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

Catweazle ''Catweazle'' is a British children's fantasy television series, starring Geoffrey Bayldon in the title role, and created by Richard Carpenter for London Weekend Television. The first series, produced and directed in 1969 by Quentin Lawrence ...

''.

Early life

Carpenter was born in

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, and educated at Downham Market Grammar School (now Downham Market Academy. He attended the

Old Vic Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

Theatre School before starting an acting career by working in

repertory theatre A repertory theatre, also called repertory, rep, true rep or stock, which are also called producing theatres, is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation. United Kingdom ...

Career

Carpenter appeared in occasional films, but was mostly active on British TV in the 1960s as a

character actor A character actor is an actor known for playing unusual, eccentric, or interesting character (arts), characters in supporting roles, rather than leading ones.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrie ...

, on one occasion opposite Tony Hancock in one of his last shows for the

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 ...

, commonly known as " The Bowmans". Other TV shows in which he appeared in the 1960s included ''

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 ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', ''

Gideon's Way ''Gideon's Way'' is a British television crime series that was made by ITC Entertainment and broadcast by ITV in 1964–1966, following the 1958 film, '' Gideon's Day''. The film and series are based on novels by John Creasey (writing as 'J. ...

'', ''

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...

'' and '' The Baron''. In 1969, Carpenter created ''

'', 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. During the 1970s, he wrote the series '' The Ghosts of Motley Hall'' (1976–1978), ''

Dick Turpin Richard Turpin (bapt. 21 September 1705 – 7 April 1739) was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher ear ...

'' (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

'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 ''Out of Sight'' is a 1998 American action comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Frank, adapted from Elmore Leonard's 1996 novel. The first of several collaborations between Soderbergh and actor George Clooney, it was ...

''), some of which ('' The Borrowers'', '' The Return of the Borrowers'' and ''

The Scarlet Pimpernel ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905. It was written after her stage play of the same title (co-authored with her husband Montague Barstow) enjoyed a long run in Lo ...

'') were based on classic novels. Carpenter wrote

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

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 Welwyn is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The parish also includes the nearby villages and settlements of Digswell, Mardley Heath and Oaklands. The village is sometimes referred to as Old Welwyn or Welwyn Village, to ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, had two children and remained married until his death.

Death

On 26 February 2012, at the age of 82, Carpenter died in

from a

pulmonary embolism Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an pulmonary artery, artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream (embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include dyspnea, shortness of breath, chest pain ...

Filmography

*'' Tarnished Heroes'' (1961) – Freddy *'' H.M.S. Defiant'' (1962) – Lieut. Ponsonby *'' The Password Is Courage'' (1962) – Robinson *'' Mystery Submarine'' (1963) – Lt. Haskins *''Wings of Mystery'' (1963) – Ted *'' Clash by Night'' (1964) – Danny Watts *'' The Terrornauts'' (1967) – Danny

References

Bibliography

Works by Richard Carpenter in English

*''

'', illustrated by

George Adamson George Alexander Graham Adamson MBE (3 February 1906 – 20 August 1989), also known as the ''Baba ya Simba'' ("Father of Lions" in Swahili), was a British wildlife conservationist and author based in Kenya. His wife Joy Adamson related in h ...

(Puffin, 1970) *''Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac'', illustrated by George Adamson (Puffin, 1971) *''The Best of Black Beauty'' (Everest, 1975) *'' Cloud Burst'', illustrated by Trevor Ridley (BBC, 1976) *'' The Ghosts of Motley Hall'' (Puffin, 1977) *''

'' (Armada, 1979) *''Turpin and Swiftnick'', illustrated by Peter Archer (Armada, 1980) *''Smuggler'' (Armada, 1981) *'' Robin of Sherwood'' (Puffin, 1984) *''Robin of Sherwood: The Time of the Wolf'' (Puffin, 1988) *''The Complete Adventures of Robin of Sherwood'' (Omnibus of all four novelisations, Puffin, 1990)

Novelisations of Carpenter's work by other authors

*''Robin of Sherwood and the Hounds of Lucifer'' by Robin May (Puffin, 1985) *''Robin of Sherwood: The Hooded Man'' by

Anthony Horowitz Anthony John Horowitz (born 5 April 1955) is an English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense. His works for children and young adult readers include the '' Alex Rider'' series featuring a 14-year-old British boy who spi ...

(Puffin, 1986) *''Adventurer'' by Anthony Horowitz (Corgi Books, 1987) *'' Winjin' Pom'' by Terrance Dicks (Macmillan, 1991)

Works by Richard Carpenter in translation

* ''Catweazle, de Tovernaar van Saburac'' (transl. into Dutch of ''Catweazle''), illustrated by

(Amsterdam: van Holkema & Warendorf, 1971) * ''Catweazle, de Tekens van de Dierenriem'' (transl. into Dutch of ''Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac''), illustrated by George Adamson (Amsterdam: van Holkema & Warendorf, 1971) * ''Kaksnoukka ja Porkkana'' (transl. by Marikki Makkonen into Finnish of ''Catweazle''), illustrated by George Adamson (WSOY erner Söderström Corporation 1974), Nuorten toivekirjasto 215 * ''Kaksnoukka ja Taivaan Merkit'' (transl. by Marikki Makkonen into Finnish of ''Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac''), illustrated by George Adamson (WSOY), Nuorten toivekirjasto 228 * ''Catweazle'' (transl. into German by Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt of ''Catweazle''), illustrated by George Adamson (Ravensburger, 1973) RTB 39262 * ''Catweazle sucht die magische Zeichen'' (transl. into German by Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt of ''Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac''), illustrated by George Adamson (Ravensburger, 1974) RTB 39330 * ''Catweazle'' (transl. into German by Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt of ''Catweazle''), illustrated by Carsten Teich (Ravensburger) * ''Catweazle sucht die magische Zeichen'' (transl. into German by Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt of ''Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac''), illustrated by Carsten Teich (Ravensburger, 2006) * ''Den Merkelige Mannen'' (transl. into Norwegian

Bokmål Bokmål () (, ; ) is one of the official written standards for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is by far the most used written form of Norwegian today, as it is adopted by 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. There is no cou ...

by Fredrik Chr. Brøgger of ''Catweazle''), illustrated by George Adamson (Oslo: Cappelin, 1971) * ''Mathilde Cachebidon, super-robot (Doctor Snuggles)'' (transl. into French by Philippe Mikriammos) (Hachette, 1981) * ''La Grande course en ballon (Doctor Snuggles)'' (transl. into French by Philippe Mikriammos) (Hachette, 1981) * ''Les aventures de Dick le rebelle'' (transl. by Odile Ricklin), (Paris: G.P., 1981) * ''Turpin et feu follet'' (transl. by Odile Ricklin), (Paris: G.P., 1981)

External links

The Original Catweazle Website, launched in 1997
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Richard 1929 births 2012 deaths English male television writers Deaths from pulmonary embolism English male television actors English television writers People from King's Lynn British television show creators