“I PREFER MY HEROES and villains a little more nuanced,” said writer and script editor Chris Boucher, whose taste for moral ambiguity and gift for acid banter found a perfect showcase in Blake’s 7.
Born in Maldon, Essex, Boucher was an only child whose imagination was stoked by such pulp magazines as Astounding Science Fiction. Raising a family while working for Calor Gas, he took to scriptwriting to earn extra cash, selling a “three-line quickie” to BBC consumer affairs show Braden’s Week in 1969.