*** Welcome to piglix ***

Donald Cotton

Donald Cotton
Born Donald Henry Cotton
(1928-04-26)26 April 1928
England
Died 28 December 1999(1999-12-28) (aged 71)
Sussex, England
Occupation Writer (former)

Donald Henry Cotton (26 April 1928 – 28 December 1999) was a writer for radio and television during the black and white era. He also wrote numerous musical revues for the stage. His work often had a comedic bent.

Cotton's scripts for the BBC Third Programme include Echo and Narcissus (1959), The Golden Fleece and Stereologue (both 1962) and The Tragedy of Phaethon (1965, described as a comedy despite the name). In 1960, he introduced Voices in the Air, a programme whose script included work not only by Cotton but also by other notable contributors including Harold Pinter, John Betjeman, Michael Flanders, Antony Hopkins, N. F. Simpson, Donald Swann, and Sandy Wilson.

In April 1965, Donald Tosh replaced Dennis Spooner as story editor on the popular BBC science fiction programme Doctor Who, and soon thereafter contacted Donald Cotton, an old acquaintance, to write for the programme. Tosh and incoming producer John Wiles were keen to push the boundaries of the programme, and felt that Cotton might be able to deliver a high comedy. His first script, The Myth Makers, a tongue-in-cheek historical based like several of his radio plays on Greek mythology, pushed comedic elements to the limit. Cotton's planned episode titles were altered due to BBC disapproval of the punning theme the author had devised for them. Only the original name for the second episode, Small Prophet, Quick Return survived at Tosh's insistence. William Hartnell is reputed to have been particularly unimpressed by the story and clashed with several members of the cast and crew during filming. None of the episodes of The Myth Makers still survive in the BBC Archives.

Tosh and Wiles were so pleased with his first script that Donald Cotton was quickly asked to submit another idea for Doctor Who and on 30 November 1965 Cotton was commissioned to write The Gunfighters. The idea was that this would, again, be a humorous take on the historical story; this time, the target would be the American Wild West (a setting which William Hartnell would later claim to have suggested), and specifically the infamous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which took place on 26 October 1881. Eschewing detailed historical research, Cotton opted to hew closer to the version of the Gunfight which had passed into contemporary mythology, with Wyatt Earp as a stolid enforcer of the law and Doc Holliday as a rascally anti-hero. Once more, Cotton's script played fast and loose with other elements of true Wild West history.


...
Wikipedia

...