Louis Marks

Who was Louis Marks?

Louis Frank Marks was a British script writer and producer mainly for the BBC. He attended Balliol College, Oxford and graduated with a DPhil. He made the surprising choice to become a writer. He began by contributing to The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1959 and continued to write and work in television into the new century, an exceptional record in modern television.

His early work was as a writer. His scripts included The Man Who Finally Died for the BBC and Special Branch for Thames Television. He also wrote for Danger Man with Patrick McGoohan, and for the Doomwatch science fiction series and for Doctor Who on four occasions. The first of these, "Planet of Giants", opened the second season of the programme in 1964. His second script was "Day of the Daleks" in 1972 and as originally written, the serial revolved around the Ogrons instead of the Daleks. During the Tom Baker years he wrote the "Jekyll and Hyde" script for "Planet of Evil"; and then "The Masque of Mandragora", which was perhaps his most unusual script for Doctor Who and drew on his academic background and studies in Renaissance Italy.

He also served as a script editor on programmes such as Bedtime Stories; The Stone Tape; and No Exit.