DWW was saddened to learn of the passing of writer and actor Glyn Jones earlier this month at the age of 82.
Prior to his passing, Glyn was the earliest surviving writer for Doctor Who, penning The Space Museum in 1964 during William Hartnell’s time on the show. After initially being contacted by David Whitaker to write for the show, his successor Dennis Spooner seemed to have a very different vision of the show’s direction and by the time The Space Museum entered production Jones was upset by the heavy editing and changes to his original submission, Spooner removing the majority of the humorous content with a view of the serial being a high-concept science fiction story. The author offered his thoughts in a 2011 interview with Best British TV:
“A couple of years ago the BBC had me go over to London to do a commentary for the DVD release of the Space Museum and I really had to put my thoughts together and decide what to say. The thing about Doctor Who and the Space Museum is that although it has become something of a classic, it is not actually very good! It is very primitive. Poor old Bill Hartnell could never remember his lines and the director was about the most unimaginative director that the BBC could throw up. I have been told that the cast refused to work with the director again but I enjoyed writing it. My only regret now is that none of the rebels were girls and if I wrote it now I would have girls as well as boys.”
While he would never write for the series again, Glynn would return in an acting capacity for 1975’s Sontaran Experiment, starting alongside Tom Baker as Krans and in 1987 would novelise The Space Museum for the Target range of novels. He would continue his association with the show into the modern era, submitting several scripts for the ongoing series:
“A few years later [After The Space Museum] I submitted another script for a story called The Light Benders. It was a pretty good piece of sci-fi but they decided it was not good enough for Doctor who. The thing about these TV shows is that personal contact is so important and by the time I sent in the Light Benders it was a completely different staff who did not know me. Why should they take a script that they were not 100 percent sure about? When the new Doctor Who started a few years ago I sent in a new, up to date script all based on computers called the Ultimate Virus. It has the best opening ever for a Doctor Who story! The TARDIS lands on an air strip and gets blown away by a jet liner. Tell me that is not a good beginning!”
Originally from South Africa, Jones contributed to the script for the Oscar winning documentary A King’s Story on the life of Edward VIII and wrote scripts for The Magnificent Six and Here Come the Double Deckers. Letter in his life he created the the private eye Thornton King which ran for a series of six novels.
A tribute posted at his official blog, gives some apt words from Glyn himself:
“There have been so many many people influencing my life, whose love and friendship I have appreciated and who I would like to have mentioned, and to them all I can only apologise, hand on heart, that in this writing they have been neglected. Perhaps if I had spent my life in the shade of an official umbrella there would have been fewer, but my life would have been so much the poorer for it. To all, I can only say a heartfelt thank you. G.I.J.”
An educated, caring and quiet man, he will be missed by many and another sad loss to Doctor Who.
Glyn Jones passed away peacefully in Vamos, Crete on April 2, 2014.
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