''. He also continued to write for crime and police dramas, penning episodes of ''

The Sweeney ''The Sweeney'' is a British police drama television series focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London. It stars John Thaw as Detective ...

''. He also created the offbeat 1984 sitcom '' Lame Ducks''. In the 1980s and 1990s, Hammond wrote for popular ITV police/detective shows ''

The Gentle Touch ''The Gentle Touch'' is a British police procedural drama series made by London Weekend Television for ITV which began on 11 April 1980 and ran until 24 November 1984. The series is notable for being the first British series to feature a fema ...

'', ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV from 16 October 1984 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, "Woodentop (The Bill), Woodentop" (part of the ''Storyb ...

'' and '' Wycliffe'', as well as for ''

Doctor Finlay ''Doctor Finlay'' is a British television series based on A. J. Cronin's stories about the fictional medical hero, Dr. Finlay. It was first broadcast on 5 March 1993 on ITV. It is a follow-up to ''Dr. Finlay's Casebook'', the successful BBC ...

'', the new production of the 1960s

series ''Dr. Finlay's Casebook''. He returned to the science fiction genre by writing an episode of the 1998

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

series ''

Space Island One ''Space Island One'' (or ''Raumstation Unity'' in German) is a British/German science fiction television series that ran for 26 episodes beginning in 1998. A co-production between the UK's Sky One channel and the German Vox channel, it starred ...

'', although his episode was ultimately one of those that went untransmitted until 2002. Work in the 2000s included many episodes of the popular murder mystery series ''

Midsomer Murders ''Midsomer Murders'' is a British Mystery fiction, mystery television series, adapted by Anthony Horowitz and Douglas Watkinson from the novels in the ''Chief Inspector Barnaby'' book series created by Caroline Graham (writer), Caroline Graham. ...

''.

''Sapphire & Steel''

P.J. Hammond is best known for the creation of the

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

series ''

Sapphire & Steel ''Sapphire & Steel'' is a British supernatural/fantasy television series starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley. Produced by ATV, it ran from 1979 to 1982 on the ITV network. The series was created by Peter J. Hammond who conceived the ...

'', produced by

ATV ATV may refer to: Broadcasting * Amateur television *Analog television Television broadcaster * Andorra Televisió * Anguilla Television * Ayna TV, Afghanistan * ATV (Armenia) * ATV (Aruba), NBC affiliate * ATV (Australian TV station), Melbourn ...

and screened on the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...

network in the UK from 1979 to 1982. Hammond, who had conceived the series after spending an evening in a supposedly haunted house, wrote five of the six serials that made up the programme, as well as a

novelisation A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of ...

of the first serial.

Doctor Who and spin-offs

In 1986, Hammond was approached to write for ''Doctor Who'', during the troubled production of Season 23's ''

The Trial of a Time Lord The twenty-third season of British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', known collectively as ''The Trial of a Time Lord'', aired in weekly episodes from 6 September to 6 December 1986. It contained four adventures: '' The Mysterio ...

''. His story, titled '' Paradise Five'', was liked by then-script editor

Eric Saward Eric Saward (; born 9 December 1944) is a British radio scriptwriter who worked as a screenwriter and script editor on the BBC's science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' from 1982 to 1986. He wrote the stories '' The Visitation'' (1982), ...

, but rejected by the producer

John Nathan-Turner John Turner (12 August 1947 – 1 May 2002), known professionally as John Nathan-Turner, was an English television producer. He was the ninth producer of the long-running BBC science fiction series ''Doctor Who'' and the final producer of the ...

while the script was still being worked on. The script was later revived in 2009–2010 by

Big Finish Productions Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and radio drama, audio plays (released straight to compact disc and for download in MP3 and m4b format) based, primarily, on science fiction properties. These include ''Doctor Who'' ...

for a full cast audio drama,

Paradise 5 ''Doctor Who: The Lost Stories'' is a sci-fi audio series produced by Big Finish Productions of ''Doctor Who'' audio plays adapted from unused TV stories. Episodes Series 1 (2009–10) The first series is largely adapted from stories planned fo ...

, with the final script written by both Hammond and new material by

Andy Lane Andrew Lane (born 17 April 1963), as Andy Lane, is a British author and journalist best known for the Young Sherlock Holmes series of Young Adult novels. He has written novels in the Virgin New Adventures range and audio dramas for Big Fin ...

, starring the

Sixth Doctor The Sixth Doctor is an incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor, the protagonist of the British Science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Colin Baker. Although his televisual t ...

(

Colin Baker Colin Charles Baker (born 8 June 1943) is an English actor. He played Paul Merroney in the BBC television drama series ''The Brothers (1972 TV series), The Brothers'' from 1974 to 1976 and the Sixth Doctor, sixth incarnation of The Doctor (Do ...

) and his companion

Peri Brown Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown is a fictional character played by Nicola Bryant in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. An American botany major from Fell's Point in Baltimore, Maryland, Peri is a companion of ...

(

Nicola Bryant Nicola Jane Bryant (born 11 October 1960)England & Wales Birth ...

).Galifrey One – Big Finish Announces Details of Lost Season
/ref> ''Paradise 5'' was one of eight stories made as part of the first "

Lost Stories ''The Lost Stories'' is the eleventh and penultimate book in the series ''Ranger's Apprentice'' by Australian author John Flanagan. It is a collection of "lost" tales that fill in the gaps between novels. The book was released in Australia o ...

" season featuring several commissioned, but never filmed, scripts.Big Finish – Lost Stories Titles Almost Announced
/ref> In October 2005, it was announced by the BBC Press Office that Hammond would be one of the writers of the new science fiction crime series ''

Torchwood ''Torchwood'' is a British-American science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. A spin-off of the 2005 revival of ''Doctor Who'', it aired from 2006 to 2011. The show shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect i ...

'', a spin-off from the popular

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

show ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

''. His episode, " Small Worlds", was shown on 12 November 2006, directly opposite one of his ''Midsomer Murders'' scripts, "Dance with the Dead", on

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 ...

. He also wrote the episode "

From Out of the Rain "From Out of the Rain" is the tenth episode of the second series of the British science fiction television series '' Torchwood''. It was broadcast on BBC Three on 12 March 2008, and repeated on BBC Two one week later. In the episode, the Ghostma ...

" for the second series of ''Torchwood'', shown on BBC Three on 12 March 2008.

Novel

In 2018 Hammond released his first novel, Downtimers. PJ Hammond - Downtimers
/ref>

Writing credits

References

External links

*
''Sapphire & Steel''-based interview at Anorakzone.com fansite

''Torchwood'' press release at bbc.co.uk, with Hammond announced as a writer on the series
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hammond, Peter J. 20th-century British screenwriters 21st-century British screenwriters 21st-century British novelists British soap opera writers British television writers British male novelists British male screenwriters British science fiction writers Living people 1930s births Year of birth missing (living people)