Biography

He wrote the original script for Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), but had his name removed from the film after the script was heavily changed by director Tommy Lee Wallace.

He was best-known for his Quatermass trilogy and for his adaptation of George Orwell's "1984".

Mark Gatiss described him as a "colossus" of television drama. According to Gatiss, The South Bank Show (1978) refused to make a programme about him.

He was approached to write for the proposed BBC science fiction series Doctor Who (1963) but deplored the concept of the series and refused. He also refused an offer to write for Doomwatch (1970) and was asked to write for The X-Files (1993).

He and wife Judith Kerr have a daughter (Tacy Kneale) and a son (Matthew Kneale).

[on adapting Bernard Cornwell's novel into the television film Sharpe's Gold (1995)] I didn't use much of the book. I used the first ten pages, I think. Then I had an idea which would be more fun to do. It was all about magic by the time I was through with it.

It [Doctor Who (1963)] sounded a terrible idea and I still think it was. The fact that it's lasted a long time and has a steady audience doesn't mean much. So has Crossroads (1964) and that's a stinker. I was approached by Sydney Newman, who was then running BBC drama, and it was his idea. It struck me as a producer's idea and not a writer's idea, and I think there's a difference. I think what offended me about it was that it was clearly to be put out as a Children's Hour story, and I didn't write Children's Hour stories. It was to go out at five or six c'clock and the tinies could watch--and I felt I'd find that very inhibiting because I didn't want to bomb tinies with insinuations of doom and terror. In fact, that's what they got to doing. And the tinies were bombed and I found this horrible. I had small children of my own at the time and I found Doctor Who (1963) thoroughly offensive in that respect. And you get people saying, "Oh yes, I was frightened. I hid behind the armchair when I saw the so-and-so . . . ". That doesn't make it right to implant nightmares in the minds of little children. I think it is a bad thing to do, and I wouldn't do it.

I think the low point for me would be the very few bits I've seen of a thing called Blake's 7 (1978) which I found paralytically awful. The dialogue/characterisation seemed to consist of a kind of childish squabbling. Disappointingly, they don't try much to present shows for an adult audience, obviously later in the evening. I suppose there are so many old and newish movies that cover that ground, with more lavish special effects.

I suppose my happiest relationship has been with the director I worked with many times, Rudolph Cartier. We had a lot in common mentally and we got on well, so it was a great pleasure in those days to work on shows where we both knew we were taking risks and Rudi was ready to take fearful chances technically. I think he was the only person in the BBC who would have attempted or succeeded in bringing off those early Quatermass shows at that time. The director had to carry an awful lot of responsibility. Now, much more is taken by the additional invented personnel, and of course the technical wizardry that surrounds any show. The personal load is less.

I had been to a science-fiction convention a few years ago and found it a fairly horrendous experience. It didn't seem to have very much to do with imagination, but a lot to do with exhibitionism--mainly by the fans--and it's not an experience I'm able to go along with and enjoy. I don't like large gatherings of people romping about, whether it's a football match or the Nuremberg Rally, they all frighten me. I suppose, deep down, I don't want to be anybody's fan, no matter how excellent, noble or horrible they are--whether it's Daley Thompson or Hitler [Adolf Hitler] or Arthur C. Clarke. I wouldn't want to chase around for their autograph.