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Richard Harris (television writer)

November 30, 2023

For other people named Richard Harris, see Richard Harris (disambiguation).

Richard Harris (born 26 March 1934)[1] is a London-born British screenwriter and playwright, most active from the early 1960s to the mid-1990s. He wrote primarily for the crime and detective genres, having contributed episodes of series such as The Avengers, The Saint, The Sweeney, Armchair Mystery Theatre, and Target. He has helped to create several programmes of the genre, including Adam Adamant Lives!,[2] Man in a Suitcase,[3] and Shoestring.[4]

Despite a career that has been largely spent writing for the crime and detective genre, in 1994 he won the prize for best situation comedy from the Writers' Guild of Great Britain for Outside Edge, a programme he had originated as a stage play.[5][6] Although the majority of his work has been for television, a substantial amount of his output has been for the stage.

Career edit

Harris began writing freelance episodes for British television in his mid-twenties. His first sale was to Sydney Newman's 1960 ITV series, Police Surgeon, for which he wrote the final episode, "The Bigger They Are".[7] Although he wrote for the initial runs of The Avengers and The Saint, much of the early 1960s was dominated by his contributions to anthological mystery programmes like The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre. His attempts at comedy in the early 1960s, largely collaborative efforts with Dennis Spooner, including an episode of Tony Hancock's unsuccessful 1963 series for ATV, failed to establish either writer in the genre. According to Mark Lewisohn, their two failed pilots for Comedy Playhouse proved the two men were really more interested in writing dramatic works.[8]

Despite his commercial failures with Spooner, he continued to collaborate with others during his early career, including Adam Adamant Lives! (1966), whose pilot he wrote with Donald Cotton. By the end of the decade, he had contributed individual episodes to 20 series. From the late 1960s onward, producers began allowing him to write a number of "first episodes", effectively making him co-creator of a number of projects like The Gamblers[9] and Life and Death of Penelope.[10] Despite having turned a number of ideas into initial scripts, however, he only occasionally received on-screen credit as co-creator. This pattern is evident in two of his later shows, both adapted from literature. On The Last Detective, he is recognised as having "devised the series for television".[11] On A Touch of Frost, he is not, despite having written the entirety of the programme's first season.[12][13]

Beginning around 1971, Harris turned his earlier comedic ambitions towards the stage. The majority of his comedic work, even if it later ended up film, derives from his career as a theatre dramatist. Throughout the 1970s, a new play of his would be produced almost annually. Though the frequency of his stage work slowed in later decades, his plays continued to debut into the early part of the 21st century.

While the majority of his career has been spent as a freelancer, he has been an occasional script editor, with shows such as Hazell.[14]

He is an intermittent radio dramatist, and won the Giles Cooper Award for adapting his television script Is It Something I Said? in 1978.[15] One of his plays, Stepping Out,[16][17] has appeared in three different versions, ultimately allowing him the opportunity of a musical film adaptation released in 1991.[18]

Harris has taken a number of literary characters and adapted them into ongoing series. The longest running of these are A Touch of Frost and The Last Detective, but he has also converted works including Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper into limited-run serials. He has also converted non-English sources into English drama, including his play, The Last Laugh, which derives from a Japanese work,[19] and his adaptation of a Norwegian source into the dual-language film, Orions belte. The latter won the inaugural Amanda for Best Norwegian Film in 1985.

Because Harris is a near contemporary of the Irish actor Richard St. John Harris, his writing credits are sometimes erroneously ascribed.[20]

