Veteran television writer Robert Banks Stewart has claimed that older writers are neglected by today's television industry,
Banks Stewart - who created the popular detective dramas Bergerac and Shoestring - spoke to Digital Spy about his decision to adapt his TV pitch The Hurricane's Tail into his first novel.
"Back when I was still firing in possible new series, I began to feel that the attitude was, 'He's nearly 70, this guy - forget it' - it was a bit deflating when a Head of Drama doesn't write back to you, but gets his secretary to do it," said the 81-year-old.
"That was my experience then and there's a lot of writers I know - especially around my age - who have been finding it very hard to get any ideas over."
Banks Stewart - who wrote for Doctor Who, The Sweeney and The Avengers as well - also criticised "top executives" for relying on tried and tested TV formats.
"I think it's a bit boring that the BBC goes along with Silent Witness and Casualty and Holby City and New Tricks - I just think a lot of today's younger writers must have a lot of marvellous ideas that don't get taken up," he said.
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"The top executives are too scared to make a decision. The BBC has got into ratings - it's all-important that they mustn't lose their grip and they must continue to challenge ITV.
"I'm not suggesting that, across the board, the BBC doesn't mount many fine programmes - of course it does. But I think possibly in the thriller area, they've taken to doing these two- or three-part things which are all terribly alike. I'm not the only person to say that - I think it's been shocking recently."
Banks Stewart's novel The Hurricane's Tail follows protagonist Detective Sergeant Harper Buchanan, the son of ambitious West Indian immigrant parents.
"I dreamt up a partly political thriller that started in London, went to Paris, to Martinique and to an unnamed island in the Caribbean," he explained.
"I pitched it [for television] about 12 years ago - so then I thought... why don't I turn it into a novel? And so that's what I've done."
The Hurricane's Tail is available now, priced £9.99 in paperback and £5.99 as a Kindle ebook. For more information visit www.kaleidoscopepublishing.co.uk.
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