“I set out to bring some new blood in on the writing side,” Anthony Read told Doctor Who Magazine, recalling his appointment as the series’ script editor in 1977. “I began looking for very good professional writers with whom I’d worked before, or people with excellent track records who had been recommended to me.”
Lured back to the BBC by new Head of Drama Serials Graeme McDonald, Tony’s role as script editor was effectively a step down. Having joined the BBC in 1963, the former actor and journalist had script edited the thriller anthology Detective, the resultant Sherlock Holmes series and the historical drama Kipling before moving onto Mogul, a new adventure/boardroom drama launched in 1965. When Mogul was rebranded as The Troubleshooters in 1966, Read became associate producer, assembling a new writing team for the revised show.