Richard Michael "Kip" Carpenter (14 August 1929 – 26 February 2012)Anthony Hayward "Richard Carpenter obituary", The Guardian, 5 March 2012 was an English screenwriter, author and actor. He created a number of British television series, including Robin of Sherwood and Catweazle.

Early life Carpenter was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, and educated at Downham Market Grammar School (now Downham Market Academy.Alistair McGown Carpenter, Richard (1929–2012), BFI screenonline page He attended the Old Vic Theatre School before starting an acting career by working in repertory theatre.

Career Carpenter appeared in occasional films, but was mostly active on British TV in the 1960s as a character actor, on one occasion opposite Tony Hancock in one of his last shows for the BBC, commonly known as "The Bowmans". Other TV shows in which he appeared in the 1960s included Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, Gideon's Way, Sherlock Holmes and The Baron.

In 1969, Carpenter created Catweazle, the children's series about an unfortunate wizard from the 11th century who is accidentally transported to the present day. This changed the course of his career substantially. Carpenter earned international recognition and a Writers' Guild award for creating the cult children's TV series.

During the 1970s, he wrote the series The Ghosts of Motley Hall (1976–1978), Dick Turpin (1979–1982), parts of the series The Famous Five and Doctor Snuggles, and 17 episodes of The Adventures of Black Beauty for ITV; and Cloud Burst, The Boy from Space and The King's Dragon as part of BBC's Look and Read (1967–2004) programme for schools, He presented all episodes of "Cloud Burst".

In the 1980s came the historical adventures Smuggler and its later antipodean-based follow-up Adventurer and between them, the lavish HTV production Robin of Sherwood, which ran for three series.

As Anthony Hayward wrote in this cited obituary:

Carpenter then worked on a number of series for children and families in the 1990s (The Winjin' Pom, Stanley's Dragon and Out of Sight), some of which (The Borrowers, The Return of the Borrowers and The Scarlet Pimpernel) were based on classic novels.

Carpenter wrote novelisations of many of the early series he created: Catweazle, Cloud Burst, The Ghosts of Motley Hall, Smuggler, Robin of Sherwood (two books) and two books of Dick Turpin.

Personal life Carpenter married Annabelle Lee in 1954. They lived in Ayot Bury, Ayot St Peter near Welwyn in Hertfordshire, had two children and remained married until his death.

Death On 26 February 2012, at the age of 82, Carpenter died in Hertfordshire from a pulmonary embolism.Abbie Bernstein "In Memoriam: ROBIN OF SHERWOOD creator Richard Carpenter passes at age 78", AssignmentX, 27 February 2012Alex Farber "Catweazle creator Richard Carpenter dies", Broadcast, 29 February 2012

Filmography Tarnished Heroes (1961) – Freddy H.M.S. Defiant (1962) – Lieut. Ponsonby The Password Is Courage (1962) – Robinson Mystery Submarine (1963) – Lt. Haskins Wings of Mystery (1963) – Ted Clash by Night (1964) – Danny Watts The Terrornauts (1967) – Danny

References

Bibliography

Works by Richard Carpenter in English

Catweazle, illustrated by George Adamson (Puffin, 1970) Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, illustrated by George Adamson (Puffin, 1971) The Best of Black Beauty (Everest, 1975) Cloud Burst, illustrated by Trevor Ridley (BBC, 1976) The Ghosts of Motley Hall (Puffin, 1977) Dick Turpin (Armada, 1979) Turpin and Swiftnick, illustrated by Peter Archer (Armada, 1980) Smuggler (Armada, 1981) Robin of Sherwood (Puffin, 1984) Robin of Sherwood: The Time of the Wolf (Puffin, 1988) The Complete Adventures of Robin of Sherwood (Omnibus of all four novelisations, Puffin, 1990)

Novelisations of Carpenter's work by other authors

Robin of Sherwood and the Hounds of Lucifer by Robin May (Puffin, 1985) Robin of Sherwood: The Hooded Man by Anthony Horowitz (Puffin, 1986) Adventurer by Anthony Horowitz (Corgi Books, 1987) Winjin' Pom by Terrance Dicks (Macmillan, 1991)

Works by Richard Carpenter in translation Catweazle, de Tovernaar van Saburac (transl. into Dutch of Catweazle), illustrated by George Adamson (Amsterdam: van Holkema & Warendorf, 1971) Catweazle, de Tekens van de Dierenriem (transl. into Dutch of Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac), illustrated by George Adamson (Amsterdam: van Holkema & Warendorf, 1971) Kaksnoukka ja Porkkana (transl. by Marikki Makkonen into Finnish of Catweazle), illustrated by George Adamson (WSOY [Werner Söderström Corporation], 1974), Nuorten toivekirjasto 215 Kaksnoukka ja Taivaan Merkit (transl. by Marikki Makkonen into Finnish of Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac), illustrated by George Adamson (WSOY), Nuorten toivekirjasto 228 Catweazle (transl. into German by Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt of Catweazle), illustrated by George Adamson (Ravensburger, 1973) RTB 39262 Catweazle sucht die magische Zeichen (transl. into German by Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt of Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac), illustrated by George Adamson (Ravensburger, 1974) RTB 39330 Catweazle (transl. into German by Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt of Catweazle), illustrated by Carsten Teich (Ravensburger) Catweazle sucht die magische Zeichen (transl. into German by Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt of Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac), illustrated by Carsten Teich (Ravensburger, 2006) Den Merkelige Mannen (transl. into Norwegian Bokmål by Fredrik Chr. Brøgger of Catweazle), illustrated by George Adamson (Oslo: Cappelin, 1971) Mathilde Cachebidon, super-robot (Doctor Snuggles) (transl. into French by Philippe Mikriammos) (Hachette, 1981) La Grande course en ballon (Doctor Snuggles) (transl. into French by Philippe Mikriammos) (Hachette, 1981) Les aventures de Dick le rebelle (transl. by Odile Ricklin), (Paris: G.P., 1981) Turpin et feu follet (transl. by Odile Ricklin), (Paris: G.P., 1981)

External links The Original Catweazle Website, launched in 1997

Interviews in Sherwood – Richard Carpenter