Jeremy Burnham

John Richard Jeremy Burnham (28 May 1931 – 31 December 2020) was a British theatre and television actor from the 1950s until the 1970s, and a screenwriter.^[1]

Burnham trained at the Old Vic Theatre School,^[2] in the early 1950s and appeared in many popular British TV series such as The Avengers episodes "The Fear Merchants", "The Town of No Return", and "The Forget-Me-Knot", The Saint and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) in 1969.^[3][4]

In the mid-1970s he retired from acting and concentrated on screenwriting. With Trevor Ray, he co-authored the fondly-remembered children's science fiction horror serial Children of the Stones (1977).^[5] A novelization followed, also in 1977.^[6] A sequel novel, Return to the Stones appeared in 2012 as an e-book and in 2015 as a physical book. Ray and Burnham collaborated on a less well-known children's five episode serial entitled Raven (1977);^[7] they also wrote the novelization (1977).^[8]

He also authored the children's tennis-based novel, Break Point, which was made into a BBC television series in 1982. Burnham himself played the leading role of tennis coach Frank Abbott.^[9]

Burnham also wrote for The Avengers, in which he had also appeared as an actor (see entry above), Minder and Peak Practice.^[10][1]

He died in December 2020 at the age of 89.^[11]

• The Birthday Present (1957)
• Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst (1957)
• The Good Companions (1957)
• Bonjour Tristesse (1958)
• Law and Disorder (1958)
• Bachelor of Hearts (1958)
• Upstairs and Downstairs (1959)
• I Could Go On Singing (1963)
• Torpedo Bay (1963)
• The System (1964)
• The Brigand of Kandahar (1965)

• Official website
• Jeremy Burnham at IMDb