John Vincent Lucarotti (20 May 1926 – 20 November 1994) was a British-Canadian screenwriter and author who worked on '' The Avengers'', ''

The Troubleshooters ''The Troubleshooters'' (titled ''Mogul'' for the first series) is a British television series made by the BBC between 1965 and 1972, created by John Elliot. It recounted events in an international oil company – the "Mogul" of the title. Th ...

'' and ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'' in the 1960s.

Early life

Born into an Army family in

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

in 1926 the son of Helen (née Stark) and Umberto Rimes Lucarotti, John Lucarotti inherited his Italian surname form his grandfather, who was a sculptor. Lucarotti spent 10 years in the

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during and after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

before moving to Canada in 1950 to pursue his interest in writing.

Career

A naturalized Canadian citizen,Alan Hayes, Richard McGinlay and Alys Hayes, ''Two Against the Underworld - the Collected Unauthorised Guide to The Avengers Series 1'', Hidden Tiger (2017)
-

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

pg 404 he began his career at the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

, writing on over 200 various scripts for them as well as for Canadian television. In 1956–7, he wrote scripts for the Canadian television series

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and also wrote the lyrics to the theme song. He then worked for a period selling encyclopedias door-to-door until troubled by his conscience for selling things to people they didn't really want or need. He moved back to England where he had a prolific career. He created the television series ''Operation Patch'' (later novelised), ''The Ravelled Thread'', and ''The Panther's Leap''. He wrote six episodes for '' The Avengers'' (one episode however was a rewrite of a script by Gerald Verner), thirty-two episodes for ''

'' and contributed fifteen episodes to the BBC's ''

'' in the 1960s, the three serials: ''

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'', ''

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'' and ''

The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve ''The Massacre'' (also known as ''The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve'') is the completely missing fourth serial of the third season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly par ...

''. He subsequently novelised his ''Doctor Who'' scripts for

Target Books Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well ...

. He contributed a script for what ultimately became the 1975 serial ''

The Ark in Space ''The Ark in Space'' is the second serial of the 12th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 25 January to 15 February 1975. The serial is set more tha ...

'', but it was rewritten by script editor Robert Holmes and Lucarotti received no on-screen credit.

Personal life

In 1950 he married Lorna D Blaney in

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite t ...

but the marriage was later dissolved. He later married Rose-marie Sandy in London in 1969.John V Lucarotti in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005
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Death

Lucarotti died of spinal cancer in Paris on 20 November 1994 at age 68.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lucarotti, John 1926 births 1994 deaths 20th-century British male writers 20th-century British novelists British expatriates in France British male novelists British male television writers British people of Italian descent British television writers Writers from Aldershot 20th-century British screenwriters