My father-in-law, Christopher Penfold, who has died aged 83, was an influential writer and script editor in British film and television. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he wrote or script-edited more than 300 hours of primetime television, including shows such as All Creatures Great and Small, Casualty, EastEnders, The Bill and the cult classic Space: 1999.
Chris also served as series editor for 78 episodes (2000-12) of ITV’s Midsomer Murders, one of the most successful long-form drama series in television history. Fellow Midsomer writers Nick Martin and Barry Simner said: “Chris ushered the series into being and coined the credo that underpinned the show’s enormous success – ‘Fun with murder’ – and writers did have fun. Script meetings in Penfold’s living room would generate gales of laughter as ever more macabre murders were concocted.”
Born in Bristol, Chris was the son of Kathleen (nee Buckingham), a lab technician who for many years worked as a welfare officer for Barnardo’s, and Leonard Penfold, a vicar in nearby Pucklechurch, where Chris spent most of his childhood. He was educated locally at Tockington Manor prep school, then St John’s school in Leatherhead, and Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he studied history.
After graduating in 1962, he worked briefly as a teacher before committing full time to writing. He signed to the agency Associated London Scripts, founded by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes. On receiving his first cheque, Chris was torn between wanting to keep it, signed as it was by Milligan, or cashing it because he needed the money.
Opportunities back then were limited for a young writer, so Chris decided to take advantage of the “£10 Pom” scheme, and move to Australia, where he began writing radio scripts for the ABC in Sydney.
After returning to the UK, he married Mary Baxter in 1967. They settled in Notting Hill, west London, and had four children, Hannah, Rachael, Mungo and Sean.
In 1972, while working at Elstree studios as a writer and editor on the war drama Pathfinders, he caught the attention of Gerry Anderson. This led to his collaboration with Anderson to create Space: 1999, a series that greatly influenced subsequent sci-fi dramas.
Chris continued to explore diverse themes in his writing, notably with the ITV drama series The Brack Report (1982), which tackled the contentious nuclear power debate. He also contributed to the BBC sci-fi series The Tripods (1985), based on the John Christopher books.
After leaving the BBC, he worked as a freelance writer and script editor, founding ScriptWorks in 1998 and fostering new voices in television and film. This was alongside personal work as a script consultant for projects such as Jonathan Glazer’s acclaimed Under the Skin (2013).
His marriage to Mary ended in divorce in 2005. Chris married Judy Loncraine in 2013. She survives him, along with his four children, three step-children, and 13 grandchildren.
