Born: 23rd March 1928 (as Louis Frank Marks)
Died: 17th September 2010 (aged 82 years)
Episodes Broadcast: 1964, 1972, 1975-1976

Louis Marks was born in Golders Green, London. He completed an undergraduate degree in history at Oxford, and then earned a doctorate with an emphasis on Renaissance-era Florence. He taught at a boarding school and edited an academic journal; it was through the latter that he began to contribute to promotional films and documentary programmes. In 1957, Marks married his wife, Sonia, a production assistant at ITV. This connection led to Marks being commissioned to write episodes of The Adventures Of Robin Hood and Skyport, and becoming script supervisor on The Four Just Men.

Marks soon became a prolific scriptwriter, with his contributions including episodes of Ghost Squad and Danger Man, alongside Planet Of Giants, the first story of Doctor Who's second season. Later in the Sixties, he became the story editor of No Hiding Place and created the popular soap opera Market In Honey Lane. In the early Seventies, he script edited a number of programmes for the BBC, including the seminal horror film The Stone Tape. During this period, he wrote three more Doctor Who serials; the last of these, The Masque Of Mandragora, drew on Marks' vast knowledge of the Italian Renaissance.

In the late Seventies, Marks was promoted to producer, focussing on plays and adaptations of classic literature. Amongst his credits were The Lost Boys and Sophocles' Oedipus Rex trilogy. He had a fondness for the work of George Eliot; he produced Silas Marner: The Weaver Of Raveloe (also his last writing credit) and Middlemarch before capping his career in television with Daniel Deronda. Having raised two daughters, Marks and his wife then ran a bread-and-breakfast establishment until her death in 2006.