Clive Exton

Clive Jack Montague Brooks (Clive Exton), screenwriter: born London 11 April 1930; married 1951 Patricia Ferguson (two daughters; marriage dissolved 1957), 1957 Mara Reid (one son, two daughters); died London 16 August 2007.

From his earliest days working on ITV's prestigious Armchair Theatre productions to his dramatisations for popular, lavishly produced series such as Agatha Christie's Poirot and Jeeves & Wooster, Clive Exton was a screenwriter who brought intelligence and depth to television drama.

He started in television at the turn of the 1950s, when there was a revolution in the arts that gave an outlet to working-class voices. But Exton did not embrace that landmark change, instead writing about the values and frustrations of the middle classes. He showed versatility, portraying social realism in his early plays, in the vein of those "kitchen sink" writers, then switching to surrealism to vent ideas that were otherwise difficult to air.

The first was represented by Where I Live (1960), with a brother and sister fighting about the care of their unwanted, widowed father. The Trial of Dr Fancy (1964) best exemplified the second style and was one of the earliest cases of censorship in commercial television, delayed for two years by the regulator, the ITA, on the basis that it might cause offence.

This original play featured the trial of a Harley Street doctor after the death of a patient, exposing the shocking truth that he had cut shorter the legs of tall people embarrassed by their height. The director, Ted Kotcheff, campaigned to get the play screened by taking it to a newspaper television critic who gave it a glowing review, which persuaded ITV to screen it.

Exton proved to be one of television's most censored writers. The Big Eat (1962) was turned down by ITV, although it was eventually broadcast by the BBC in 1965, because it was an attack on advertising. It portrayed a promotional campaign culminating in an eating contest in which a competitor dies from the effects of overeating.

Another Exton play held up for two years was The Boneyard (1964), the story of a police inspector (played by Nigel Davenport) who had psychic "visions", which was considered too close to the contemporary real-life case of a corrupt Metropolitan Police detective. Made for the BBC's Wednesday Play, launched to rival Armchair Theatre, it was not broadcast until 1966, when the producers of the relatively new anthology series were trying to introduce more humour.

Exton wrote only a handful of plays for the theatre. "I like writing for television because it's such an effective way of forcing action out of a character," he said. "The play that shows people being forced by their natures into a conflict that they can't avoid - that's the sort of play I like to do."

He was born Clive Brooks in London in 1930, the son of a civil service clerk, and grew up in Islington. He won a scholarship to Christ's Hospital, a private school in Horsham, West Sussex, and subsequently worked in an office, which he hated, before two years' national service with the Army in Germany.

Deciding to act, he trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, then performed in repertory theatre and appeared in 1954 in Brian Rix's Whitehall Theatre farce Reluctant Heroes. Equity, the actors' union, insisted that he change his professional name because there was already an actor called Clive Brook, so he dipped into Shakespeare and came up with the surname Exton, later changing it by deed poll. However, he gave up acting shortly after watching the 1955 film version of Richard III, declaring that he could never be as good as Laurence Olivier.

There followed a period as a stage manager at the Albery and Criterion theatres, before a story told to him by Harry Korris, formerly a member of the music-hall act Ramsbottom, Enoch and Me, inspired Exton to write. The result was his first play, No Fixed Abode, followed by The Silk Purse, both screened by ITV in 1959. After seeing them, Ted Kotcheff headhunted Exton for the groundbreaking ITV series Armchair Theatre, for which he wrote eight plays over five years (1960-64).

Exton entered films with No Place To Go (1963), based on Michael Fisher's novel Bethnal Green. Then, he adapted Emlyn Williams's suspense drama Night Must Fall (1964), directed by Karel Reisz and produced by Albert Finney, who also starred as the hotel waiter killing and decapitating women. Two of his most satisfying film adaptations were Entertaining Mr Sloane (1970), based on Joe Orton's comedy, and 10 Rillington Place (1971), from Ludovic Kennedy's book about the serial killer John Christie. Uncredited, he also rewrote the script of the Swinging Sixties comedy Georgy Girl (1966).

Although Exton scripted other original television dramas, such as The Boundary (with Tom Stoppard, 1971) and The Rainbirds (Play for Today, 1971), the age of the single play on British television was coming to an end.

