Peter J. Hammond

Last updated

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

Contents

Career

Hammond's television career began in the 1960s, when he began by working on BBC police dramas such as Dixon of Dock Green and Z-Cars , on the latter of which he served as script editor 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 . He also continued to write for crime and police dramas, penning episodes of The Sweeney . 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 Bill and Wycliffe , as well as for Doctor Finlay , the new production of the 1960s BBC series Dr. Finlay's Casebook. He returned to the science fiction genre by writing an episode of the 1998 Sky One series Space Island One , 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 .

Sapphire & Steel

P.J. Hammond is best known for the creation of the science-fiction fantasy series Sapphire & Steel , [1] produced by ATV and screened on the ITV network in the UK from 1979 to 1982. [2] 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 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 . His story, titled Paradise Five , was liked by then-script editor Eric Saward, but rejected by producer John Nathan-Turner while the script was still being worked on. The script was later revived in 2009–2010 by Big Finish Productions for a full cast audio drama, Paradise 5, with the final script written by both Hammond and new material by Andy Lane, starring the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and his companion Peri Brown (Nicola Bryant). [3] Paradise 5 was one of eight stories made as part of the first "Lost Stories" season featuring several commissioned, but never filmed, scripts. [4]

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 , a spin-off from the popular BBC One show Doctor Who . His episode, "Small Worlds", was shown on 12 November 2006, directly opposite one of his Midsomer Murders scripts, "Dance with the Dead", on ITV1.[ citation needed ] He also wrote the episode "From Out of the Rain" for the second series of Torchwood, shown on BBC Three on 12 March 2008.

Novel

In 2018 Hammond released his first novel, Downtimers. [5]

Writing credits

ProductionNotesBroadcaster
Thirty-Minute Theatre
  • "The Far-Way Incident" (1966)
 BBC2
Ramshackle Road
  • Television film (1968)
 BBC1
Adventure Weekly
  • "Explosion" (1969)
BBC1
Z-Cars
  • 33 episodes (1969–1975, 1978)
BBC1
Manhunt
  • "Machine" (1970)
 ITV
Trial
  • "Peggy" (1971)
  • "On the Evidence You Will Hear" (1971)
BBC2
Six Days of Justice
  • "Open House" (1972)
ITV
Villains
  • "Chas" (1972)
ITV
The Hole in the Wall
  • 7 episodes (1972)
BBC1
Ace of Wands
  • 13 episodes (1972)
ITV
Hunter's Walk
  • "Behaviour" (1973)
  • "Discretion" (1973)
ITV
Crime of Passion
  • "Henri" (1973)
ITV
Armchair Theatre
  • "The Square Root of Three" (1973)
ITV
Oranges & Lemons
  • "A Funny Kind of Joke" (1973)
ITV
New Scotland Yard
  • "Pier" (1973)
  • "Comeback" (1974)
ITV
Spy Trap
  • "Salvage" (1973)
  • "A Nice Place to Live" (1975)
BBC1
Dixon of Dock Green
  • "Cat-Walk" (1974)
BBC1
Within These Walls
  • "Guessing Game" (1974)
  • "Playground" (1975)
  • "Windows" (1975)
  • "Vacuum" (1976)
  • "Raft" (1978)
ITV
Special Branch
  • "Diversion" (1974)
ITV
Dial M for Murder
  • "The Vineyard" (1974)
BBC1
Rooms
  • "Arthur and Rowena" (1975)
ITV
Angels
  • "Interim" (1975)
  • "Celebration" (1976)
  • "Signals" (1976)
  • "Values" (1978)
BBC1
Couples
  • 7 episodes (1976)
ITV
The Sweeney
  • "Pay Off" (1976)
ITV
The Professionals
  • "Heroes" (1978)
ITV
Crown Court
  • "Association: Part 1" (1978)
  • "Code: Part 1" (1978)
ITV
Shadows
  • "And Now for My Next Trick..." (1978)
ITV
Target
  • "The Run" (1978)
BBC1
Hazell
  • "Hazell and Hyde" (1979)
ITV
Sapphire & Steel
  • 34 episodes, 28 as writer, 6 as "creator" (1979–1982)
ITV
The Gentle Touch
  • 6 episodes (1982–1984)
ITV
Lame Ducks
  • 12 episodes (1984–1985)
BBC2
Unnatural Causes
  • "Lost Property" (1986)
ITV
Emmerdale Farm
  • "Episode #1.1261" (1988)
ITV
The Bill
  • 39 episodes (1988–1998, 2004)
ITV
EastEnders
  • "Episode #1.548" (1990)
BBC1
Perfect Scoundrels
  • "Party Games" (1992)
  • "Last of the Few" (1992)
ITV
Doctor Finlay
  • "Childsplay" (1994)
  • "Secrecy" (1994)
ITV
Dangerfield
  • "Tricks" (1996)
  • "Eden" (1996)
  • "Still Waters" (1996)
  • "Games" (1996)
BBC1
Wycliffe
  • "Strangers Home" (1997)
  • "Time Out" (1998)
ITV
Space Island One
  • "Lost Property" (1998)
 Sky One
The Ruth Rendell Mysteries
  • "The Lake of Darkness" (1999)
ITV
Midsomer Murders
  • "Dark Autumn" (2001)
  • "Death and Dreams" (2003)
  • "Bad Tidings" (2004)
  • "Things That Go Bump in the Night" (2004)
  • "Dead Letters" (2006)
  • "Dance with the Dead" (2006)
  • "Small Mercies" (2009)
  • "The Silent Land" (2010)
  • "Echoes of the Dead" (2011)
ITV
Torchwood BBC Three

Related Research Articles

Sapphire & Steel is a British television supernatural sci-fi/fantasy series starring David McCallum as Steel and Joanna Lumley as Sapphire. Produced by ATV, it ran from 1979 to 1982 on the ITV network. The series was created by Peter J. Hammond who conceived the programme under the working title The Time Menders, after a stay in an allegedly haunted castle. Hammond also wrote all the stories except for the fifth, which was co-written by Don Houghton and Anthony Read.

