Clemens, Brian
Entry updated 30 March 2026. Tagged: Author, Film, TV.
(1931-2015) UK screenwriter, Television producer and author who claimed to be related to Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens); he began to write television and Cinema scripts in the mid-1950s, often using the pseudonym Tony O'Grady, the surname being his Irish mother's maiden name. Works of genre interest began with a 1959 teleplay for The Invisible Man (1958-1959) as by O'Grady. He is strongly associated with The Avengers (1961-1969), writing two episodes of the first season, several of the third, and for the fourth becoming the main writer, associate producer and script editor, in the last capacity rewriting others' scripts in accordance with his sense of the show's distinctive mix of action, Humour and surrealism. With Albert Fenell he also revived the series in 1976 as the less successful The New Avengers (1976-1977).
Other television series for which Clemens wrote screenplays include Adam Adamant Lives! (1966-1967), somewhat in the vein of The Avengers, and The Champions (1968-1969). He scripted the made-for-television Time Travel film Timestalkers (1987) directed by Michael Schultz, co-wrote Ray Harryhausen's The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) directed by Gordon Hessler, and co-created the story for Highlander II: The Quickening (1990) directed by Russell Mulcahy; Clemens also wrote a 1992 episode of the related television series Highlander (1992-1998). His producer credits include Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) directed by Roy Ward Baker (see Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) and the Vampire film Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974), which he also directed.
Late in life he published his only story collection, Rabbit Pie (coll 2013), whose tales he described as being "linked by a surreal quality"; some have autobiographical elements. [DRL]
Brian Horace Clemens
born Croydon, Surrey: 30 July 1931
died 10 January 2015
works
collections
- Rabbit Pie (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2013) [coll: introduction by Stephen Gallagher: hb/Michael Smith]
links
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