Troy Kennedy Martin (15 February 1932 – 15 September 2009) was a Scottish-born film and television screenwriter. He created the long-running
BBC TV
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 19 ...
police series ''
Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debuted ...
'' (1962–1978), and the award-winning 1985 anti-nuclear drama ''
Edge of Darkness
''Edge of Darkness'' is a British television drama serial produced by BBC Television in association with Lionheart Television International and originally broadcast in six 55-minute episodes in late 1985. A mixture of crime drama and politica ...
''. He also wrote the screenplay for the original version of ''
The Italian Job
''The Italian Job'' is a 1969 British comedy caper film, written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley, directed by Peter Collinson, and starring Michael Caine. The film's plot centres around Cockney criminal Charlie Croker, rece ...
'' (1969).
Biography
Early life
He was born in
Rothesay
Rothesay ( ; gd, Baile Bhòid ) is the principal town on the Isle of Bute, in the council area of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies along the coast of the Firth of Clyde. It can be reached by ferry from Wemyss Bay, which offers an onward rail ...
,
Isle of Bute
The Isle of Bute ( sco, Buit; gd, Eilean Bhòid or '), known as Bute (), is an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland, United Kingdom. It is divided into highland and lowland areas by the Highland Boundary Fault.
Formerly a constituent isl ...
, and educated at
Finchley Catholic Grammar School and
Trinity College, Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
. He had a younger brother
Ian
Ian or Iain is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, derived from the Hebrew given name (Yohanan, ') and corresponding to the English name John. The spelling Ian is an Anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic forename ''Iain''. It is a popular name in Sc ...
, who is also a television writer best known for creating ''
The Sweeney
''The Sweeney'' is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London. It stars John Thaw as Detective Ins ...
''.
1960s
He began writing for
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...
in 1958, beginning with the play ''
Incident at Echo Six
''Incident at Echo Six'' is a 1958 British TV play set during the Cyprus Emergency (1955-1959). It starred Barry Foster and Tony Garnett. It was the TV debut of writer Troy Kennedy Martin
Troy Kennedy Martin (15 February 1932 – 15 Septemb ...
'', and he wrote four further plays for the BBC over the following three years, before in 1961 creating his first series, ''
Storyboard
A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...
'', a six-part anthology series that consisted both of original scripts and adaptations. The same year, he wrote the police drama ''The Interrogator''. He wrote an important manifesto about new television drama in 1964, calling for a more mobile style of camera work and less emphasis on dialogue.
In 1962, Martin co-created the drama series ''
Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debuted ...
''. Set in "Newtown", based on
Kirkby
Kirkby ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. The town, historically in Lancashire, has a size of is north of Huyton and north-east of Liverpool. The population in 2016 was 41,495 making it the largest ...
near Liverpool, ''Z-Cars'' was revolutionary in that it depicted a hard-edged, grittier and much more realistic vision of the police force than had been seen on British television – as a result, it was initially very unpopular with the real police. Although he left the programme after the first two series, the series ran until 1978, and he returned to write the final episode.
In 1965, Martin scripted a television adaptation of
Frederik Pohl
Frederik George Pohl Jr. (; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American science-fiction writer, editor, and fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first published work, the 1937 poem "Elegy to a Dead Satelli ...
's short story ''The Midas Plague'', which was shown as an episode for the first series of ''
Out of the Unknown
''Out of the Unknown'' is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Most episodes of the first three series were a dramatisation of a science f ...
'', a science-fiction anthology series shown on
BBC2
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
. One of the more light-hearted stories of the otherwise dark and dramatic show, it is one of only 20 (and a half) episodes of the original 48 known to have survived
destruction
Destruction may refer to:
Concepts
* Destruktion, a term from the philosophy of Martin Heidegger
* Destructive narcissism, a pathological form of narcissism
* Self-destructive behaviour, a widely used phrase that ''conceptualises'' certain kind ...
, and is available on DVD.
1970s
Over the following decade he contributed to various television programmes, and made his first foray into feature films when he wrote ''
The Italian Job
''The Italian Job'' is a 1969 British comedy caper film, written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley, directed by Peter Collinson, and starring Michael Caine. The film's plot centres around Cockney criminal Charlie Croker, rece ...
