{{Short description|British screenwriter and novelist (1926–1994)}} {{Use British English|date=August 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox person |name = John Lucarotti |image = John Lucarotti photograph.jpg |caption = John Lucarotti at Panopticon 1993 |birth_name = John Vincent Lucarotti |birth_date = 20 May 1926 |birth_place = Aldershot, Hampshire, England, UK |death_date = 20 November 1994 (aged 68) |death_place = Paris, France |occupation = Screenwriter |known_for= ''The Avengers''<br>''Doctor Who''<br>''The Troubleshooters''}}
'''John Vincent Lucarotti'''<ref name="dwtch2">{{cite magazine|year=2016|editor-last=Ainsworth|editor-first=John|title=Doctor Who - The Complete History|issue=32|volume=2|publisher=Hachette Partworks|place=London, UK|pages=82–83|issn=2057-6048}}</ref> (20 May 1926 – 20 November 1994)<ref name="dwtch2" /> was a British-Canadian screenwriter and author who worked on ''The Avengers'', ''The Troubleshooters'' and ''Doctor Who'' in the 1960s.
==Early life== Born into an Army family in Aldershot in Hampshire in 1926 the son of Helen (''née'' Stark) and Umberto Rimes Lucarotti, John Lucarotti inherited his Italian surname from his grandfather, who was a sculptor. Lucarotti spent 10 years in the Royal Navy during and after the Second World War before moving to Canada in 1950 to pursue his interest in writing.<ref>[http://gallifreybase.com/w/index.php/Radio_Marco Biography of John Lucarotti - Gallifrey Base database]</ref>
==Career== A naturalized Canadian citizen,<ref name=Book>[https://books.google.com/books?id=N2FUCwAAQBAJ&dq=john+lucarotti+aldershot&pg=PA404 Alan Hayes, Richard McGinlay and Alys Hayes, ''Two Against the Underworld - the Collected Unauthorised Guide to The Avengers Series 1'', Hidden Tiger (2017)] - Google Books pg 404</ref> he began his career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, writing on over 200 various scripts for them as well as for Canadian television.<ref name="dwtch2" />
In 1956–7, he wrote scripts for the Canadian television series Radisson and also wrote the lyrics to the theme song. He then worked for a period selling encyclopedias door-to-door until troubled by his conscience for selling things to people they didn't really want or need.<ref>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/mediaui-viewer/tree/5685007/person/-1415464741/media/41c5ce13-18d4-4135-b4bd-0bc6202b1522?_phsrc=djv890&_phstart=successSource 1963 newspaper article about Lucarotti] - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}</ref> He moved back to England where he had a prolific career. He created the television series ''Operation Patch'' (later novelised), ''The Ravelled Thread'', and ''The Panther's Leap''. He wrote six episodes for ''The Avengers'' (one episode however was a rewrite of a script by Gerald Verner), thirty-two episodes for ''The Troubleshooters'' and contributed fifteen episodes to the BBC's ''Doctor Who'' in the 1960s, the three serials: ''Marco Polo'', ''The Aztecs'' and ''The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve''.<ref name="dwtch2" />
He subsequently novelised his ''Doctor Who'' scripts for Target Books.<ref name="dwtch2" /> He contributed a script for what ultimately became the 1975 serial ''The Ark in Space'', but it was rewritten by script editor Robert Holmes and Lucarotti received no on-screen credit.<ref name="dwtch2" />
==Personal life== In 1950 he married Lorna D Blaney in Gosport in Hampshire but the marriage was later dissolved.<ref>[https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8753&h=68343917&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv899&_phstart=successSource John V Lucarotti in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005] - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}</ref> He later married Rose-marie Sandy in London in 1969.<ref>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/8753/ons_m19691az-0694?pid=43915412&backurl=https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D8753%26h%3D43915412%26tid%3D%26pid%3D%26usePUB%3Dtrue%26_phsrc%3Ddjv893%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv893&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true John V Lucarotti in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005] - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}</ref>
==Death== Lucarotti died of spinal cancer in Paris on 20 November 1994 at age 68.<ref name="dwtch2" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|id=0524058|name=John Lucarotti}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucarotti, John}} Category:1926 births Category:1994 deaths Category:20th-century British male writers Category:20th-century British novelists Category:British expatriates in France Category:British male novelists Category:British male television writers Category:British people of Italian descent Category:British television writers Category:Writers from Aldershot Category:20th-century British screenwriters