A 10-year stay in Hollywood bore little fruit. He co-wrote the action- adventure Red Sonja (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1985) and, uncredited, contributed to The Bounty (with Anthony Hopkins, 1984) before returning to Britain, where a new era awaited him.

Exton dramatised the first Ruth Rendell Mysteries story, "Wolf to the Slaughter" (1987), starring George Baker as Ruth Rendell's detective, then formed a long-running partnership with the producer Brian Eastman that began with Exton as lead writer on Poirot, ITV's sumptuously made Hercule Poirot adventures starring David Suchet in the definitive portrayal of Agatha Christie's fastidious Belgian detective. Exton wrote 20 of the stories between 1989 and 2001.

He and Eastman also brought P.G. Wodehouse's comic stories about the featherbrained Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves back to television for the first time in two decades. Exton's scripts, which were critical in persuading Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie to take the starring roles in Granada's Jeeves & Wooster (1990-93), beautifully portrayed the world of the inter-war years in which the tales were set without turning the humour into sitcom or allowing the language to weigh down the production.

More recently, with Eastman producing again, Exton contributed to all three series of Rosemary & Thyme (2003-06), starring Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris as the green-fingered sleuths .

Although he wrote primarily for the screen, Exton's stage plays included the satire Have You Any Dirty Washing, Mother Dear? (Hampstead Theatre, 1971) and Murder Is Easy (based on the Agatha Christie novel, Duke of York's Theatre, 1993). Two of his recently written stage plays, Nedi and Bumps and Barking in Essex, await production.

Anthony Hayward

I had acquired an option to try to make a Poirot series when I heard in 1985 that Clive Exton was moving back to London from Hollywood, writes Brian Eastman. I approached him to write a pilot. We got on well immediately and it was his script that secured the commission from ITV and attracted David Suchet to the role.

He was the principle adapter for Poirot, initially based on the Agatha Christie short stories and dramatised in one-hour episodes. Exton was in his element. Courtesy of Agatha Christie there was a strong plot, to which he could add strong character detail. The personal self-obsessions of Poirot were a constant delight to Exton and via the supporting characters he was able to poke affectionate fun at the great detective. When, for instance, Poirot arrives at the home of Chief Inspector Japp and asks for a tisane, Exton gave Japp the immortal line "Come off it Poirot, this is Isleworth, not Juan Les Pins".

When the nearly 50 short stories had been used up, Exton turned his attention to the full-length Poirot novels, writing what many consider to be the best adaptation of the Poirot canon - The ABC Murders. He also tackled The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, famous for the narrator turning out to be the murderer, and found an ingenious dramatic solution to this literary conceit.

Whilst continuing his annual contributions to the Poirot series, Exton was also offered the opportunity to adapt the Jeeves and Wooster stories of P.G. Wodehouse. Reviewing the series in the Sunday Times, John Naughton wrote:

To what negative figure will I yield in my admiration of Jeeves and Wooster? No man.

What item of headgear do I take off in deference to Clive Exton, the adapter of this series? My hat.

In what capacious measure is the extent of Mr Exton's talent to be reckoned? Bags.

What will I eat if Jeeves and Wooster does not win a Bafta award next time? The aforementioned item of headgear.

And although a Bafta award was not forthcoming, Exton did receive a Writer's Guild Award for the series. He subsequently declared that he had never been happier than when adapting Wodehouse and the episodes are so full of linguistic mastery and ingenious plotting it is a pleasure for audiences to share in Exton's enjoyment of the material.

When Exton's work on the Poirot series came to an end, he turned his talents to helping create Rosemary and Thyme. Once again, his work attracted the very best leading actors - Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris - ensuring the series' success, with his own blend of clever plotting and engaging characters. When Pam Ferris's character Laura Thyme is leered at by a lecherous suspect and told she looks like she needs "revving up", Exton gave her the feisty response "If I wanted revving up, you would be the last person I would ask to press my accelerator."

Over five decades of writing for theatre, movies and television, Clive Exton managed to capture the highs and lows of the human condition, whilst continuing to entertain an ever-changing viewing public. It is no accident that, at most hours of the day or night, on some television channel or other, in some country or other, the viewer can still enjoy his work.