Dennis Spooner
, 1932 - 1986
Dennis Spooner Cotton (1932-1986) was an English writer and script editor. He specialised in spy-stories and espionage drama, as well as for children’s television. An early contributor to ITV’s soap opera Coronation Street (1961), he wrote four episodes for The Avengers (1961-1968), and one for Tony Hancock’s comedy series on ATV (1963). Spooner became closely associated with Gerry Anderson and his successive television series: Fireball XL5 (writing 9 episodes, 1963); Stingray (12 episodes, 1964-5); Thunderbirds (6 episodes, 1965-6); and UFO (1970). At the same time, he wrote 21 episodes (across five serials) for the BBC series Doctor Who (then-starring William Hartnell as the first incarnation of The Doctor), including the historically-themed The Reign of Terror (1964) and The Romans (1965); the science-fiction/historical mashup The Time Meddler (1965); the epic alien-invasion story The Daleks’ Master Plan (1965–1966); and the iconic The Power of the Daleks (1966), which introduced Patrick Troughton as the second actor to play The Doctor. Spooner continued to write prolifically for series such as The Baron (1966–1967), The New Avengers (9 episodes, 1976–1977), and The Professionals (1978); before his career began to tail-off in the 1980s. He wrote three episodes of Bergerac for the BBC, and one episode of the American-produced Remington Steele (1984). He died following a cardiac arrest on 20 September 1986.
Bio prepared by Richard Scully, University of New England, rscully@une.edu.au
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