Donald James was a writer and actor, known for Department S (1969), The Avengers (1961) and Mission: Impossible (1966). His scripts often involved submarines.[2]
Born in World's End, Chelsea, and educated at Sloane Grammar School and Pembroke College, Cambridge (where he read history), James completed his national service in the Parachute Regiment before returning to London to work as a supply teacher.
He was the author of the best-selling novels The Fall of the Russian Empire (1982), Monstrum (1997), The Fortune Teller (1999), and Vadim (2000), as well as co-author of The Penguin Dictionary of the Third Reich (1997) under the pseudonym James Taylor. He wrote under a number of pseudonyms, notably Thomas Dresden and James Barwick (originally in collaboration with fellow writer Tony Barwick, another long-term contributor to the various television productions of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and their company, AP Films/Century 21).
James's career as a scriptwriter included work on TV series such as The Adventurer, The Avengers, The Champions, Department S, Joe 90, Mission: Impossible, The Persuaders!, The Protectors, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Saint, The Secret Service, Space: 1999, Terrahawks and UFO. He wrote for a total of 22 titles, including the Century 21 film Doppelgänger, and acted in small three roles between 1961 and 1962.
After spending periods in France and Ireland, he returned to London. His autobiographical account of London life during World War II, World's End, was published in 2005. A second volume of memoirs, White City, was published in March 2007.[3]