Bert Coules

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Bert Coules
BornLondon, England
OccupationPlaywright
NationalityEnglish
GenreRadio, TV, stage
SubjectScience fiction
Mystery

Bert Coules is an English writer, mainly for the BBC, who has produced a number of dramatisations and original works. He works mainly in radio drama but also writes for TV and the stage.

Early years[edit]

Bert Coules worked in radio drama for ten years, gaining experience as a recording engineer, sound-effects technician, script reader and producer-director before becoming a full-time writer in 1989.[1][2]

Coules began writing without any previous training, saying that he only heard a bad radio drama and felt he could do better. He wrote his first script in 1977 and had it accepted, a 45-minute docu-drama called "Wagner in Hell".[3]

Writing career[edit]

Coules specializes in mystery and science fiction audio and radio drama, and has written a number of dramatisations, most notably as the head writer of the Sherlock Holmes radio series (1989–1998) starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson (the first time the entire canon had been adapted with the same two lead actors throughout).[4] He also wrote original Sherlock Holmes scripts for the following BBC radio series The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, each based on an unexplained reference from the original stories. These were first broadcast between 2002 and 2010, and starred Andrew Sachs as Watson, following Michael Williams' death in 2001.[5][6]

He has also written dramatisations of several of Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael novels, starring Philip Madoc as Cadfael, and of works by Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Isaac Asimov and other best-selling genre authors. He is an avowed Arthur Conan Doyle and Doctor Who fan.

In 2019, Coules wrote (with actor Tim Marriott) and directed a one-man one-act play, Watson: The Final Problem, which Marriott performed in Eastbourne, Brighton, and Edinburgh and continues to tour with great success around various venues in the UK and abroad.

Works[edit]

Original pieces include:

Dramatisations include:

Television appearances[edit]

In 2008 Coules appeared in a television documentary titled Decoding Cadfael which detailed the process of producing the series.

References[edit]

  1. ^ http://www.mbalit.co.uk/author/172 Archived 2011-12-27 at the Wayback Machine Bert Coules
  2. ^ Alison Deacon, Nigel Deacon. "Bert Coules radio drama, Sherlock Holmes, radio plays - DIVERSITY WEBSITE". suttonelms.org.uk. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  3. ^ Miniscule, Caroline (7 December 2005). "Bert Coules, radio dramatist". TheThunderChild.com. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  4. ^ Bert Coules. "The Background". The BBC complete audio Sherlock Holmes. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  5. ^ Bert Coules. "The Further Adventures". The BBC complete audio Sherlock Holmes. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  6. ^ "Bert Coules: Holmes writer and dramatiser for Radio 4". BBC.co.uk. September 2005. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  7. ^ "Saturday-Night Theatre: A Magician Amongst the Spirits". BBC Genome: Radio Times. BBC. Retrieved 9 November 2020.

External links[edit]