Writing credits edit

Production Notes Broadcaster
Inside Story
  • "Return to Base" (1960)
 ITV
Police Surgeon
  • "The Bigger They Are" (1960)
 ITV
The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre N/A
The Avengers
  • "Square Root of Evil" (1961)
  • "Hunt the Man Down" (1961)
  • "The Winged Avenger" (1967)
  • "Game" (1968)
  • "The Interrogators" (1969)
 ITV
Man Detained
  • Feature film (1961)
 N/A
Attempt to Kill
  • Feature film (1961)
 N/A
Locker Sixty-Nine
  • Feature film (1962)
 N/A
Strongroom
  • Feature film (1962)
 N/A
The Saint
  • "The Loaded Tourist" (1962)
  • "The Pearls of Peace" (1962)
 ITV
Call Oxbridge 2000
  • "Episode #2.7" (1962)
 ITV
Harpers West One
  • "Episode #1.5" (1961)
  • "Episode #1.11" (1961)
  • "Episode #2.6" (1962)
  • "Episode #2.10" (1962)
 ITV
On the Run
  • Feature film (1963)
 N/A
Hancock
  • "The Early Call" (1963)
 ATV
Ghost Squad
  • "The Last Jump" (1963)
 ATV
Sergeant Cork
  • "The Case of the Stagedoor Johnnie" (1963)
 ATV
The Plane Makers
  • "Always Another Saturday" (1963)
  • "The Silent and the Damned" (1963)
  • "Lover Come Back" (1963)
  • "Who Goes First?" (1963)
  • "All Part of the Job" (1963)
 ITV
Comedy Playhouse
  • "The Plan" (1963)
  • "The Siege of Sidney's Street" (1964)
 BBC1
Love Story
  • "The Frauds" (1963)
  • "The End of the Line" (1964)
 ITV
The Main Chance
  • Feature film (1964)
 N/A
Foreign Affairs
  • "Episode #1.4" (1964)
 ITV
The Hidden Truth
  • "A Question of Involvement" (1964)
 ITV
Armchair Mystery Theatre
  • "You Must Be Virginia?" (1964)
 ITV
Redcap
  • "Epitaph for a Sweat" (1964)
  • "Strictly by the Book" (1966)
  • "Information Received" (1966)
 ITV
No Hiding Place
  • "Truth or Dare" (1965)
  • "Hi-Jack" (1965)
  • "What's All This Then?" (1965)
  • "Charlie Come Lately" (1966)
  • "Leo Did the Picking and It All Went Bad" (1966)
 ITV
The Sullavan Brothers
  • "Incident" (1965)
  • "Insufficient Evidence" (1965)
 ITV
Pardon the Expression
  • "The Little Boy Lost" (1965)
 ITV
The Wednesday Play
  • "Who's a Good Boy Then?" (1966)
 BBC1
Knock on Any Door
  • "Sunday in Prospective" (1966)
 ITV
Mrs Thursday
  • "Margate Comes But Once a Year" (1966) / (written by)
 ITV
Adam Adamant Lives!
  • "A Vintage Year for Scoundrels" (1966)
  • "The Last Sacrifice" (1966)
  • "The Doomsday Plan" (1966)
 BBC1
The Informer
  • "A Word in Your Ear Brother" (1966)
  • "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" (1967)
 ITV
Drama '67
  • "Drama '67: Cross My Heart and Hope She'll Die" (1967)
 ATV
Armchair Theatre
  • "A Slight Formality" (1967)
 ITV
The Gamblers
  • "Read 'em and Weep" (1967)
  • "Arthur Through the Looking Class" (1967)
 ITV
Man in a Suitcase ITV
Sherlock Holmes BBC1
