Editing David Agnew

{{Short description|Pseudonym used at the BBC}}
{{About|a pen name|the Canadian college administrator|David Agnew (president)|the physician|David Hayes Agnew|the Northern Irish footballer|David Agnew (footballer)|the Maryland politician|David Agnew (Maryland politician)}}

{{Multiple issues|
{{Notability|date=August 2022}}
{{Original research|date=August 2022}}
{{Primary sources|date=August 2022}}
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"'''David Agnew'''" is a [[pen name]] that was employed on [[BBC television drama]] programmes{{citation needed|date=December 2018}} of the 1970s as a [[scriptwriting]] [[credit (creative arts)|credit]].

==Conditions of use==
The [[pseudonym]] "David Agnew" was most often used when the original [[freelance]] [[scriptwriter]] was unable to accommodate fundamental changes requested by the production staff, who therefore had to perform a significant rewrite themselves. BBC rules prevented the production staff from taking screen credit without a time-consuming, [[bureaucracy|bureaucratic]] appeals process, meaning that the quickest way for the project to continue under the BBC system was to use the name of a [[non-existent]] writer.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}} Sometimes production staff were directly ordered by BBC management to use the credit.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

==Examples==
The name was first used in 1971,{{citation needed|date=December 2018}} when [[Anthony Read]]'s script for the ''[[Play for Today]]'' episode "Hell's Angel" was broadcast under the pseudonym.<ref name="Hull">{{cite web|url=http://www.hull.ac.uk/filmstudies/FilmPFT02.htm|title=''Play for Today'' Episode List Part 1: 1970-76|editor-last=Rolinson|editor-first=Dave|editor-first2=John |editor2-last=Williams |publisher=The University of Hull|accessdate=25 February 2009|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070305022134/http://www.hull.ac.uk/filmstudies/FilmPFT02.htm|archivedate=5 March 2007}}</ref><ref name="Hell">{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067196/fullcredits|title=Full cast and crew for "Play for Today": Hell's Angel|publisher=IMDb.com|accessdate=25 February 2009}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Butler |first=David |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Time_and_Relative_Dissertations_in_Space/Xh0qAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=%22david%20agnew%22%201971%20hell's%20angel |title=Time and Relative Dissertations in Space: Critical Perspectives on Doctor Who |date=2007 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-7681-7 |language=en}}</ref> Read's work on the 1975 ''[[BBC2 Playhouse]]'' episode "Diane" was likewise credited to "David Agnew".<ref name="Diane">{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167118/fullcredits|title=Full cast and crew for "BBC2 Playhouse": Diane|publisher=IMDb.com|accessdate=25 February 2009}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

The pseudonym entered into use on ''[[Doctor Who]]'' after [[Anthony Read]] became the show's [[script editor]]. Read and producer [[Graham Williams (television producer)|Graham Williams]] used the pen name hurriedly to assemble ''[[The Invasion of Time]]'' in 1978. A year later, the name concealed the joint work of [[Douglas Adams]], Williams, and [[David Fisher (writer)|David Fisher]] on ''[[City of Death]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Simpson |first=M. J. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hitchhiker/K-E2cAzsxwUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=david+agnew+pseudonym&pg=PA124&printsec=frontcover |title=Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams |date=2005-04-29 |publisher=Justin, Charles & Co. |isbn=978-1-932112-35-1 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ginn |first=Sherry |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Time_Travel_Television/CuuECgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22david+agnew%22+1971&pg=PA257&printsec=frontcover |title=Time-Travel Television: The Past from the Present, the Future from the Past |last2=Leitch |first2=Gillian I. |date=2015-10-08 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-5577-7 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

The name was also used for the episode "Blow Out" of ''[[Target (UK TV series)|Target]]''. In this case, a two-hour script was pared down to one. Writer [[Roger Marshall (screenwriter)|Roger Marshall]] quit at the pre-production stage, leaving director [[Douglas Camfield]] to revise the script.<ref name="Target">{{cite web|url=http://www.mediagems.de/01filmtv/target_engl.html|title=''Target''|publisher=Media Gems|accessdate=24 February 2009}}</ref>

==Use outside television==
In March 2000, "David Agnew" was used for a ''Doctor Who'' book, the short story anthology ''[[BBC Short Trips#Short Trips and Sidesteps|Short Trips and Sidesteps]]'', in homage to the pseudonym's use on the television series. Agnew was also the subject of ''[[The Elusive David Agnew]]'', a [[mockumentary]] directed by "Allen Smithee" on the [[DVD]] release of ''[[The Invasion of Time]]''. A character in the 2013 Doctor Who short novel [[The Death Pit]], by [[A. L. Kennedy]], is named David Agnew.{{fact|date=March 2022}}

== Related pseudonyms ==
* [[Walter Plinge]]
* [[Alan Smithee]]
* [[George Spelvin (pseudonym)|George Spelvin]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agnew, David}}
[[Category:British television writers]]
[[Category:Anonymity pseudonyms]]
[[Category:Collective pseudonyms]]