Anthony Read(1935-2015)

Studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Douglas's (Douglas Adams) enormous talent was immediately apparent to me as soon as I saw his first scripts for The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981), which is what led me to commission him. It was not always easy to see what would work on screen, but I knew there was enough there, if I could shape it correctly. He had that amazing imagination, firing off in all directions, some of which were right for Doctor Who (1963) and some of which were following quite different conventions - the jokiness of the series at the time was always a very fine line which had to be walked with great care, and Douglas was naturally inclined to leap all over it, given half a chance. The big problem was that Douglas seemed to have absolutely no idea of shape and form for narrative drama; and, despite all the sci-fi effects, Doctor Who (1963) is essentially about telling stories within a proper, conventional dramatic structure. No matter how brilliant the imaginative ideas, the basic rules of drama still apply. When this is forgotten, the series fails.