Brian Clemens was born on July 30, 1931 in Croydon, United Kingdom, into the family of Albert George, an engineer, who also worked in music halls, and Susan (O’Grady) Clemens. A descendent of Mark Twain, Brian displayed an interest in writing from an early age which resulted in his father buying him a typewriter to encourage him.
Brian attended Oval Road School in Croydon, England, leaving it at the age of 14.
After national service with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, where he was a weapons training instructor, Brian Clemens worked his way up from messenger boy to copywriter at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, writing in his spare time.
After his first story for the BBC titled "Valid for a Single Journey" appeared in 1955, Clemens went on to become a staff writer for the movie company Danziger, which began with the film "The Betrayal" (1957). He authored the scripts for television series such as Mark Saber, White Hunter, The Man from Interpol, and Richard The Lionheart.
During the late 50s Clemens also wrote thriller series The Invisible Man, Sir Francis Drake and Danger Man for ITC Entertainment.
In 1961 Clemens became chief scriptwriter for The Avengers series, a position he held until 1969. Clemens worked on the program from its first episode, gaining a bigger budget and “mod” 1960s look of the show in 1965, when he replaced the departing actress Honor Blackman with stage actress Diana Rigg, whose character, the resourceful catsuit-wearing Mrs. Emma Peal, brought the program an expanded global audience. The same year Clemens was appointed an associate producer of the series, becoming producer in 1967. During that time Clemens was also involved in other series - Adam Adamant Lives! and The Baron, both running in 1966 – 1967.
Early 70s saw Clemens’ new series such as The Persuaders!, The Protectors and The Adventurer. He also created and produced the anthology series Thriller, which ran in 1973 - 1976. In 1976 Clemens company The Avengers (Film and TV) Enterprises Ltd. was commissioned to create and write The New Avengers. Although the sequel never achieved the same popularity as the original, it brought stardom to actress Joanna Lumley as Steed’s newest female sidekick.
In 1977 his company Avengers Mark One Productions went on to produce The Professionals, the action-adventure show. Among his other action-adventure shows can be mentioned Bugs, and CIS: The New Professionals.
In the early 1980s, Clemens was asked to produce a United States version of The Avengers - The Avengers U.S.A. and The Avengers International for Taft Entertainment but neither version materialised. However, he did write episodes for the United States TV series Darkroom, Remington Steele, and Max Monroe: Loose Cannon.
In 1981 he returned to the United Kingdom, and began working on the BBC TV's Bergerac, the anthologies Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense and Worlds Beyond. In 1984 he adapted Gavin Lyall's espionage thriller The Secret Servant as a 3-part drama for BBC TV.
Again in the United States, Clemens worked on the Father Dowling Mysteries, as executive script consultant for the feature-length revival series of Raymond Burr's Perry Mason for which he also wrote three teleplays. He also wrote for the Dick Van Dyke mystery series Diagnosis: Murder. Clemens' final credit was for Jane Doe: How To Fire Your Boss in 2007.
In addition to writing for TV series, Clemens also wrote and produced for several films such as Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter, Highlander II: The Quickening and others.
In 2008 Clemens tried himself as a playwright featuring the play Murder Hunt, which was performed at The Mill at Sonning and starred David Monteith as Captain K'Maka, a native African policeman who has to find the murderer amongst a bunch of guests stranded at a remote safari lodge.
Brian Clemens is best remembered for his work at ITC in the 1960's and early 70's, especially as writer and producer of "The Avengers". As a producer Clemens made The Avengers one of the hottest television shows to ever come out of the United Kingdom, which was successfully exported to America, and to the World.
Clemens was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to Broadcasting and to Drama.
(This ingenious play opens on two once successful crime-wr...)
(Max is planning to murder his wife Janet, collect her lif...)
2015(Liz Burns, a psychoanalyst, receives an unexpected visito...)
2011(Jeremy and Celia return a week early from their unsuccess...)
2011
Quotations:
"She's sexier, more pneumatic in build, with a bosom and hips." [about Linda Thorson replacing Diana Rigg in The Avengers]
"Americans simply count the bodies. They never take into account the manner of the killings. In fact, the stories are about as violent as the average pantomime or Grimm's Fairy Tales." [about The Avengers losing popularity in the US]
"I don't use the word plagiarism. I call it an homage." [on plundering classic Hollywood movies for inspiration]
Throughout the 1960s Brian Clemens frequently used the pseudonym Tony O'Grady.
Clemens married his first wife Brenda Prior in 1955, and they were divorced in 1966. From 1967, he had relationships with the actress Diane Enright. She committed suicide in 1976. He then married Janet Elizabeth with whom he had two sons, Samuel Joshua Twain Clemens and George Langhorne Clemens.
Samuel Joshua Twain Clemens set up a production company with his brother George called TeamGeorge Productions and wrote, produced and directed his first feature The Lighter (2011). He has also directed a stage version of his father's play "Strictly Murder", which starred Brian Capron.
