Chris Boucher (writer)

Chris Boucher (born 1943) is a British television screenwriter and script editor. He is known for his frequent contributions to two genres, science fiction and crime dramas, and worked on series such as Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Bergerac, The Bill and Star Cops.

For the basketball player, see Chris Boucher (basketball).
Chris Boucher
Born1943 (age 77–78)
OccupationTelevision screenwriter
and script editor

Biography

Prior to becoming a television writer, Boucher had worked at Calor Gas as a management trainee and he also gained a Bachelor of Arts in Economics at the University of Essex.[1]

In science fiction, he wrote three Doctor Who serials in the late 1970s: The Face of Evil, The Robots of Death and Image of the Fendahl. One of his contributions to Doctor Who was the creation of the character Leela (Louise Jameson), the savage companion who featured in the series during 1977 and 1978. The character was inspired by the Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled.[2] Boucher was commissioned for the programme by Robert Holmes, who suggested that Boucher should be appointed as script editor for the science fiction series Blake's 7 (1978–81). He served in this role for the entirety of its four-series run, and also wrote several episodes himself, including the final episode.[2] In 1987 he created his own series Star Cops, which combined the science fiction and crime genres. The series encountered several production problems and was not a ratings success,[2] lasting only nine episodes.[3]

In the genre of police dramas, between working on Doctor Who and Blake's 7, Boucher was the script editor on the second season of the drama Shoestring, which followed the investigations of private detective and radio show host Eddie Shoestring. In 1982, following the end of Blake's 7, Boucher script edited and wrote for the third season police drama Juliet Bravo. He later moved on to script edit the detective show Bergerac, working on the programme throughout the 1980s.

All of the above television programmes were produced in-house by the BBC and broadcast on the BBC 1 network, with the exception of Star Cops which was shown on BBC 2. For the ITV network, he briefly contributed to Thames Television's police drama The Bill during the mid-1980s.

Later works included several Doctor Who novels for BBC Books, all featuring the character of Leela,[4] and a series of straight-to-CD full-cast audio dramas entitled Kaldor City, which combine elements from his Doctor Who serial The Robots of Death with his Blake's 7 work.

Views and advocacy

Boucher is an avowed atheist. He disapproves of the introduction of religion into government policy and the education of children.[5]

Writing credits
Production Notes Broadcaster
Braden's Week
  • "Episode #2.1" (1969)
 BBC1
The Saturday Crowd
  • "Episode #1.6" (1969)
  • "Episode #2.10" (1969)
  • "Episode #2.12" (1969)
 ITV
That's Life!
  • "Episode #1.1" (1973)
 BBC1
Dave Allen at Large
  • "Episode #3.4" (1973)
  • "Episode #4.1" (1975)
 BBC1
Romany Jones
  • "Run Rabbit Run" (1973)
  • "The Invitations" (1974)
 ITV
Slater's Day
  • Television film (1974)
 ITV
Doctor Who BBC1
Shoestring
  • "The Dangerous Game" (1980)
 BBC1
Blake's 7

Script editor for all 52 episodes (1978–1981)

Wrote:

  • "Shadow" (1979)
  • "Weapon" (1979)
  • "Trial" (1979)
  • "Star One" (1979)
  • "City at the Edge of the World" (1980)
  • "Rumours of Death" (1980)
  • "Death-Watch" (1980)
  • "Rescue" (1981)
  • "Blake" (1981)
 BBC1
Juliet Bravo
  • "Where There's Muck..." (1982)
 BBC1
Bergerac
  • "Fires in the Fall" (1986)
  • "The Memory Man" (1987)
 BBC1
Star Cops
  • 9 episodes (1987)
 BBC2
Home James!
  • "Never Say Die" (1990)
 ITV
The Bill
  • "Lying in Wait" (1990)
 ITV

Novels

References
  1. David J. Howe, Mark Stammers, Stephen James Walker Doctor Who: The Seventies, 1995.
  2. "1992 Interview with Chris Boucher".
  3. "BBC - Cult - Classic TV - Star Cops".
  4. "Interview with Chris Boucher".
  5. Alan Stevens. "Chris Boucher Interview". Kaldor City.
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