David Renwick


*The following article is written from an Out of Universe perspective.*

David Renwick (born 4 September 1951) was the Executive Producer of Doctor Who between 1998 and 2003, and oversaw the eras of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors.

Prior to Doctor Who

Before becoming a writer he worked as a journalist in his home town newspaper, the Luton News.

On beginning his comedy writing career in the mid-1970s he initially submitted material for BBC radio comedies including Week Ending and The News Huddlines. He also contributed to other radio series such as 'Oh, Get On With It!' starring Kenneth Williams and with David McKellar co-wrote 'Harry Worth in Things Could Be Worse' featuring Harry Worth. Teaming up with writing partner Andrew Marshall, they wrote the BBC Radio 4 comedy series The Burkiss Way and provided sketches for BBC television shows such as The Two Ronnies and Not the Nine O'Clock News during the late 1970s and early '80s. One of the most celebrated sketches he wrote for The Two Ronnies was a parody of the BBC quiz programme Mastermind, where a "Charlie Smithers" chose to answer questions on the specialist subject "Answering the question before last", adapted from his "Answering one question behind all the time" sketch from The Burkiss Way. Their short-lived LWT series for ITV, End of Part One, was an attempt to transfer Burkiss-style humour to television. Later in the 1980s they also wrote for the sketch show Alexei Sayle's Stuff and Spike Milligan's There's a Lot of It About.

In 1982 they penned the comedy-drama serial Whoops Apocalypse for LWT, based on the insanity of international politics in the age of nuclear weapons, and four years later they adapted the screenplay (changing most of the characters and situations completely) into a feature film version. In 1983 they wrote The Steam Video Company for Thames Television, a short comedy series based on very silly parodies of famous novels. This was followed in 1986 by Hot Metal for LWT, a six-part satire of the tabloid newspaper industry starring Robert Hardy, Geoffrey Palmer and John Gordon Sinclair. The show was a critical success and returned for a further six episodes in 1988 with a revised cast of Robert Hardy, Richard Wilson and Caroline Milmoe.

Renwick began writing solo in 1990 when he created the sitcom One Foot in the Grave, starring Richard Wilson, which was highly successful and went on to be a popular hit for the following decade. It also ran for four seasons as an American remake titled Cosby, starring Bill Cosby, although this is generally regarded as a very loose adaptation of the original.

Work on Doctor Who

In 1996, David Renwick pitched the pilot for a mystery series called Jonathan Creek to the BBC. He continued to develop it into 1997, whereby it's similarities with Doctor Who were picked up by the BBC. After being challenged about this, Renwick was asked whether he'd like to fulfil the soon-to-be-vacant position of Doctor Who showrunner - Renwick declined and opted to try and get Jonathan Creek produced instead.

Jonathan Creek development halted in early 1997 when the BBC couldn't grant the show the budget needed, due to the amount of money it was spending on Doctor Who and Renwick would have to wait until the next financial year. Despite not being particularly fond of Doctor Who, Renwick reconsidered the job on the show, provided that he had complete creative freedom to change the show, however, he liked. Renwick soon discovered, after taking the job, this was not the case, as he, initially, wanted to recast the Doctor, and the BBC denied this request as Michael French was extremely popular, and he didn't want to leave. Again, after Renwick created the character of Sammy Thompson, to whom he'd written for actress Caroline Quentin, the BBC requested that to branch out to an American audience, the part would be cast with an American actress - Laurie Holden was eventually chosen, much to a disgruntled Renwick.

Renwick's first season as executive producer was sought with production difficulties, and many creative battles with the BBC, which nearly resulted in him resigning from the position at the end of the year. However, the BBC became more tolerant towards Renwick and his vision for the show, as Season 35 became a huge critical and audience success. Renwick toned down the science fiction settings in the following season, grounding it far more, with all but one of the stories taking place on Earth. He also decided to give Sammy a romantic attraction to the Doctor, which was unreciprocated due to Renwick viewing the Doctor as asexual. Renwick additionally brought on board Nicholas Meyer into the writer's room, to try and help reinvent Doctor Who's fundamentals and make it more grounded.

Renwick finally got his wish to cast a new Doctor, when Michael French decided to leave after the end of Season 37. He also decided to shake up the show and axe the character of Sammy, at the same time, never having been totally fond of her in the first place. He introduced, at the beginning of the season, a modern-day inquisitive human companion, Lou, who Renwick wrote for Gillian Kearney and was delighted that the BBC allowed him to cast her in the role. Renwick later stated that Lou was his single favourite element of his time on the show. Renwick had originally wanted to cast Anthony Head as the Tenth Doctor, but he had to turn down the role, due to his contract on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After several rounds of auditions, Renwick, alongside casting director Andy Pryor, cast Richard E. Grant in the role, who Renwick said was the best piece of casting he ever did in his career.

