Terence Dudley was already a seasoned TV professional by the time he came to work on Doctor Who.
He started out in the 1950s as a playwright and soon went into scriptwriting, his early credits including The River Flows East for the BBC in 1962. He became a BBC staff producer/director in the early 1960s and thereafter pursued parallel writing and directing careers. In 1963 he was invited by Doctor Who's original producer, Verity Lambert, to write the series' very first story (as a replacement for Antony Coburn's 100,000 BC) but declined. Directing credits included Maigret (1963), Dr Finlay's Casebook, The Troublemakers (1966), Vendetta (1966-67), Softly, Softly (1967-68) and The First Lady (1968).
Directing led on to producing, and he spend periods of time in charge of series such as Cluff (1964), The Mask of Janus (1965), Doomwatch (1970-72), The Regiment (1973) and Survivors (1975-1977) - for some of which he also wrote and directed. After Survivors he left the BBC to become a freelancesdirector. Apart from Doctor Who, other productions on which he worked in that capacity included Flesh and Blood (1980) and All Creatures Great and Small.
He died on Christmas Day 1988.
(Author biography by David J. Howe, author of The Target Book, the complete illustrate guide to the Target Doctor Who novelisations.)
