 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
"David Agnew" is a pen name that was employed on BBC television drama programmes[ citation needed ] of the 1970s as a scriptwriting credit.
The pseudonym "David Agnew" was most often used when the original freelance scriptwriter was unable to accommodate fundamental changes requested by the production staff, who therefore had to perform a significant rewrite themselves. BBC rules prevented the production staff from taking screen credit without a time-consuming, bureaucratic appeals process, meaning that the quickest way for the project to continue under the BBC system was to use the name of a non-existent writer.[ citation needed ] Sometimes production staff were directly ordered by BBC management to use the credit.[ citation needed ]
The name was first used in 1971,[ citation needed ] when Anthony Read's script for the Play for Today episode "Hell's Angel" was broadcast under the pseudonym. [1] [2] Read's work on the 1975 BBC2 Playhouse episode "Diane" was likewise credited to "David Agnew". [3]
The pseudonym entered into use on Doctor Who after Anthony Read became the show's script editor. Read and producer Graham Williams used the pen name hurriedly to assemble The Invasion of Time in 1978. A year later, the name concealed the joint work of Douglas Adams, Williams and David Fisher on City of Death .
The name was also used for the episode "Blow Out" of Target . In this case, a two-hour script was pared down to one. Writer Roger Marshall quit at the pre-production stage, leaving director Douglas Camfield to revise the script. [4]
In March 2000, "David Agnew" was used for a Doctor Who book, the short story anthology Short Trips and Sidesteps , in homage to the pseudonym's use on the television series. Agnew was also the subject of The Elusive David Agnew , a mockumentary directed by "Allen Smithee" on the DVD release of The Invasion of Time . A character in the 2013 Doctor Who short novel The Death Pit, by A. L. Kennedy, is named David Agnew.[ citation needed ]
I, Robot is a fixup collection made up of science fiction short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950 and were then collected into a 1950 publication Gnome Press in 1950, in an initial edition of 5,000 copies.
Alan Smithee is an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project. Coined in 1968 and used until it was formally discontinued in 2000, it was the sole pseudonym used by members of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) when directors, dissatisfied with the final product, proved to the satisfaction of a guild panel that they had not been able to exercise creative control over a film. The director was also required by guild rules not to discuss the circumstances leading to the movie or even to acknowledge being the project's director.
City of Death is the second serial of the seventeenth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor. It was produced by the BBC and first broadcast in four weekly parts between 29 September 1979 and 20 October 1979 on BBC1. The serial was written by "David Agnew" – a pseudonym for the combined work of David Fisher, Douglas Adams, and Graham Williams – and directed by Michael Hayes.
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn is a 1997 American mockumentary black comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller, written by Joe Eszterhas and starring Eric Idle as a director unfortunately named Alan Smithee, a traditional pseudonym used in Hollywood for directors disowning a project. The film follows Smithee as he steals the negatives to his latest film and goes on the run.
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist. He is best known for his work with Steven Moffat, including co-creating and starring in the BBC series’ Sherlock (2010-17) and Dracula (2020), the former as Mycroft Holmes. He also wrote several episodes of Doctor Who during Moffat’s tenure as showrunner. His other TV roles include Game of Thrones. Together with Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Jeremy Dyson, he is a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen.
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.
George Spelvin, Georgette Spelvin, and Georgina Spelvin are traditional pseudonyms used in programs in American theater.
The Dæmons is the fifth and final serial of the eighth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts on BBC1 from 22 May to 19 June 1971.
Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.
Doctor Who is a British television science fiction series, produced and screened by the BBC on the BBC TV channel from 1963 to 1964, and on BBC1 from 1964 to 1989 and since 2005. A one-off television film, co-produced with Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox Television, was screened on the Fox Network in the United States in 1996.
The Invasion of Time is the sixth and final serial of the 15th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 4 February to 11 March 1978. It features the final appearance of Louise Jameson as the companion Leela.
The Rescue is the third serial of the second season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by outgoing story editor David Whitaker and directed by Christopher Barry, the serial was broadcast on BBC1 in two weekly parts on 2 January and 9 January 1965. In the serial, the time travellers the First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, and Barbara Wright befriend Vicki, an orphan girl marooned on the planet Dido who is being threatened by an apparent native of Dido called Koquillion while awaiting rescue.
Dr. Who is a character based on the Doctor, the protagonist featuring in the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.
Gareth John Pritchard Roberts is a British television screenwriter, novelist and columnist best known for his work related to the science-fiction television series Doctor Who. He has also worked on various comedy series and soap operas.
David Fisher was a British television screenwriter. He is best known for writing four Doctor Who serials when it starred Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor.
The BBCShort Trips books are a collection of short story anthologies published by BBC Books based on the television series Doctor Who, following a pattern established by Virgin Publishing's Decalog collections. Three volumes were published between March 1998 and March 2000, before the BBC decided to stop publishing the books. The Short Trips name was later adopted for hardback collections published by Big Finish Productions and licensed from the BBC.
Robert Charles Shearman, sometimes credited as Rob Shearman, is an English television, radio, stage play and short story writer. He is known for his World Fantasy Award-winning short stories, as well as his work for Doctor Who, and his association with Jarvis & Ayres Productions which has resulted in six plays for BBC Radio 4, broadcast in the station's regular weekday Afternoon Play slot, and one classic serial.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
