William Smethurst

William Smethurst
Born March 10, 1945
Died July 22, 2016[1] (aged 71)
Occupation screenwriter, author, producer
Nationality British
Notable works The Archers, Jupiter Moon

William Smethurst (March 10, 1945 - July 22, 2016) was a British screenwriter and producer for television and radio. He has written television and radio scripts for series like The Archers and Crossroads.[2]

Early life

Smethurst was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England. His father, William, was an aircraft engineer, first for De Havilland and then Westland, which caused the family to uproot to Dorset. After university and studying stage management at the Bristol Old Vic, Smethurst worked as a journalist for several outlets, including ABC TV, The Reading Evening Post and BBC1’s Midlands Today.

Career

Following a few radio plays, Smethurst joined the writing staff of long-running radio drama The Archers in 1974, which had experienced a ratings decline. In 1978, he became the series editor, revitalizing the series, bringing in new writers (among them Susan Hill) and creating characters like Susan Carter, Caroline Sterling and the Grundy family. He would stay in this position until 1986.[3][4] Afterwards, he would transition into television, joining Central Television to executive produce the popular soap Crossroads. He then exec produced crime drama Boon, and created the British Satellite Broadcasting science fiction soap opera Jupiter Moon. The series is set in the year 2050 and concentrates on the space ship Ilea. 150 episodes were commissioned and made, but only the first 108 were broadcast before the closure of BSB.

He would later write several non-fiction books, such as seven editions of the screenwriting manual, How to Write for Television, which also includes advice for writing radio.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "William Smethurst". www.pebblemill.org.
  2. ↑ White, Michael (17 August 2016). "William Smethurst obituary". the Guardian.
  3. ↑ "Archers producer Smethurst dies". 27 July 2016 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  4. ↑ Reynolds, Gillian (23 August 1996). "William Smethurst: the man who turned The Archers into a cult" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  5. ↑ Time remaining -- days -- hours -- minutes -- seconds (2016-02-18). "William Smethurst - How To Write For Television 7th Edition - Little, Brown Book Group". Littlebrown.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
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