The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun
  • Feature film (co-written with Sébastien Japrisot, Anatole Litvak and Eleanor Perry, 1970)
 N/A
Fraud Squad
  • "Inquest" (1970)
  • "Remission: Negative" (1970)
 ITV
I Start Counting
  • Feature film (1970)
 N/A
Shadows of Fear
  • "At Occupier's Risk" (1971)
 ITV
Trial
  • "On the Evidence You Will Hear" (1971)
 BBC2
Suspicion
  • "I Can See Your Lips Move" (1971)
 ITV
Public Eye
  • "The Man Who Didn't Eat Sweets" (1971)
  • "The Man Who Said Sorry" (1972)
  • "Horse and Carriage" (1972)
  • "What's to Become of Us?" (1975)
 ITV
Spyder's Web
  • 13 episodes (1972)
 ITV
New Scotland Yard
  • "Prove It" (1972)
 ITV
Hunter's Walk
  • "Disturbance" (1973)
  • "Local Knowledge" (1973)
  • "Reasonable Suspicion" (1973)
  • "Care and Protection" (1973)
  • "Kids" (1974)
 ITV
Sporting Scenes
  • "When the Boys Come Out to Play" (1974)
 BBC2
Dial M for Murder
  • "Dead Connection" (1974)
 BBC1
Centre Play
  • "Is It Something I Said?" (1974)
 BBC2
Life and Death of Penelope
  • "The Discovery" (1976)
  • "The Nightmare" (1976)
 ITV
The Prince and the Pauper
  • 6 episodes (1976)
 BBC1
The Squirrels
  • "Burke in Clover" (1976)
  • "The X Factor" (1976)
 ITV
Murder Most English: A Flaxborough Chronicle
  • "Hopjoy Was Here" (1977)
  • "Lonelyheart 4122" (1977)
  • "The Flaxborough Crab" (1977)
  • "Coffin Scarcely Used" (1977)
 BBC2
Cottage to Let
  • "Saving It for Albie" (1977)
 ITV
Target
  • "A Good and Faithful Woman" (1978)
 BBC1
The Sweeney
  • "Down to You, Brother" (1976)
  • "Trust Red" (1978)
 ITV
Hazell
  • "Hazell and the Walking Blur" (1978)
  • "Hazell and the Rubber-Heel Brigade" (1978)
  • "Hazell and the Weekend Man" (1978)
  • "Hazell and the Happy Couple" (1979)
 ITV
Shoestring
  • 21 episodes (1979–1980)
 BBC1
Sunday Night Thriller
  • "Blunt Instrument" (1981)
  • "The Business of Murder" (1981)
 ITV
Outside Edge
  • Television film (1982)
 ITV
Play for Today
  • "Dog Ends" (1984)
 BBC1
Orion's Belt
  • Feature film (1985)
 N/A
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
  • "The Norwood Builder" (1985)
 ITV
About Face
  • "Searching for Señor Duende" (1989)
  • "This for the Half Darling" (1991)
 ITV
Stepping Out
  • Feature film (1991)
 N/A
The Darling Buds of May
  • "Christmas Is Coming" (1991)
  • "Oh! To Be in England" (1992)
  • "Stranger at the Gates" (1992)
  • "The Season of Heavenly Gifts" (1992)
 ITV
A Touch of Frost
  • "Care and Protection" (1992)
  • "Not with Kindness" (1992)
  • "Conclusions" (1992)
  • "Widows and Orphans" (1994)
  • "Nothing to Hide" (1994)
 ITV
Outside Edge
  • 22 episodes (1994–1996)
 ITV
The Last Detective
  • 5 episodes (2003–2004)
 ITV

