Helen Raynor

Born: March 1972
Episodes Broadcast: 2005-2008

Biography

Helen Raynor was born in Swansea, Wales. After completing her studies at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, she worked as a theatrical director for almost a decade. In 2002, Raynor moved into television, initially working as a script editor on Doctors. She then took the opportunity to return to Wales as script editor on the twenty-first-century revival of Doctor Who. Showrunner Russell T Davies mentored Raynor as she developed Cake, a 2006 short play for Brief Encounters on BBC One. The same year, he commissioned Raynor to write her first full-length television script, Ghost Machine, an early episode of the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood. When Steven Moffat declined the opportunity to write a two-part Dalek story for Doctor Who's 2007 season, Davies turned to Raynor instead. The result was Daleks In Manhattan / Evolution Of The Daleks, an adventure for David Tennant's Tenth Doctor. She also contributed the Second Doctor story All Of Beyond to Short Trips: Snapshots, an anthology published by Big Finish Productions.

During 2008, Raynor wrote a second script for Torchwood and resurrected the Sontarans to battle the Tenth Doctor in The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky. She also concluded her time as a script editor on Doctor Who with Midnight. During the years that followed, Raynor wrote an episode of Primeval and co-created the BBC Wales drama Baker Boys with her partner, Gary Owen. She subsequently wrote several episodes of Mr Selfridge, becoming an executive producer on its fourth season in 2016. During the Twenties, Raynor contributed to Call The Midwife and was an executive producer on A Discovery Of Witches, for which she also wrote two scripts.

Credits
Script Editor
The Unquiet Dead
Dalek
The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances
Bad Wolf / The Parting Of The Ways
The Christmas Invasion
School Reunion
The Girl In The Fireplace
Rise Of The Cybermen / The Age Of Steel
Army Of Ghosts / Doomsday
Greeks Bearing Gifts
Blink
Silence In The Library / Forest Of The Dead
Midnight
Writer
Ghost Machine
Daleks In Manhattan / Evolution Of The Daleks
To The Last Man
The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky

Updated 30th May 2022