Peter Robert Edward Goodchild (18 August 1939 – 6 May 2025) was a BBC television editor, who notably edited ''Horizon'' and who initiated the popular 1980s BBC science series ''

Q.E.D. Q.E.D. or QED is an initialism of the List of Latin phrases (full), Latin phrase , meaning "that which was to be demonstrated". Literally, it states "what was to be shown". Traditionally, the abbreviation is placed at the end of Mathematical proof ...

''.

Early life

He studied at

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

. Before Oxford, he was a student at Aldenham, located near Elstree, Herts.

Career

BBC

He joined the BBC's ''

Horizon The horizon is the apparent curve that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This curve divides all viewing directions based on whethe ...

'', becoming a producer from 1965-69. From 1969-76 he was Editor of ''Horizon'', at the time the series was much in its heyday and essential viewing for many people. Under him, it won a

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

award (

British Academy Television Awards The BAFTA TV Awards, or British Academy Television Awards, are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. They have been awarded annually since 1955. Background The first-ever Awards, given in ...

) in 1972 and 1974 for Best Factual Series. He was the executive producer of the

Award-winning series "Marie Curie" (1977), with John Glenister as the director, which won the award for Best Drama Series and Serial and Jane Lapotaire as nomination for

British Academy Television Award for Best Actress This is a list of the British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress. The British Academy Television Awards began in 1955. The Best Actress award was initially given as an "individual honour", without credit to a particular performance, until ...

with same film. After the success of "Marie Curie", Goodchild continued his production and start production of '' Oppenheimer'' (1980) with Barry Davis as director and Peter Prince as screenwriter. This series became product of collaboration between BBC with WGBH. The series won the award for Best Drama Series and Serial and Best Original Television Music which won by

Carl Davis Carl Davis (October 28, 1936 – August 3, 2023) was an American-born British conductor and composer. He wrote music for more than 100 television programmes, notably the landmark ITV series '' The World at War'' (1973) and BBC's '' Pride and P ...

. This series also got

Sam Waterston Samuel Atkinson Waterston (born November 15, 1940) is an American actor. Waterston is known for his work in theater, television, and film. He has received numerous accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actor ...

a nomination for Best Actor. From 1980-84 he was BBC Television's Head of Science & Features; in this position he created '' QED''. From 1984-89 he branched out, away from science, becoming BBC Television's Head of Plays; in this position, he created ''

Screen One ''Screen One'' is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and distributed by BBC Worldwide, that was transmitted on BBC One from 1989 to 1998. A total of six series were broadcast, incorporating sixty individual films, s ...

'', ''

Screen Two ''Screen Two'' is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1985 to 1998 (not to be confused with a run of films shown on BBC2 under the billing ''Screen 2'' between April 1977 and March 1978 ...

'' and ''

Screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

''. From 1989-94 he was an executive producer in the BBC Film department.

Playwright

Goodchild wrote several plays for L.A. Theatre Works.

References

External links

Talking about his time at ''Horizon''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goodchild, Peter 1939 births 2025 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Oxford BBC executives BBC television producers Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry