GNR is saddend to hear of the death of the writer Chris Boucher who Doctor Who fans will be familiar as the writer of three classic Doctor Who stories from the Tom Baker ear (1977)

Chris Boucher (born 1943) was a British television screenwriter, script editor and novelist. He is known for his frequent contributions to two genres, science fiction and crime fiction, and worked on the series Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, Shoestring, Bergerac, The Bill and Star Cops.

Farewell Chris Boucher – a genius. His honest take on life and politics, and his amazing gift for character and dialogue, is really the only thing that made Blake’s 7 not just another sci-fi show. https://t.co/2pevIqnE2W pic.twitter.com/qzqkxyPfNR

— Gareth Roberts (@OldRoberts953) December 11, 2022

https://twitter.com/twilightstreets/status/1601996856854200320

Sad to hear that Chris Boucher, the last surviving writer of 1970s Doctor Who, has died. He had a gift for sharp, witty dialogue and sardonic characters, as evidenced further by his work on Blake's 7. He also did good work on Juliet Bravo, Shoestring & Bergerac. TV legend – RIP.

— Toby Hadoke (@TobyHadoke) December 11, 2022

I’m very sad to hear that #ChrisBoucher has died. What a contribution he made to UK TV sf — #Blakes7 #DoctorWho #StarCops on telly and in spin-offs.

He was also a hugely important part of my professional writing life, too.

1/2 pic.twitter.com/rjRqn2NdX6

— Peter Anghelides (@anghelides) December 11, 2022

Prior to becoming a television writer, Boucher worked at Calor Gas as a management trainee and gained a Bachelor of Arts in economics at the University of Essex.

Boucher began his work in television science fiction for the series Doctor Who, writing the serials The Face of Evil, The Robots of Death and Image of the Fendahl (all broadcast in 1977). Prior to his death in he was the last remaining living Doctor Who scriptwriter from prior to Season 18 in 1980. One of his contributions to Doctor Who was the creation of the companion Leela (Louise Jameson), the savage who featured in the series from 1977 to 1978. The character was inspired by the Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled. Boucher was commissioned for the programme by script editor Robert Holmes, who suggested that Boucher should be appointed in that role for the science fiction series Blake’s 7 (1978–81). He served in this role for the entirety of its four-series run, and also wrote several episodes himself, including the final episode.

Boucher was the script editor of the second season of the drama series Shoestring in 1980, which followed the investigations of private detective and radio show host Eddie Shoestring (Trevor Eve). Following the end of Blake’s 7, Boucher script-edited and wrote for the third season of the police drama series Juliet Bravo in 1982. He then moved on to script-edit another detective show, Bergerac, working on the programme from 1983 to 1987.

All of the above programmes were produced in-house by the BBC and broadcast on the BBC1 network. For the ITV network, he worked on Thames Television’s police drama series The Bill as script editor in 1987. In that year he also returned to the BBC to create his own series, Star Cops, which combined the science fiction and crime genres. The series encountered several production problems and was not a ratings success, lasting only nine episodes on BBC2, but has maintained a cult following among fans of science fiction.

Later works included several Doctor Who novels for BBC Books, all featuring the character of Leela, and a series of straight-to-CD full-cast audio dramas entitled Kaldor City, which combine elements from his Doctor Who serial The Robots of Death with his Blake’s 7 work.

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Writing credits

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Production	Notes	Broadcaster
Braden’s Week	“Episode #2.1” (1969)	BBC1
The Saturday Crowd	“Episode #1.6” (1969) “Episode #2.10” (1969) “Episode #2.12” (1969)	ITV
That’s Life!	“Episode #1.1” (1973)	BBC1
Dave Allen at Large	“Episode #3.4” (1973) “Episode #4.1” (1975)	BBC1
Romany Jones	“Run Rabbit Run” (1973) “The Invitations” (1974)	ITV
Slater’s Day	Television film (1974)	ITV
Doctor Who	“The Face of Evil” (1977) “The Robots of Death” (1977) “Image of the Fendahl” (1977)	BBC1
Shoestring	“The Dangerous Game” (1980)	BBC1
Blake’s 7	Script editor for all 52 episodes (1978–1981) Wrote: “Shadow” (1979) “Weapon” (1979) “Trial” (1979) “Star One” (1979) “City at the Edge of the World” (1980) “Rumours of Death” (1980) “Death-Watch” (1980) “Rescue” (1981) “Blake” (1981)	BBC1
Juliet Bravo	“Where There’s Muck…” (1982)	BBC1
Bergerac	“Fires in the Fall” (1986) “The Memory Man” (1987)	BBC1
Star Cops	9 episodes (1987)	BBC2
Home James!	“Never Say Die” (1990)	ITV
The Bill	“Lying in Wait” (1990)	ITV