Peter Richard Newman (4 June 1926 – 22 February 1975) was an English television screenwriter in the 1950s and 1960s.

Early life

He was born in

Ilford Ilford is a large List of areas of London, town in East London, England, northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Redbridge, Ilford is within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. It had a po ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

Writing

He wrote a television play, ''

Yesterday's Enemy ''Yesterday's Enemy'' is a 1959 Hammer Films British war film in MegaScope directed by Val Guest and starring Stanley Baker, Guy Rolfe, Leo McKern and Gordon Jackson set in the Burma Campaign during World War II. It is based on a 1958 BBC te ...

'', which he later turned into a screenplay for

Val Guest Val Guest (born Valmond Maurice Grossman; 11 December 1911 – 10 May 2006) was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer (and later director) of comedy films, he is best known for his work for Hammer Film Productions, ...

; the film version was released in 1959 by

Hammer A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...

. As a three-act play, it was published by

Samuel French Samuel French (1821–1898) was an American entrepreneur who, together with British actor, playwright and theatrical manager Thomas Hailes Lacy, pioneered in the field of theatrical publishing and the licensing A license (American Englis ...

in 1960. He was commissioned for further screenplays, but the relationship between Newman and Hammer deteriorated over financial concerns. His Western screenplay, ''The San Siado Killings'', would become the basis for the 1961 Eurowestern film '' Savage Guns''. The latter, one of the first

Spaghetti Western The spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

s, was credited to Edmund Morris. It was also the first western to be shot on location in Almeria, Spain, an area which would be often used in later Spaghetti Westerns during the next two decades. He wrote ''

The Sensorites ''The Sensorites'' is the seventh serial in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Written by Peter R. Newman and directed by Mervyn Pinfield and Frank Cox, the serial was first broadcast on BBC1 in six weekly parts fr ...

'' for the first season of ''

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 ...

'' in 1963–64. This would be Newman's only contribution to ''Doctor Who'', and indeed his last credit for British television. He subsequently developed severe

writer's block Writer's block is a non-medical condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Writer's block has various degrees of severity, from difficulty in coming ...

and took a job as a porter at the Tate Gallery.

Personal life

In an attempt to join the army before he was of age, Newman fled his school and exchanged clothes with a

deserter Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or Military base, post without permission (a Pass (military), pass, Shore leave, liberty or Leave (U.S. military), leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with u ...

he subsequently met, not knowing at the time that the soldier was a deserter. This resulted in some trouble with the police, who sought out his family under the belief that it was Newman who had deserted. Unable to return to school as he was expelled, he did eventually join the army legally and was deployed to Burma, where he met and befriended a Japanese soldier. It is likely his experiences there greatly influenced his writing in both ''

'' and ''

''."Looking for Peter", documentary on the official BBC DVD of ''

Death

He died in 1975 after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage following an accident at work in which he fell down a flight of stairs and hit his head on an iron radiator.

References

External links

* 1926 births 1975 deaths People from Ilford English science fiction writers English television writers English male screenwriters English male television writers 20th-century English screenwriters 20th-century English male writers {{England-writer-stub