# Philip Levene

Philip Levene (9 June 1926 – 25 March 1973) was an English television writer, actor, and producer.

## Education and career

Levene trained as an actor at the Webber Douglas School of Dramatic Art and subsequent work included a small role in Brian Rix's long-running Whitehall farce Reluctant Heroes in the West End from 1950 to 1954.
Suffering from chronic ill health, he began writing radio plays in 1956. He used to work at the morgue before becoming a writer.
Levene wrote nineteen episodes of the 1960s television series The Avengers (winning a Writer's Guild Award), and served as script consultant for the series in 1968–69.
In 1967 and 1968, he created the television series Sanctuary and The First Lady.
He also contributed to the television series The Flying Doctor, The Invisible Man and the films The Firechasers and Deadly Strangers.
His stage play Kill Two Birds, a thriller with Roger Livesey and Renée Asherson, opened at London's St Martin's Theatre in 1962.

## Writing credits

| Production | Notes | Broadcaster |
| Hour of Mystery | "Sound Alibi" (1957) | ITV |
| The Flying Doctor | 12 episodes (1959) | ABC Weekend TV |
| Passo falso | TV Movie/Novel (1959) | |
| The Invisible Man | "Shadow on the Screen" (1959) | ITV |
| Knight Errant Limited | Unknown episodes (1959) | ITV |
| Armchair Theatre | "Suspicious Mind" (1959) | ITV |
| Ein Augenzeuge | TV Movie/Novel (1959) | |
| Armchair Mystery Theatre | "False Witness" (1960) | ITV |
| The Pursuers | "Master Key" (1961) "Suspect" (1961) "The Amateur" (1961) "The Gun" (1961) | |
| Drama 61-67 | "Drama '61: Torment" (1961) "Drama '62: Luck of the Draw" (1962) "Drama '63: Question of Guilt" (1963) "Drama '64: It's Sad About Eddie" (1964) | ATV |
| Ghost Squad | "The Retirement of the Gentle Dove" (1963) "The Man with the Delicate Hands" (1963) | ITV |
| Sospecha | "Regalo Postumo" (1964) "La Desconfiada Tia Ellen" (1971) | TVE |
| Novela | "Doble melodía" (1965) | TVE |
| Srecan slucaj | TV Movie (1965) | |
| Thirty-Minute Theatre | "Parson's Pleasure" (1965) | BBC2 |
| The Avengers | 19 episodes (1965–69) "The Town of No Return" (1965) "The Cybernauts" (1965) "Man-Eater of Surrey Green" (1965) "Two's A Crowd" (1965) "Small Game for Big Hunters" (1966) "From Venus with Love" (1967) "The Fear Merchants" (1967) "Escape in Time" (1967) "The See-Through Man" (1967) "The Hidden Tiger" (1967) "Never, Never Say Die" (1967) "Something Nasty in the Nursery" (1967) "Who's Who?" (1967) "Return of the Cybernauts" (1967) "Death's Door" (1967) "You Have Just Been Murdered" (1967) "Mission: Highly Improbable" (1967) "The Curious Case of the Countless Clues" (1969) "My Wildest Dream" (1969) "Get-a-Way" (1969) | ITV |
| Tante detective | TV Movie (1966) | |
| Sanctuary | 26 episodes (1967–68; creator) 1 episode (1967; writer) | ITV |
| The First Lady | 38 episodes (1968–69; co-creator) | BBC1 |
| Who-Dun-It | "Murder Impossible" (1969) | ATV |
| Mister Jerico | TV Movie (1970) | |
| Teatro de misterio | "Matar dos pájaros" (1970) | TVE |
| The Firechasers | Feature film (1971) | N/A |
| Suspicion | Unknown episodes (1971–72; series deviser) | ATV |
| Deadly Strangers | Feature film (1975) | N/A |
| Diagnosis: Murder | Feature film (1975) | N/A |

## Acting credits

| Production | Notes | Role |
| They Can't Hang Me | Feature film (1955) | BBC News Reader (uncredited) |
| ITV Play of the Week | "The Pay Off" (1955) | |
| Quatermass II | "The Food" (1955) | Supervisor |
| The Vise | "Second Sight" (1955) | Roy Temple |
| Tales from Soho | "Slippy Fives" (1956) | Manager |
| ITV Television Playhouse | "Morning Departure" (1956) | Stoker Marks |
| BBC Sunday Night Theatre | "The Fugitive" (1956) | |
| Reach for the Sky | Feature film (1956) | Sgt Williams, Tangmere (uncredited) |
| X the Unknown | Feature film (1956) | Security Man (uncredited) |
| The Avengers | "Who's Who?" (1967) | Daffodil |