Awards and nominations edit

Year Award Work Category Result Reference
1994 Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award Outside Edge TV - Situation Comedy Won

References edit

  1. ^ Bibliographic entry for The Last Detective, fremont.lib.in.us. Accessed 19 January 2023.
  2. ^ "Adam Adamant Lives! (1966-67)", BFI Screenonline.
  3. ^ "Man in a Suitcase (1967–68)", BFI Screenonline.
  4. ^ "Shoestring (1979–80)", screenonline.org.uk. Accessed 19 January 2023.
  5. ^ Harris' awards page at IMDb.
  6. ^ Outside Edge, bbc.co.uk. Accessed 19 January 2023.
  7. ^ Smith, David K., "Episode Synopsis: The Bigger They Are" © 2002–2007.
  8. ^ Lewisohn, Mark. "The Siege of Sydney's Street". Guide to Comedy (2003), bbc.co.uk. Accessed 19 January 2023.
  9. ^ "Read 'em and Weep", the pilot of The Gamblers, IMDb. Accessed 19 January 2023.
  10. ^ "The Discovery", pilot of Life and Death of Penelope, IMDb. Accessed 19 January 2023.
  11. ^ Full credits for an episode of The Last Detective, IMDb. Accessed 19 January 2023.
  12. ^ "Touch of Frost, A (1992-)", Screenonline.org.uk. Accessed 19 January 2023.
  13. ^ Seasonal credit list for A Touch of Frost, epguides.com. Accessed 19 January 2023.
  14. ^ Hazell (1978-80)", Screenonline.org.uk. Accessed 19 January 2023.
  15. ^ Amber Lane Press announcement prior to the release of Harris' book, The Business of Murder.
  16. ^ "'STEPPING OUT' TO CLOSE", The New York Times, 12 March 1987.
  17. ^ The New York Times
  18. ^ Stephen Holden, "Review/Film; Turning Klutzes Into Tap Dancers", The New York Times, 4 October 1991.
  19. ^ Firouzabadi, Iona, "The Last Laugh", onlinereviewlondon.com. February 2007.
  20. ^ TV.com's page on Richard St. John Harris, which falsely attributes Shoestring to the actor.

