Richard Carpenter (screenwriter)
| Richard Carpenter | |
|---|---|
| Born |
14 August 1929 King's Lynn, Norfolk, England, UK |
| Died | 26 February 2012 (aged 82) Hertfordshire, England, UK |
| Occupation | Screenwriter, author, actor |
| Years active | 1957–2001 |
| Spouse(s) | Annabelle Lee (m. 1954) |
| Children | 2 |
Richard Michael "Kip" Carpenter (14 August 1929 – 26 February 2012) was an English screenwriter, author, and actor who created a number of British television series, including Robin of Sherwood and Catweazle.
Born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, Carpenter attended the Old Vic Theatre School before starting an acting career by working in repertory theatre. At the time of his death (as confirmed by several sources cited on this page), he was widely believed to have been four years younger than he actually was, which was most likely the result of taking them off his "official" age during his early acting career.
Carpenter appeared in occasional films, but was mostly active on British TV in the 1960s as a character actor, on one occasion opposite Tony Hancock in one of his last shows for the BBC, commonly known as "The Bowmans". Other TV shows in which he appeared in the 1960s included Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, and Gideon's Way.
In 1969, Carpenter created Catweazle, the children's series about an unfortunate wizard from the 11th century who is accidentally transported to the present day. This changed the course of his career substantially. Carpenter earned international recognition and a Writers Guild award for creating the cult children's TV series.
During the 1970s, he wrote the series The Ghosts of Motley Hall (1976–1978), Dick Turpin (1979–1982), parts of the series The Famous Five and Doctor Snuggles, and 17 episodes of The Adventures of Black Beauty for ITV; and Cloud Burst, The Boy from Space, and The King's Dragon as part of BBC's Look and Read (1967–2004) programme for schools, some episodes of which he also presented.
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