VISION ON SOUND EPISODE 126 - TX MARCH 5 2023 - MALCOLM HULKE

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 5th 2023

A few weeks ago on VISION ON SOUND we celebrated the life of the television writer TERRANCE DICKS and, in passing, we mentioned his writing colleague and mentor MALCOLM HULKE, who co-wrote several television scripts alongside TERRANCE, including contributions to THE AVENGERS and DOCTOR WHO, as well as writing a quarter of the stories (on television) which featured JON PERTWEE as the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, some of which are arguably amongst the most iconic from that era, when TERRANCE DICKS was working as the Script Editor on the series.

As well as his work on DOCTOR WHO, MALCOLM also wrote scripts for the PATHFINDERS series, CROSSROADS, DANGER MAN, GIDEONS WAY, UNITED!, SPYDER’S WEB and many others, in a prolific twenty year career sadly cut short when MALCOLM HULKE died at the age of 54 years old way back in 1979. Perhaps because of this, his story, and his contribution to television writing as a whole, sometimes gets rather overlooked when people talk about the great television writers of the 1960s and 1970s.

Nowadays MALCOLM HULKE is often cited as a huge influence on the careers of the writers that followed in his footsteps, not least because of his efforts as a member of the Writers Guild, and his book WRITING FOR TELEVISION which became a must-read volume for aspiring writers in that era.

Recently, the freelance historian MICHAEL HERBERT, our guest in today’s edition of VISION ON SOUND contributed an essay on the life and works of MALCOLM HULKE to the rather excellent book SURVIVAL TV: 1970s BRITAIN AND THE TELEVISION SERIES which was published and edited by RODNEY MARSHALL.

MICHAEL is also working on a new biography of MALCOLM that he is hoping to complete this year, and he joined me to talk about the intriguingly complex life and work of this often complicated and iconic television writer.

PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.