David Peter Renwick, born September 4, 1951, is an English television writer, renowned for his creation of the sitcom One Foot in the Grave (1990) and the mystery series Jonathan Creek (1997).
Before embarking on his full-time comedy writing career, Renwick worked as a journalist for his hometown newspaper, the Luton News.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Renwick collaborated with writing partner Andrew Marshall, providing material for popular sketch shows such as The Two Ronnies (1971) and Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979).
One of Renwick's most celebrated sketches was a parody of the BBC quiz program Mastermind, featuring a "Charlie Smithers" who chose to answer questions on the specialist subject "Answering the question before last."
Renwick and Marshall also wrote for the sketch show Alexei Sayle's Stuff and Spike Milligan's There's a Lot of It About.
In 1982, they penned the comedy drama serial Whoops Apocalypse for LWT, based on the insanity of international politics in the age of nuclear weapons.
Four years later, they adapted the screenplay into a feature film version.
In 1983, they wrote The Steam Video Company for Thames Television, a short comedy series based on very silly parodies of famous novels.
This was followed in 1986 by Hot Metal for LWT, a six-part satire of the tabloid newspaper industry starring Robert Hardy, Geoffrey Palmer, and John Gordon Sinclair.
Renwick began writing solo in 1990, creating the sitcom One Foot in the Grave, starring Richard Wilson, which was highly successful and ran for four seasons.
In 1994, Renwick married his fiancée Eleanor Hogarth.
In 1997, Renwick devised the comedy-drama Jonathan Creek, based around the crime-solving abilities of the eponymous designer of magic tricks, played by comedian Alan Davies.
As of 2016, thirty-two episodes have been produced across five short-run series and five specials.
Renwick has also written for 'traight' television drama, contributing episodes to ITV's famous adaptations of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries, starring David Suchet.
In 1992, Renwick and co-writer Michael Baker received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Poirot episode "The Lost Mine".
Another comedy-drama Renwick has penned is entitled Love Soup (2005),starring Tamsin Greig and Michael Landes, premiered on BBC One on September 27, 2005.
Renwick was awarded the Writers Guild Ronnie Barker Award at the British Comedy Awards in 2008.