'', which was released in 1969 and starred
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...
and
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...
. The following year he wrote ''
Kelly's Heroes
''Kelly's Heroes'' is a 1970 World War II comedy-drama heist film, directed by Brian G. Hutton, about a motley crew of American GIs who go AWOL in order to rob a French bank, located behind German lines, of its stored Nazi gold bars. The film st ...
'', and he scripted two more films during the 1970s – ''
The Jerusalem File
''The Jerusalem File'' is a 1972 film directed by John Flynn. It stars Bruce Davison, Nicol Williamson, Daria Halprin, and Donald Pleasence.
Plot
The film follows a young American named David, who comes to Israel to study and finds an Arab friend ...
'' (1971) and ''
Sweeney 2
''Sweeney 2'' is a 1978 British action crime drama film. It was made as a sequel to the successful 1977 film '' Sweeney!.'' Both films are an extension of the popular British ITV television series '' The Sweeney'' (1975–78). Some of the actio ...
'' (1978).
''Sweeney 2'' was the second cinematic spin-off from the television series ''
The Sweeney
''The Sweeney'' is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London. It stars John Thaw as Detective Ins ...
'', which had been created by his brother
Ian Kennedy Martin
Ian Kennedy Martin (born 23 May 1936) is a British television scriptwriter who created the action drama series '' The Sweeney'' (1975–1978).
Career
He began his television career in the 1960s, first as a script editor on the military police ...
, and for which he had written several episodes. He is less well known for writing a little-seen television sitcom based in the British Civil Service, ''
If It Moves, File It'' (1970), featuring amongst others
John Bird, who later co-starred in the satirical ''
Bremner, Bird and Fortune
''Bremner, Bird and Fortune'' is a satirical British television programme produced by Vera Productions for Channel Four, uniting the longstanding satirical team of John Bird and John Fortune ("the Two Johns") with the satirical impressionist Ror ...
''.
1980s
In the early 1980s he was no less successful, with two highly popular series on different networks in 1983. ''
The Old Men at the Zoo
''The Old Men at the Zoo'' is a novel written by Angus Wilson, first published in 1961 by Secker and Warburg and by Penguin books in 1964. It was adapted, with many changes—nuclear bombing of London, not present in the novel, is added—into ...
'' was an adaptation of the novel by
Angus Wilson
Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson, CBE (11 August 191331 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for ''The Middle Age of ...
and screened on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
; the second was the hugely popular ''
Reilly, Ace of Spies
''Reilly, Ace of Spies'' is a 1983 British television programme dramatizing the life of Sidney Reilly, a Russian-born adventurer who became one of the greatest spies ever to work for the United Kingdom and the British Empire. Among his exploits, ...
'' on
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
, based on the book by
Robin Bruce Lockhart
Robert Norman Bruce Lockhart (13 April 1920 – 20 February 2008), known as Robin, was a British journalist, stock broker, and author.
Biography
Bruce Lockhart was the only son of R. H. Bruce Lockhart, a British diplomat, secret agent, journalis ...
and starring
Sam Neill
Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor. Neill's near-50 year career has included leading roles in both dramas and blockbusters. Considered an "international leading man", he has been regarded as one o ...
.
Greatly influenced by the political landscape of the early 1980s, he had drafted a script for a
political thriller
A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle, high stakes and suspense is the core of the story. The genre often forces the audiences to consider and understand the importance of politics. The ...
-cum-
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
drama serial entitled ''Magnox'', which became ''
Edge of Darkness
''Edge of Darkness'' is a British television drama serial produced by BBC Television in association with Lionheart Television International and originally broadcast in six 55-minute episodes in late 1985. A mixture of crime drama and politica ...
''. He was interviewed about the genesis of the series for ''Magnox: The Secrets of Edge of Darkness'' documentary, an extra on the show's 2003 DVD release:
The concept attracted little interest from television executives until incoming
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
to the project. ''
in late 1985. Although Kennedy Martin had many creative differences with director
(who is reported to have vetoed the scripted ending with the remark "I'm not turning into a fucking tree!"), the drama was a resounding success, picking up several awards and being remembered as one of the best British television drama productions of the 1980s.
.
'' in 1997. Other later work included ''
.
, East Sussex.
, .