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Robert Sloman was born in Oldham, Lancashire, and brought up in Plymouth, Devon. After an education at St Boniface, a Catholic school, he attended Exeter University. Here he became involved in dramatics and after graduating he joined the repertory company at Newton Poppleford.

However, acting was not his long term ambition, he really wanted to be a writer. He joined the Sunday Times, while he also had success as a playwright. Two of his plays, The Golden Rivet and The Tinker, made it to London's prestigious West End. The Tinker was also adapted for the big screen as Young and Willing (1962). Directed by the British film stalwart Ralph Thomas, it featured early screen performances by John Hurt, Ian McShane and Jeremy Brett.

In 1970, his friend Barry Letts, producer of the popular BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who (1963), asked him to co-write a serial with him. The result, The Dæmons: Episode One (1971), was an unusual story mixing English tradition with the occult and set in a picturesque English village. Enjoyed by everyone who worked on it, the story was considered a great success. As a result, Sloman became part of the regular repertory of writers for the series, contributing a story for each of Jon Pertwee's following three seasons.

Sloman fitted in well with Barry Letts's approach to Doctor Who (1963), where the stories were intended to be more than just science-fiction adventures for children. Like Malcolm Hulke, one of his contemporary writers on the series, his stories were intelligently written character dramas, often with a moral message. The Green Death: Episode One (1973) addressed the issues of corporate greed and pollution to make an ecological statement, while Planet of the Spiders: Part One (1974) had a strong Buddhist content. His association with the series ended when Letts left as producer in 1974.

Towards the end of his life, Sloman shared his time between England and Spain and indulged his passion for sailing.

Awards

Robert Sloman

Writers' Guild of Great Britain

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