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Dick Clement (born 5 September 1937) is a retired English writer, director and producer. He became known for his writing partnership with Ian La Frenais for television series including The Likely Lads, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Porridge, Lovejoy and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
He then joined the BBC as a studio manager and started writing scripts and comedy sketches. (2025). 9780747232940, Headline Book Publishing. ISBN 9780747232940
In the early 1970s, two other features were scripted by Clement and La Frenais: Villain, starring Richard Burton, and Catch Me a Spy, starring Kirk Douglas. In this same period, they created their award-winning series Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, followed by Porridge, Thick as Thieves and a spin-off from Porridge, Going Straight. There were big screen versions of both The Likely Lads and Porridge, the latter directed by Clement, and a 'rockumentary', To Russia With Elton, in 1979.
During the same period, they adapted Keith Waterhouse's Billy Liar into the stage musical Billy, starring Michael Crawford, which ran at London's Drury Lane Theatre for two and a half years. By this time they were living in California, where they wrote the American version of Porridge, On the Rocks, and the feature film, The Prisoner of Zenda, starring Peter Sellers.
In the 1980s, Clement directed John Wells's hit stage play Anyone For Denis? He directed the films Bullshot and Water, which were produced by his writing partner La Frenais. The pair also scripted the latter film, and contributed extensive, uncredited writing work on the unofficial James Bond movie Never Say Never Again. In 1987, they wrote and produced Vice Versa. Their television work at the time included the ITV series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, voted ITV's Favourite TV Programme of all Time in a Radio Times readers' poll to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the station.
By the beginning of the 1990s, La Frenais had created the long-running series, Lovejoy, and co-created Spender with Jimmy Nail. In America, they were writers and supervising producers for HBO's Emmy Award-winning show, Tracey Takes On..., for four years. They scripted the film adaptation of The Commitments, which won the Evening Standard's Peter Sellers Award for Comedy and the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and also wrote the screenplays for Excess Baggage and Still Crazy. In addition, they did uncredited rewrites on The Rock, starring Sean Connery, and Pearl Harbor for producers Jerry Bruckheimer and
/ref> They had also been commissioned to write a draft of Super Mario Bros. for directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel. This would ultimately lead the film into pre-production after several failed drafts but it was heavily rewritten by Ed Solomon once Walt Disney Studios acquired distribution rights.
In 2005, Clement and La Frenais had two television adaptations of best-selling novels broadcast by the BBC: Jonathan Coe's The Rotter's Club for BBC Two, and Robert Harris's Archangel, starring Daniel Craig, for BBC One. That year also saw the UK release of Goal!, a film they co-scripted. In 2006, they were credited as writers on the animated film Flushed Away, while 2007 saw the release of the jukebox musical Across the Universe, based around the songs of The Beatles, which they scripted, and, with director Julie Taymor, wrote the story for. The 2008 film The Bank Job, starring Jason Statham, is their last screenplay work to date.
Two new television series written by them aired in 2017: a new version of Porridge, starring Kevin Bishop, for the BBC, and Henry IX for UKTV Gold, starring Charles Edwards. The duo have also written the book for two stage musicals in development, Juke Box Hero and Victoria's Secret.
Clement and La Frenais were both awarded OBEs in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours list.
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