Grant's first season as the Doctor saw Renwick once again make several changes, with Lou becoming the Doctor's singular companion, although Kearney decided, much to Renwick's disappointment, that Season 38 would be her last. Additionally, Renwick managed to persuade the BBC to allow all seven serials to be set on Earth in the present or the past, completely ridding the show of it's more futurist elements and settings, which Renwick always disliked.

For Grant's second season, Renwick again had a new companion, and he created, alongside Nicholas Meyer, the character of Sandra Armstrong. The character had originally been from present-day earth and had been a reporter, but due to the similarities with previous companion, Sarah Jane Smith, and the fact that Lou had been from present-day earth, Meyer managed to persuade him that the character should be from the future, which Renwick was originally against, but after Meyer fleshed out the character, Renwick agreed. Again Renwick tried to cast Caroline Quentin in the role, and he succeeded, however during the screen tests, Quentin struggled with the prosthetics needed to play Sandra, and the part was decided to be recast, just a few weeks before filming began. Andy Pryor managed to find Anna Hope, within three days of Quentin leaving Doctor Who, and she went onto play Sandra Armstrong, and become Doctor Who fan's 3rd favourite companion, according to Doctor Who Magazine in 2014.

Season 39, however, was plagued by production issues once again, as Steven Moffat and his wife, Sue Vertue, who were the script editor and producer of Doctor Who, had decided to leave after the end of Season 37. The BBC originally wanted to hire Nicholas Meyer as script editor, and he fulfilled the role in a temporary capacity, during the early development of the season, but eventually declined to accept the role in a permeant capacity. The BBC hired Russell T Davies, eventually, as script editor, rather late into pre-production, but he and Renwick got on immensely well and really enjoyed working together, having very similar visions for the show. Annoyingly, for the two of them, Season 39 was rather late into production for them to implement a lot of their ideas, about making Doctor Who very earth-based, grounded and very soap-opera-like, as the BBC wanted to pursue a lot of Meyer's very Star Trek-like ideas for the season. Additionally, the opening three-parter, cost so much money, that the rest of the season, had an unusually low-budget per episode, due to the inexperience of new producer Bill Shapter. This meant that Renwick was forced to either drop an episode or to use the classic cost-cutting idea of a clip show episode. The clip show episode caused a wave of fan backlash and calls for Renwick to go.

Renwick signed on for the fortieth season, intending to finally make the season of Doctor Who he wanted. He planned to axe companion, Sandra Armstrong, in the opening story and to reuse the character, Maddy, from his original Jonathan Creek proposal, as the new companion, played by Caroline Quentin. However, in what was the last straw for Renwick, the BBC ordered that Season 40 be a special anniversary season for the show, leading up to the first movie, and featured a whole host of previous Doctors and companions. Angry about this decision, Renwick announced his departure after the end of the season, and he left lots of the season's development in the hands of Russell T Davies and Nicholas Meyer, instead, he worked closely on the movie.

Renwick's final act as showrunner was to cast the Eleventh Doctor, as his successor had not yet been chosen. With Buffy the Vampire Slayer ending, Renwick was delighted to be able to cast Anthony Head as the Doctor, who immediately accepted the part. Ira Steven Behr, was soon announced as his successor, but Behr decided to take a less hands-on approach, leaving most of the work to the producer and script editor - Renwick later revealed he wish he had done the same. Renwick stated in 2014 that he hated the Gallifrey Arc, and wished that he stayed for just one more season, to give Anthony Head, who had the capacity, in Renwick's opinion, to be the best ever Doctor, a proper set of adventures in the TARDIS. Renwick stayed rather bitter with Doctor Who until 2017 when Paramount Pictures approached him about writing a new Doctor Who movie, which he agreed to, as long as he truly had full creative control, which Paramount fully granted.

After Doctor Who

To be added.

Personal life

To be added.

Credits

Writer

Doctor Who

Movies

Doctor Who: Until the World Ends ^[2]

Executive Producer

Doctor Who

Leftover

Movies

Footnotes

↑ Co-Wrote Episode Six with Robert Shearman
↑ With Andrew Davies

Footnotes

[:0-1] Co-Wrote Episode Six with Robert Shearman

[:1-2] With Andrew Davies

[1]

[2]