Shortly after I began to story edit the show, I looked for writers. I was astonished that only one New York agent showed any interest in connecting me. Surely I thought, there must be dozens of writers who – first – would want to be paid to write; and – second – actually see their work on screen. I lost patience with the process and called Chris, then living in London. We’d written books together, TV material and worked in advertising together. I knew he could, as they say, ‘write the shit out of anything.’
He ended up writing more episodes than any other contracted writer except perhaps Len.
Chris: “Peter and I have known each other for almost our whole lives and have been writing together for almost as long. Although we lost touch for a while after leaving school, we eventually ran into each other in London’s Park Lane and discovered that our apartments were no more than half a mile apart. A quick catch-up revealed that I was working as a trade journalist, and Peter had sold a screenplay and was making industrial and promo films. Clearly we were destined to collaborate and take the world by storm!
Actually success for our partnership came quickly, with two best-selling comic novels for Quartet Books, and later Full Moon for W H Allen. In between times we were recruited by London Weekend Television as potential comedy writers, although in the end we baulked at having to write gags for old-school comics like Larry Grayson. Later we worked together on Thundercats and other hit US shows, and in the UK on the TV revival of Dennis and Gnasher. We’ve never stopped writing together – and in a world where creative partnerships break up with monotonous regularity, we’ve never had a cross word. Whether books, movies or TV, commissioned or on spec we’re still on the case – perhaps because it’s always been fun!”
Chris is one of Europe’s leading animation writers, his credits including Lavender Castle, co-written with the legendary Gerry Anderson. He co-developed and wrote the bible for Bob The Builder plus multiple scripts; was instrumental in the writing of King Arthur’s Disasters which starred the late great Rick Mayall and was nominated for both BAA and BAFTA awards. He was series editor for Dennis and Gnasher. The credits go on and on – including Turbozaurs which has rolled out to over 30 countries in 20 languages.
Sidestepping into the world of theatre, he recently translated into English DAS HUHN AUF DEM RUCKEN, a play by well-known German playwright Fred Apke. Successfully produced in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic, under its new title PRETTY DEAD it is now available to the UK market.
For more about Chris, see christrengove.com.