# David Renwick
**David Peter Renwick** (born 1951) is an English television writer, best known as the creator and sole writer of the sitcom *One Foot in the Grave* (1990) and the mystery series *Jonathan Creek* (1997).[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0719927/) Before becoming a comedy writer he worked as a journalist on his home town newspaper, the *Luton News*, and he began his comedy career writing with partner Andrew Marshall for BBC radio and sketch shows including *The Two Ronnies* and *Not the Nine O'Clock News*.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0719927/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1951, Luton, Bedfordshire, England[2](https://film.one/person/david-renwick) |
| First career | Journalist on the *Luton News*; left the paper in 1974 to write comedy full time[3](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/a-running-jump-into-the-grave-637612.html) |
| Signature works | *One Foot in the Grave* (1990–2000), starring Richard Wilson; *Jonathan Creek* (1997–2016), starring Alan Davies[2](https://film.one/person/david-renwick) |
| Other creations | *Love Soup*, with Tamsin Greig and Sheridan Smith among the cast[4](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022-part-2/) |
| Major awards | BAFTA Best Comedy 1992; BAFTA Best Drama Series 1998 for *Jonathan Creek*; Dennis Potter Award 1999; Writers' Guild Best Comedy Writer 1992; Ronnie Barker Award at the 2008 British Comedy Awards[5](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/) • [2](https://film.one/person/david-renwick) |
| Writing partner | Andrew Marshall, with whom he wrote *The Burkiss Way*, *Whoops Apocalypse*, *Hot Metal*, and the film *Wilt*[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0719927/) • [4](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022-part-2/) |
| Later work | Retired from television writing at about age 70; published the novel *One Foot in the Grave and Counting*[4](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022-part-2/) • [6](https://www.icenimagazine.co.uk/alex-wiseman-interviews-david-renwick/) |
## Early career
Renwick's first break in comedy came through [BBC Radio](https://www.edgepedia.org/bbc-radio). He sent sketches to David Hatch, producer of the radio show *Week Ending*, who kept them rather than returning them, and Renwick began contributing to that show on spec while still working as a reporter on the *Luton News*. He was 19 when his material first reached BBC Radio, through the series *The Next Programme Follows Almost Immediately*, and he continued writing for *Week Ending* for four years.[7](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022/) In 1974 he left the newspaper and became a full-time comedy writer; his material had by then been accepted by radio and then television.[3](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/a-running-jump-into-the-grave-637612.html)
**Partnership with Andrew Marshall.** Renwick and Marshall, introduced by Chris Miller, wrote together through the 1970s and 1980s, providing material to *The Two Ronnies* (from 1971) and *Not the Nine O'Clock News* (1979). One of their best-known Two Ronnies sketches parodied the BBC quiz *Mastermind*, with a contestant whose specialist subject was "answering the question before last", adapted from a routine in their Radio 4 series *The Burkiss Way*.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0719927/) Renwick also wrote for the Kenny Everett Television Show and for performers including [Les Dawson](https://www.edgepedia.org/les-dawson) and [Spike Milligan](https://www.edgepedia.org/spike-milligan), and produced some 50 monologues for [Ronnie Corbett](https://www.edgepedia.org/ronnie-corbett).[8](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/nov/27/tvandradio.television) • [9](https://jonathancreek.net/davidrenwick.asp) With Marshall he wrote the sitcoms *Whoops Apocalypse* and *Hot Metal*, the film *Wilt* (1989), and the satirical series *If You See God, Tell Him*, which they regarded as one of their best collaborations.[4](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022-part-2/)
## One Foot in the Grave
*One Foot in the Grave*, first broadcast on BBC1 in 1990, stars Richard Wilson as [Victor Meldrew](https://www.edgepedia.org/victor-meldrew), a man forced into early retirement whose encounters with everyday absurdity drive him to furious exasperation, with [Annette Crosbie](https://www.edgepedia.org/annette-crosbie) as his wife Margaret.[2](https://film.one/person/david-renwick) The series ran to 2000 and collected successive BAFTA nominations for Best Comedy, winning the award in 1992; it was also named best new sitcom of the year in contemporary BBC coverage.[5](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/) • [10](https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/UK-Books/40-Years-of-British-Televisi0on-Harbord-Wright-1992.pdf)
Renwick described his writing method for the show as gathering unconnected funny ideas, routines, and moments and then weaving them into a structure, sometimes fitting them into a separate, possibly non-comic storyline. He said the premise was almost impossible to pitch: while auditioning actors with producer Susan Belbin before the show had aired, he gave up explaining the concept and simply said, "It's about this guy."[4](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022-part-2/) He chose to kill off Victor Meldrew at the end of the series' original run and later said he enjoyed ending the show on a somewhat cryptic note.[11](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/david-renwick-interview-jonathan-creek-one-foot-in-the-grave-more/) • [12](https://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/arts-and-culture/knowing-where-you-want-to-end-before-you-start-2395999) He later returned to the character in fiction, publishing the novel *One Foot in the Grave and Counting*, in which Meldrew lives on in the present day.[6](https://www.icenimagazine.co.uk/alex-wiseman-interviews-david-renwick/)
## Jonathan Creek
*Jonathan Creek* grew from a pipe-dream Renwick shared with Susan Belbin: what they called "a British Columbo", a detective series of intriguing clues and puzzles shored up by the same kind of laugh-out-loud comedy as *One Foot in the Grave*.[4](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022-part-2/) It ran from 1997 to 2016, starring [Alan Davies](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-davies) as a magician's assistant who solves apparently impossible crimes, with [Caroline Quentin](https://www.edgepedia.org/caroline-quentin) as Maddy Magellan in the early series.[2](https://film.one/person/david-renwick) • [13](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/apr/10/jonathan-creek-alan-davies-caroline-quentin-alan-yentob) Renwick deliberately had it produced by the BBC's comedy department rather than drama, to protect the show's comic identity, though drama contributed to the budget for the hour-long episodes.[4](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022-part-2/)
