Brian Clemens

Brian Horace Clemens (30 July 1931 – 10 January 2015) was an English screenwriter and television producer, who worked on The Avengers and The Professionals. Clemens claimed to be related to Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), a fact reflected in the naming of his two sons, Samuel Joshua Twain Clemens and George Langhorne Clemens. Early life Clemens was born in Croydon, Surrey, to Suzanna (née O'Grady) and Albert, an engineer, who also worked in music halls. He 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, Clemens wanted to be a journalist but decided he did not have any qualifications. He was offered a job with a private detective agency, but this involved taking a training course in the city of Leeds and, as he had been away from home in London for two years, he decided he did not 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 the Danziger brothers, independent, low-budget movie producers. TV career