External links edit

  • Richard Harris at IMDb
  • BBC – Comedy Guide – Richard Harris
  • The Playwrights Database – Richard Harris

November 30, 2023
richard, harris, television, writer, other, people, named, richard, harris, richard, harris, disambiguation, richard, harris, born, march, 1934, london, born, british, screenwriter, playwright, most, active, from, early, 1960s, 1990s, wrote, primarily, crime, . For other people named Richard Harris see Richard Harris disambiguation Richard Harris born 26 March 1934 1 is a London born British screenwriter and playwright most active from the early 1960s to the mid 1990s He wrote primarily for the crime and detective genres having contributed episodes of series such as The Avengers The Saint The Sweeney Armchair Mystery Theatre and Target He has helped to create several programmes of the genre including Adam Adamant Lives 2 Man in a Suitcase 3 and Shoestring 4 Despite a career that has been largely spent writing for the crime and detective genre in 1994 he won the prize for best situation comedy from the Writers Guild of Great Britain for Outside Edge a programme he had originated as a stage play 5 6 Although the majority of his work has been for television a substantial amount of his output has been for the stage Contents 1 Career 2 Writing credits 3 Awards and nominations 4 References 5 External linksCareer editThis section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification Please help by adding reliable sources Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page especially if potentially libelous Find sources Richard Harris television writer news newspapers books scholar JSTOR January 2023 Learn how and when to remove this template message Harris began writing freelance episodes for British television in his mid twenties His first sale was to Sydney Newman s 1960 ITV series Police Surgeon for which he wrote the final episode The Bigger They Are 7 Although he wrote for the initial runs of The Avengers and The Saint much of the early 1960s was dominated by his contributions to anthological mystery programmes like The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre His attempts at comedy in the early 1960s largely collaborative efforts with Dennis Spooner including an episode of Tony Hancock s unsuccessful 1963 series for ATV failed to establish either writer in the genre According to Mark Lewisohn their two failed pilots for Comedy Playhouse proved the two men were really more interested in writing dramatic works 8 Despite his commercial failures with Spooner he continued to collaborate with others during his early career including Adam Adamant Lives 1966 whose pilot he wrote with Donald Cotton By the end of the decade he had contributed individual episodes to 20 series From the late 1960s onward producers began allowing him to write a number of first episodes effectively making him co creator of a number of projects like The Gamblers 9 and Life and Death of Penelope 10 Despite having turned a number of ideas into initial scripts however he only occasionally received on screen credit as co creator This pattern is evident in two of his later shows both adapted from literature On The Last Detective he is recognised as having devised the series for television 11 On A Touch of Frost he is not despite having written the entirety of the programme s first season 12 13 Beginning around 1971 Harris turned his earlier comedic ambitions towards the stage The majority of his comedic work even if it later ended up film derives from his career as a theatre dramatist Throughout the 1970s a new play of his would be produced almost annually Though the frequency of his stage work slowed in later decades his plays continued to debut into the early part of the 21st century While the majority of his career has been spent as a freelancer he has been an occasional script editor with shows such as Hazell 14 He is an intermittent radio dramatist and won the Giles Cooper Award for adapting his television script Is It Something I Said in 1978 15 One of his plays Stepping Out 16 17 has appeared in three different versions ultimately allowing him the opportunity of a musical film adaptation released in 1991 18 Harris has taken a number of literary characters and adapted them into ongoing series The longest running of these are A Touch of Frost and The Last Detective but he has also converted works including Mark Twain s The Prince and the Pauper into limited run serials He has also converted non English sources into English drama including his play The Last Laugh which derives from a Japanese work 19 and his adaptation of a Norwegian source into the dual language film Orions belte The latter won the inaugural Amanda for Best Norwegian Film in 1985 Because Harris is a near contemporary of the Irish actor Richard St John Harris his writing credits are sometimes erroneously ascribed 20 Writing credits editProduction Notes BroadcasterInside Story Return to Base 1960 ITVPolice Surgeon The Bigger They Are 1960 ITVThe Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre Attempt to Kill 1961 Man Detained 1961 Locker Sixty Nine 1962 On the Run 1963 The Main Chance 1964 N AThe Avengers Square Root of Evil 1961 Hunt the Man Down 1961 The Winged Avenger 1967 Game 1968 The Interrogators 1969 ITVMan Detained Feature film 1961 N AAttempt to Kill Feature film 1961 N ALocker Sixty Nine Feature film 1962 N AStrongroom Feature film 1962 N AThe Saint The Loaded Tourist 1962 The Pearls of Peace 1962 ITVCall Oxbridge 2000 Episode 2 7 1962 ITVHarpers West One Episode 1 5 1961 Episode 1 11 1961 