Born: 23rd February 1918 (as William Harold Strutton)
Died: 23rd November 2003 (aged 85 years)
Episodes Broadcast: 1965

Bill Strutton was born in Moonta, South Australia. He won a scholarship to Adelaide University but dropped out, becoming a bank clerk, and then joining the Australia Infantry Battalion at the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1941, he was captured in Crete and sent to a German stalag, where he began writing a camp newsletter while learning a plethora of languages. After the war, he relocated to England where he worked as a journalist. He had three wives during the course of his life, and as many children.

Aspiring to become a novelist, Strutton's first published work was a mystery called A Jury Of Angels in 1957. Several military novels followed, and were sufficiently successful that Strutton not only left his job with the press, but also began to attract interest from television. His first scripts were for Ivanoe in 1958, and he was soon writing for programmes like The Avengers, The Saint and No Hiding Place (to which he would ultimately contribute nearly twenty episodes). His only Doctor Who serial, The Web Planet, was broadcast in 1965 and confronted William Hartnell's First Doctor with the ant-like Zarbi. Later the same year, his novelisation became one of the first published Doctor Who books. Strutton also wrote an unmade Third Doctor storyline called “The Mega” in 1970.

Shortly after his Doctor Who assignment, Strutton script-edited an Australian series called Adventures Of The Seaspray. Towards the end of the decade, he served as associate script editor on Strange Report. He also wrote for shows including Emergency -- Ward 10 and Paul Temple, and co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 spy thriller Assignment K. Strutton's final television credit was on Crown Court in 1973, the same year that his last novel was published. Unfortunately, his health was then in decline, and a heart attack in 1978 convinced him to retire. Strutton eventually settled in Palafrugell, Spain, where he died on November 23rd, 2003.