Louis Marks
Encyclopedia
Louis Frank Marks was a British script writer
and producer
mainly for the BBC. He attended the Balliol College, Oxford
and graduated with a DPhil
. He made the surprising choice to become a writer
. He began by contributing to The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1959 and continued to write and work in television into the new century, an exceptional record in modern television.
His early work was as a writer. His scripts included The Man Who Finally Died (1967) for the BBC and Special Branch for Thames Television
(1970). He also wrote for Danger Man
with Patrick McGoohan
, and for the Doomwatch
science fiction
series and for Doctor Who
on four occasions. The first of these, "Planet of Giants
", opened the second season of the programme in 1964. His second script was "Day of the Daleks
" in 1972 and as originally written, the serial revolved around the Ogrons instead of the Daleks. During the Tom Baker
years he wrote the "Jekyll and Hyde" script for "Planet of Evil
"; and then "The Masque of Mandragora
", which was perhaps his most unusual script for Doctor Who and drew on his academic background and studies in Renaissance
Italy
.
He also served as a script editor
on programmes such as Bedtime Stories
(1974); The Stone Tape
(1972); and No Exit (1972).
Marks' producer credits include The Lost Boys
(1978), Fearless Frank (1979), the BBC's adaptation of the Three Theban plays (between 1984 and 1986), and the BBC's adaptation of George Eliot
's Middlemarch
(1994). He worked with Jack Clayton
on an adaption of Muriel Spark's
Memento Mori in 1991, Harold Pinter
on The Hothouse
1987 and with Mike Leigh
on Grown-ups
1982.
His most recent critical success was his production of Daniel Deronda
by George Eliot
for the BBC
in 2002.
He has worked with distinguished actors including Anthony Hopkins
, Claire Bloom
, John Gielgud
, Nigel Hawthorne
, Michael Gambon
, Judi Dench
and Ben Kingsley
on the adaptation of another George Eliot work Silas Marner
in 1986.
Marks died on 17 September 2010.
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
mainly for the BBC. He attended the Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
and graduated with a DPhil
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
. He made the surprising choice to become a writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. He began by contributing to The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1959 and continued to write and work in television into the new century, an exceptional record in modern television.
His early work was as a writer. His scripts included The Man Who Finally Died (1967) for the BBC and Special Branch for Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
(1970). He also wrote for Danger Man
Danger Man
Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...
with Patrick McGoohan
Patrick McGoohan
Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born actor, raised in Ireland and England, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s television series Danger Man , and The Prisoner, which he co-created...
, and for the Doomwatch
Doomwatch
Doomwatch is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran on BBC One between 1970 and 1972. The series was set in the then present-day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist , responsible for investigating and combating various...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
series and for Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
on four occasions. The first of these, "Planet of Giants
Planet of Giants
*An early draft of this story – by C.E. Webber and entitled The Giants – was originally meant to be the first story of the first season.-Episode 4:*This story was originally four episodes in length...
", opened the second season of the programme in 1964. His second script was "Day of the Daleks
Day of the Daleks
Day of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 1 January to 22 January 1972.-Synopsis:...
" in 1972 and as originally written, the serial revolved around the Ogrons instead of the Daleks. During the Tom Baker
Tom Baker
Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is a British actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981.-Early life:...
years he wrote the "Jekyll and Hyde" script for "Planet of Evil
Planet of Evil
The plot was deliberately conceived by Philip Hinchcliffe, Robert Holmes and Louis Marks as a mixture of the film Forbidden Planet and the novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In addition, Marks had been reading science magazine articles about antimatter, and decided to write a...
"; and then "The Masque of Mandragora
The Masque of Mandragora
The Masque of Mandragora is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 4 September to 25 September 1976. It opened Season 14 of the series.-Synopsis:...
", which was perhaps his most unusual script for Doctor Who and drew on his academic background and studies in Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
He also served as a script editor
Script editor
A script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television programmes, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas with writers, ensuring that scripts are suitable for production...
on programmes such as Bedtime Stories
Bedtime Stories (1974 TV series)
Bedtime Stories was an anthology series of six plays that were '1974 versions of well loved tales.' The series aired on BBC2 from 3 March 1974 to 7 April 1974. Writers for the series included Alan Plater, Nigel Kneale and Andrew Davies...
(1974); The Stone Tape
The Stone Tape
The Stone Tape is a television play directed by Peter Sasdy and starring Michael Bryant, Jane Asher, Michael Bates and Iain Cuthbertson. It was broadcast on BBC Two as a Christmas ghost story in 1972...
(1972); and No Exit (1972).
Marks' producer credits include The Lost Boys
The Lost Boys (docudrama)
The Lost Boys is an award-winning 1978 docudrama mini-series produced by the BBC, written by Andrew Birkin, and directed by Rodney Bennett. It is about the relationship between Peter Pan creator J. M...
(1978), Fearless Frank (1979), the BBC's adaptation of the Three Theban plays (between 1984 and 1986), and the BBC's adaptation of George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
's Middlemarch
Middlemarch
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans, later Marian Evans. It is her seventh novel, begun in 1869 and then put aside during the final illness of Thornton Lewes, the son of her companion George Henry Lewes...
(1994). He worked with Jack Clayton
Jack Clayton
Jack Clayton was a British film director who specialised in bringing literary works to the screen.-Career:A native of East Sussex, Clayton started his career as a child actor on the 1929 film Dark Red Roses...
on an adaption of Muriel Spark's
Muriel Spark
Dame Muriel Spark, DBE was an award-winning Scottish novelist. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".-Early life:...
Memento Mori in 1991, Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
on The Hothouse
The Hothouse
The Hothouse is a full-length tragicomedy written by Harold Pinter in the winter of 1958 between The Birthday Party and The Caretaker...
1987 and with Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh
Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...
on Grown-ups
Grown-Ups
Grown-Ups is a 1980 British BBC television film devised and directed by Mike Leigh. It stars Lesley Manville, Philip Davis, Brenda Blethyn, Janine Duvitski, Lindsay Duncan and Sam Kelly...
1982.
His most recent critical success was his production of Daniel Deronda
Daniel Deronda (TV serial)
Daniel Deronda is a British television serial drama adapted by Andrew Davies from the George Eliot novel of the same name. The serial was directed by Tom Hooper, produced by Louis Marks, and was first broadcast in three parts on BBC One from 24 November to 7 December 2002...
by George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 2002.
He has worked with distinguished actors including Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
, Claire Bloom
Claire Bloom
Claire Bloom is an English film and stage actress.-Early life:Bloom was born in the North London suburb of Finchley, the daughter of Elizabeth and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales...
, John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
, Nigel Hawthorne
Nigel Hawthorne
Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne, CBE was an English actor, perhaps best remembered for his role as Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary in the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister and the Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. For this role he won four BAFTA Awards during the 1980s in the...
, Michael Gambon
Michael Gambon
Sir Michael John Gambon, CBE is an Irish actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. A highly respected theatre actor, Gambon is recognised for his roles as Philip Marlowe in the BBC television serial The Singing Detective, as Jules Maigret in the 1990s ITV serial Maigret, and as...
, Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
and Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
on the adaptation of another George Eliot work Silas Marner
Silas Marner
Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe is a dramatic novel by George Eliot. Her third novel, it was first published in 1861. An outwardly simple tale of a reclusive weaver, in its strong realism it represents one of Eliot's most sophisticated treatments of her attitude to religion.-Plot summary:The...
in 1986.
Marks died on 17 September 2010.