News about Brian Clemens and David Shelley

Brian Clemens 1931 to 2015

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Scriptwriter and producer Brian Clemens who was responsible for a large number of TV crime dramas such as The Avengers,  and The Persuaders. His scripts have enlivened almost every action-drama series seen on television over the last 50 years.

A thriller screenplay that he wrote Valid for Single Journey Only was accepted and shot by the BBC in 1955.  From the middle of the 1950s he was involved in a number of movies and TV drama series including Danger Man (which featured Patrick McGoohan), The Man from Interpol and the original The Invisible Man.

Brian Clemens wrote the original pilot episode for The Avengers back in 1961 and went on to be the script editor, associate producer and main scriptwriter for the series. He was also involved in writing episodes for the US TV series Darkroom which was hosted by James Coburn, Remington Steele (which featured Pierce Brosnan) and Max Monroe: Loose Cannon.  Brian Clemens was also involved in Bergerac, ITV’s Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense.  He also adapted Gavin Lyall’s espionage thriller The Secret Servant into a three part drama for the BBC in 1984. He was also involved in C15: The New Professionals. He also wrote three episodes for Quiller the TV series and a number of episodes for The Persuaders along with The Champions TV series.

In the US he was again involved in and worked on a number of notable TV crime dramas including The Father Dowling Mysteries, Raymond Burr’s Perry Mason (the feature length series) and Diagnosis: Murder featuring Dick Van Dyke and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.  

He was also involved in films and either wrote and produced a number of films for Hammer Films.  He also wrote the screenplays for the films Operation Murder (1957), Station –Six Sahara (1963) and Highlander II: The Quickening (1991).

Clemens was also the author of a number of novels including The Devil at Midnight (2001) and Murder Weapon (2012) both which were adapted into plays.

Using the name Tony O'Grady he also wrote episodes for the TV series Dial 999.

The Telegraph obituary can be found here.

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Congratulations go to David Shelley who is to take over as CEO of Little, Brown in July, with current CEO Ursula Mackenzie working on “special projects” for the publisher and its parent company Hachette UK until her retirement at the end of 2016.

Shelley, hitherto Little, Brown publisher, has now been appointed deputy CEO of Little, Brown, reporting to Mackenzie, and he will take over the CEO role on 1st July. The 38-year-old joined the Hachette UK main board on 1st January.

An interview with David Shelley can be found here.