Big Finish Productions British company producing books and audio dramas

Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult science fiction properties. These include Doctor Who, the characters Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog from 2000 AD, Blake's 7, Dark Shadows, Dracula, Terrahawks, Sapphire & Steel, Sherlock Holmes, Stargate, The Avengers, The Prisoner, Timeslip and Torchwood.

Russell T Davies Welsh screenwriter and television producer

Stephen Russell Davies, better known as Russell T Davies, is a Welsh screenwriter and television producer whose works include Queer as Folk, The Second Coming, Casanova, the 2005 revival of the BBC One science fiction franchise Doctor Who, Cucumber, A Very English Scandal, Years and Years and It's a Sin.

Robert Colin Holmes was a British television scriptwriter. For over 25 years he contributed to some of the most popular programmes screened in the UK. He is particularly remembered for his work on science fiction programmes, most notably his extensive contributions to Doctor Who, which included working as its script editor from 1974 to 1977.

Terror of the Vervoids is the third serial of the larger narrative known as The Trial of a Time Lord which encompasses the whole of the 23rd season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 1 to 22 November 1986. The title Terror of the Vervoids is never used on screen and was first used in relation to these episodes for the 1987 novelisation, with the four episodes that comprise the season being referred to as The Trial of a Time Lord Parts Nine to Twelve. This serial is the first appearance of Bonnie Langford as the companion Mel Bush.

Chris Boucher is a British television screenwriter, script editor and novelist. He is known for his frequent contributions to two genres, science fiction and crime fiction, and worked on the series Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Shoestring, Bergerac, The Bill and Star Cops.

Mark Benton is an English actor and television presenter known for his roles as Eddie in Early Doors, Howard in Northern Lights and Martin Pond in Barbara. Benton has also starred in the BBC One school-based drama series Waterloo Road as mathematics teacher Daniel "Chalky" Chalk from 2011 to 2014. In 2013, Benton took part in Strictly Come Dancing, and in 2015 he hosted the daytime game show The Edge.

Matthew David Jones is a British television screenwriter and television producer, who has worked on a variety of popular drama programmes for several television networks in the UK.

Nicholas Briggs British actor (born 1961)

Nicholas Briggs is an English actor, writer, director, sound designer and composer. He is associated with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs, particularly as the voice of the Daleks and the Cybermen in the 21st century series.

Stephen Gallagher is an English screenwriter and novelist. Gallagher was born in Salford, Greater Manchester.

Anthony Read was an English television producer, screenwriter, script editor and author. He was principally active in British television from the 1960s to the mid-1980s, which included a period as a script editor and writer of Doctor Who from 1977 to 1979, although he occasionally contributed to televised productions until 1999.

Helen Raynor is a Welsh television screenwriter and script editor from Swansea. She is best known for her work on the relaunched BBC science fiction series Doctor Who. She previously worked as a theatre director. Besides television episodes, Raynor has written theatrical plays, radio plays, and short stories.

Torchwood is a British 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 its growing audience, moving from BBC Three to BBC Two to BBC One, and acquiring American financing in its fourth series when it became a co-production of BBC One and Starz. Torchwood is aimed at adults and older teenagers, in contrast to Doctor Who's target audience of both adults and children. As well as science fiction, the show explores a number of themes, including existentialism, sexuality and human corruptibility.

Chris Chibnall English television writer

Christopher Antony Chibnall is an English television writer and producer, best known as the creator and writer of the award-winning ITV mystery-crime drama Broadchurch and as a showrunner of the long-running BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who. Chibnall wrote five episodes of the series under previous showrunners Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat, and was also the head writer for the first two series of the spinoff Torchwood.

"Everything Changes" is the first episode of the British science fiction television programme Torchwood, which was first broadcast on 22 October 2006. The story was written by show creator and executive producer Russell T Davies as an introduction to the show's mythos. The episode re-introduces Captain Jack Harkness, who had proved popular in the first series of the 2005 revival of Doctor Who, as the leader of Torchwood, a team of alien hunters.

British television science fiction refers to popular programmes in the genre that have been produced by both the BBC and Britain's largest commercial channel, ITV. The BBC's Doctor Who is listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest-running science fiction television show in the world and as the "most successful" science fiction series of all time.

James Moran is a British screenwriter for television and film, who wrote the horror-comedy Severance. He works in the horror, comedy, science-fiction, historical fiction and spy thriller genres.

Joseph Lidster is an English playwright and screenwriter, best known for his work on the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

John Charles Wilsher is an English television writer best known for dramas relating to the police and law enforcement. His highest profile work was as creator of Between the Lines, which screened in the UK between 1992 and 1994.

<i>Paradise 5</i>

Paradise 5 is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

References

  1. ↑ Rob Stanley (1993). "P. J. Hammond interview". Archived from the original on 8 July 1997. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  2. ↑ Steve Phillips (1994). "Episode Guide". Archived from the original on 8 July 1997. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  3. ↑ Galifrey One – Big Finish Announces Details of Lost Season
  4. ↑ Big Finish – Lost Stories Titles Almost Announced
  5. ↑ PJ Hammond - Downtimers
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.