Andrew McCulloch
Born: 27th October 1945
Episodes Broadcast: 1980
Andrew McCulloch was born in Ayr, Scotland. He studied to be an actor at
the Central School of Speech and Drama, where one of his contemporaries
was John Flanagan. McCulloch's televised debut came in a 1969 edition of
The Wednesday Play. During the Seventies, he appeared
in programmes such as Dixon Of Dock Green, The Adventures Of
Black Beauty, Churchill's People, The Children Of The New
Forest, and a 1977 version of Nicholas Nickleby. He also made
a number of movies, beginning with the 1970 Vincent Price horror Cry
Of The Banshee. Other silver screen credits included two 1971
Michael Caine pictures -- The Last Valley and Kidnapped --
plus the 1973 thriller Nothing But The Night with Christopher Lee
and Peter Cushing, and the 1974 fantasy The Land That Time
Forgot.
Meanwhile, Flanagan and McCulloch had decided to try their hand at
writing and, in 1976, they developed a sitcom pilot entitled Bricks
Without Straw. Although it was unsuccessful, they subsequently
collaborated on a play which was seen by Doctor Who script editor
Christopher H Bidmead, who was a friend of McCulloch's. This led to
Flanagan and McCulloch writing Meglos for Tom Baker's final season
as the Fourth Doctor in 1980. The pair were then asked to develop “Project Zeta-Sigma”
as the debut serial for Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor. However, it was
ultimately deemed impractical to film and was abandoned.
Thereafter, Flanagan and McCulloch continued to collaborate, earning
credits on shows like Robin Of Sherwood, Coasting and
Sleepers during the Eighties and Nineties. Between 1999 and 2011,
they wrote three dozen episodes of Heartbeat and more than one
dozen installments of The Royal. McCulloch also maintained a
regular career as an actor, with credits during the Eighties coming on
shows like The Baker Street Boys, The Odd Job Man, By
The Sword Divided and Taggart. Movie appearances came in
Richard Attenborough's 1987 drama Cry Freedom, plus the Mark
Harmon comedy Worth Winning in 1989. McCulloch's work in the
Nineties included Sleepers, The Chief, The Young
Indiana Jones Chronicles and Father Ted. Amongst his credits
beyond the turn of the century were Monsignor Renard,
Doctors, Roger Roger and Messiah: The Harrowing.
McCulloch's final role was in a 2018 episode of Holby City. He
married Amanda Reiss in 2002; they would have two children.
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