**How the mysteries were built.** Renwick started each episode from the trick: first the mystery itself, which he called hellishly difficult, then a plot to accommodate the trick, and only then the comic routines within it.[4](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022-part-2/) He said that any detective story is hard to plot but that his, by their nature of asking how a trick was done rather than only who did it, were almost impossible, and that the format nevertheless drew audiences in as a powerful tool.[6](https://www.icenimagazine.co.uk/alex-wiseman-interviews-david-renwick/) The show won the 1998 BAFTA for Best Drama Series and earned Renwick the Broadcasting Press Guild Writer's Award shared with *One Foot in the Grave*.[5](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/)
**Attempts at an American version.** Several US adaptations of *Jonathan Creek* were developed and none reached the screen. An early attempt through Castle Rock, the company behind *Seinfeld*, got a script deal at CBS but was passed on. In 2002 [Whoopi Goldberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/whoopi-goldberg), a fan of the show, invited Renwick to write a pilot for her, and later attempts involved [BBC America](https://www.edgepedia.org/bbc-america) and a Netflix development in which the lead was reimagined as "Verity Creek"; Netflix eventually passed without reasons reaching Renwick.[4](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022-part-2/)
## Later work and retirement
Renwick created the comedy-drama *Love Soup*, produced through his close working relationship with the producer Verity Lambert, whom he described as the strongest relationship he ever had with a producer.[4](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022-part-2/) He continued writing special episodes of *Jonathan Creek* at a deliberately slow pace through the 2010s, and the final episode, "Daemons' Roost" (2016), which he wrote and executive produced, brought the series to an end.[5](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/) He announced that, given the increasing difficulty of devising the plots and other pressures on television, the show had come to an end.[6](https://www.icenimagazine.co.uk/alex-wiseman-interviews-david-renwick/)
Having retired from television writing at about age seventy, compounded by health issues and the pandemic, he turned to books and stage projects. An unproduced *Jonathan Creek* stage play, written for a production company that later dropped it, was set for publication in book form, and the novel *One Foot in the Grave and Counting* revived Victor Meldrew in print.[4](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022-part-2/) • [14](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/press/) His last BBC Radio work was the sketch series *Desolation Jests* (2016), starring [David Jason](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-jason), Rory Bremner, John Bird, and Jan Ravens, which he described as coming full circle from his radio beginnings.[4](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022-part-2/)
## Honors
Renwick's awards record centers on his two signature series. In 1992 he won the BAFTA for Best Comedy for *One Foot in the Grave* and the Writers' Guild Award for Best Comedy Writer; in 1998 *Jonathan Creek* won the BAFTA for Best Drama Series and he received the Broadcasting Press Guild Writer's Award; in 1999 he received the Dennis Potter Award, and at the 2008 British Comedy Awards he won the Ronnie Barker Award.[5](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/) • [2](https://film.one/person/david-renwick) The *Jonathan Creek* fan site additionally lists a 1992 [Edgar Allan Poe](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgar-allan-poe) award and the 1992 Writers' Guild of Great Britain Top Comedy Writer honor.[9](https://jonathancreek.net/davidrenwick.asp)
## Personal life
Renwick is married to Eleanor Hogarth.[9](https://jonathancreek.net/davidrenwick.asp) He has described himself as coming from a working-class background in Luton, the son of a milkman, and has said that persistence, more than confidence, carried his early career.[12](https://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/arts-and-culture/knowing-where-you-want-to-end-before-you-start-2395999) • [6](https://www.icenimagazine.co.uk/alex-wiseman-interviews-david-renwick/)
## References
1. [David Renwick, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0719927/)
2. [David Renwick, Fi1m](https://film.one/person/david-renwick)
3. [A running jump into the grave, The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/a-running-jump-into-the-grave-637612.html)
4. [David Renwick discusses Jonathan Creek, Rik Mayall, and more, British Comedy Guide (2022)](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022-part-2/)
5. [David Renwick, British Comedy Guide](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/)
6. [Alex Wiseman Interviews David Renwick, Iceni Magazine](https://www.icenimagazine.co.uk/alex-wiseman-interviews-david-renwick/)
7. [David Renwick looks back on his comedy writing career, British Comedy Guide (2022)](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/interview/david-renwick-2022/)
8. [David Renwick's screen life, The Guardian (2006)](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/nov/27/tvandradio.television)
9. [The writer, David Renwick, The Jonathan Creek Homepage](https://jonathancreek.net/davidrenwick.asp)
10. [40 Years of British Television (Harbord & Wright, 1992)](https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/UK-Books/40-Years-of-British-Televisi0on-Harbord-Wright-1992.pdf)
11. [David Renwick interview, Den of Geek (2013)](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/david-renwick-interview-jonathan-creek-one-foot-in-the-grave-more/)
12. [Knowing where you want to end before you start, Bedford Today](https://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/arts-and-culture/knowing-where-you-want-to-end-before-you-start-2395999)
13. [How we made Jonathan Creek, The Guardian (2023)](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/apr/10/jonathan-creek-alan-davies-caroline-quentin-alan-yentob)
14. [David Renwick press clippings, British Comedy Guide](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/david_renwick/press/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screenwriters and television writers › Television writers*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license