Episode 2 6 1962 Episode 2 10 1962 ITVOn the Run Feature film 1963 N AHancock The Early Call 1963 ATVGhost Squad The Last Jump 1963 ATVSergeant Cork The Case of the Stagedoor Johnnie 1963 ATVThe Plane Makers Always Another Saturday 1963 The Silent and the Damned 1963 Lover Come Back 1963 Who Goes First 1963 All Part of the Job 1963 ITVComedy Playhouse The Plan 1963 The Siege of Sidney s Street 1964 BBC1Love Story The Frauds 1963 The End of the Line 1964 ITVThe Main Chance Feature film 1964 N AForeign Affairs Episode 1 4 1964 ITVThe Hidden Truth A Question of Involvement 1964 ITVArmchair Mystery Theatre You Must Be Virginia 1964 ITVRedcap Epitaph for a Sweat 1964 Strictly by the Book 1966 Information Received 1966 ITVNo Hiding Place Truth or Dare 1965 Hi Jack 1965 What s All This Then 1965 Charlie Come Lately 1966 Leo Did the Picking and It All Went Bad 1966 ITVThe Sullavan Brothers Incident 1965 Insufficient Evidence 1965 ITVPardon the Expression The Little Boy Lost 1965 ITVThe Wednesday Play Who s a Good Boy Then 1966 BBC1Knock on Any Door Sunday in Prospective 1966 ITVMrs Thursday Margate Comes But Once a Year 1966 written by ITVAdam Adamant Lives A Vintage Year for Scoundrels 1966 The Last Sacrifice 1966 The Doomsday Plan 1966 BBC1The Informer A Word in Your Ear Brother 1966 Let Sleeping Dogs Lie 1967 ITVDrama 67 Drama 67 Cross My Heart and Hope She ll Die 1967 ATVArmchair Theatre A Slight Formality 1967 ITVThe Gamblers Read em and Weep 1967 Arthur Through the Looking Class 1967 ITVMan in a Suitcase 29 episodes co written with Dennis Spooner 1967 1968 ITVSherlock Holmes Black Peter 1968 BBC1The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun Feature film co written with Sebastien Japrisot Anatole Litvak and Eleanor Perry 1970 N AFraud Squad Inquest 1970 Remission Negative 1970 ITVI Start Counting Feature film 1970 N AShadows of Fear At Occupier s Risk 1971 ITVTrial On the Evidence You Will Hear 1971 BBC2Suspicion I Can See Your Lips Move 1971 ITVPublic Eye The Man Who Didn t Eat Sweets 1971 The Man Who Said Sorry 1972 Horse and Carriage 1972 What s to Become of Us 1975 ITVSpyder s Web 13 episodes 1972 ITVNew Scotland Yard Prove It 1972 ITVHunter s Walk Disturbance 1973 Local Knowledge 1973 Reasonable Suspicion 1973 Care and Protection 1973 Kids 1974 ITVSporting Scenes When the Boys Come Out to Play 1974 BBC2Dial M for Murder Dead Connection 1974 BBC1Centre Play Is It Something I Said 1974 BBC2Life and Death of Penelope The Discovery 1976 The Nightmare 1976 ITVThe Prince and the Pauper 6 episodes 1976 BBC1The Squirrels Burke in Clover 1976 The X Factor 1976 ITVMurder Most English A Flaxborough Chronicle Hopjoy Was Here 1977 Lonelyheart 4122 1977 The Flaxborough Crab 1977 Coffin Scarcely Used 1977 BBC2Cottage to Let Saving It for Albie 1977 ITVTarget A Good and Faithful Woman 1978 BBC1The Sweeney Down to You Brother 1976 Trust Red 1978 ITVHazell Hazell and the Walking Blur 1978 Hazell and the Rubber Heel Brigade 1978 Hazell and the Weekend Man 1978 Hazell and the Happy Couple 1979 ITVShoestring 21 episodes 1979 1980 BBC1Sunday Night Thriller Blunt Instrument 1981 The Business of Murder 1981 ITVOutside Edge Television film 1982 ITVPlay for Today Dog Ends 1984 BBC1Orion s Belt Feature film 1985 N AThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Norwood Builder 1985 ITVAbout Face Searching for Senor Duende 1989 This for the Half Darling 1991 ITVStepping Out Feature film 1991 N AThe Darling Buds of May Christmas Is Coming 1991 Oh To Be in England 1992 Stranger at the Gates 1992 The Season of Heavenly Gifts 1992 ITVA Touch of Frost Care and Protection 1992 Not with Kindness 1992 Conclusions 1992 Widows and Orphans 1994 Nothing to Hide 1994 ITVOutside Edge 22 episodes 1994 1996 ITVThe Last Detective 5 episodes 2003 2004 ITVAwards and nominations editYear Award Work Category Result Reference1994 Writers Guild of Great Britain Award Outside Edge TV Situation Comedy WonReferences edit Bibliographic entry for The Last Detective fremont lib in us Accessed 19 January 2023 Adam Adamant Lives 1966 67 BFI Screenonline Man in a Suitcase 1967 68 BFI Screenonline Shoestring 1979 80 screenonline org uk Accessed 19 January 2023 Harris awards page at IMDb Outside Edge bbc co uk Accessed 19 January 2023 Smith David K Episode Synopsis The Bigger They Are c 2002 2007 Lewisohn Mark The Siege of Sydney s Street Guide to Comedy 2003 bbc co uk Accessed 19 January 2023 Read em and Weep the pilot of The Gamblers IMDb Accessed 19 January 2023 The Discovery pilot of Life and Death of Penelope IMDb Accessed 19 January 2023 Full credits for an episode of The Last Detective IMDb Accessed 19 January 2023 Touch of Frost A 1992 Screenonline org uk Accessed 19 January 2023 Seasonal credit list for A Touch of Frost epguides com Accessed 19 January 2023 Hazell 1978 80 Screenonline org uk Accessed 19 January 2023 Amber Lane Press announcement prior to the release of Harris book The Business of Murder STEPPING OUT TO CLOSE The New York Times 12 March 1987 The New York Times Stephen Holden Review Film Turning Klutzes Into Tap Dancers The New York Times 4 October 1991 Firouzabadi Iona The Last Laugh onlinereviewlondon com February 2007 TV com s page on Richard St John Harris which falsely attributes Shoestring to the actor External links editRichard Harris at IMDb BBC Comedy Guide Richard Harris The Playwrights Database Richard Harris Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Richard Harris television writer amp oldid 1168394433, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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