Brian Clemens - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Clemens was born in Croydon, England. His father was an engineer, but also worked in British music halls. Brian Clemens left school aged 14.

Following National Service in the British Army at Aldershot, where he was a weapons training instructor in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Brian Clemens wanted to be a journalist but decided he didn't have any qualifications. He was offered a job with a private detective agency, but this involved taking a training course in the Northern English city of Leeds and, as he had been away from home in London for two years, he decided he didn't want to go away again. Instead, he worked his way up from messenger boy at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. While he was a copywriter there, he had a thriller screenplay accepted and shot by BBC TV - Valid for Single Journey Only (1955). This brought him to the attention of independent, low-budget movie producers the Danziger brothers.

From the mid-1950s onwards, he was a staff writer for the Danzigers, churning out dozens of quickie scripts for assembly-line 'B' movies and half-hour television series such as Mark Saber (ITV, 1957–1959; aka Saber of London), White Hunter (ITV, 1958–1960), Man From Interpol (ITV, 1960–1961), and Richard The Lionheart (ITV, 1961–1965).

However, he also wrote for ITC Entertainment's thriller series The Invisible Man (ITV, 1958–1959), Sir Francis Drake (ITV, 1961–1962), and Danger Man (ITV, 1960–1961; 1964–1967; aka Secret Agent), for which he had also written the pilot. His output was so prolific during the late 50s and throughout the 1960s that he frequently used the pseudonym 'Tony O'Grady.'