Born: 30th April 1947
Episodes Broadcast: 1980

John Flanagan was born in Ripley, Derbyshire. He studied to be an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama, where one of his contemporaries was Andrew McCulloch. Following a stint in repertory theatre, Flanagan began finding work on television, including regular appearances in Freewheelers in 1969. This was followed by a starring role in the police drama Parkin's Patch, which ran for a single season. Other recurring credits during the Seventies included Crown Court, The Sweeney, Softly Softly: Task Force and A Soft Touch. In 1978, he could twice be seen on the silver screen: in the Richard Burton horror movie The Medusa Touch and in Sweeney 2, a movie version of the television series. Flanagan was also briefly a journalist for Granada Television.

Meanwhile, Flanagan and McCulloch had decided to try their hand at writing and, in 1976, they developed a sitcom pilot entitled Bricks Without Straw. Although it was unsuccessful, they subsequently collaborated on a play which was seen by Doctor Who script editor Christopher H Bidmead. This led to Flanagan and McCulloch writing Meglos for Tom Baker's final season as the Fourth Doctor in 1980. The pair were then asked to develop “Project Zeta-Sigma” as the debut serial for Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor. However, it was ultimately deemed impractical to film and was abandoned.

Thereafter, Flanagan and McCulloch continued to collaborate, earning credits on shows like Robin Of Sherwood, Coasting and Sleepers during the Eighties and Nineties. Between 1999 and 2011, they wrote three dozen episodes of Heartbeat and more than one dozen installments of The Royal; Flanagan also appeared in both, as he maintained a robust acting career. During the Eighties, he made multiple appearances in Late Starter, The Practice, Casualty and Emmerdale Farm, while also enjoying a small part in Terry Gilliam's 1985 cult classic film Brazil. In the Nineties, he had recurring roles in The Bill, Love Hurts and Peak Practice, co-starred in A Likely Lad, and earned his final movie credit for the 1997 drama Firelight starring Sophie Marceau. Flanagan's career wound down following the turn of the century, but he could still be seen in episodes of programmes such as Whitechapel and Lewis. His last televised work was on Endeavour in 2013.