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Peter George Derek Ling (27 May 1926 – 14 September 2006) was a British writer of television, radio and comic strips, best known for his television work. With his professional partner, Hazel Adair, he co-created the television soap opera Crossroads.
He was conscripted to work in the coal mines as a "Bevin Boys" during the Second World War, but was transferred to the Army Pay Corps due to ill-health. After the war, recovering from tuberculosis in a British Legion Sanatorium, he published his first novel, Voices Offstage (1947), and began submitting comedy scripts to BBC radio, selling some to Jon Pertwee's radio show Waterlogged Spa. Peter Ling (1926–2006), eagle-times.blogspot.com, 24 September 2008. This led to work on television, including the BBC's children's show Whirligig (1950), where he met actress Sheilah Ward, whom he married in 1954.
In 1955 he joined Associated-Rediffusion as script editor, working on shows including Murder Bag, Crime Sheet and Jango, and was later appointed Head of Children's Series. He and Hazel Adair co-wrote Compact, a soap set in magazine publishing, for the BBC from 1962 to 1965. The two writers followed this up with Crossroads, a soap set in a motel, which began on ITV in 1964; the format's principal run lasted until 1988. The writing partners followed it with Champion House, a Yorkshire family saga set in the textiles industry, shown on the BBC from 1967 to 1968. Ling wrote for Dixon of Dock Green, Sexton Blake, No Hiding Place, Doctor Who ( The Mind Robber in 1968), and, with Sheilah Ward, The Avengers ("Ashes of Roses", "Dance with Death", and "Box of Tricks").
He continued to write for radio, including adaptations of Sherlock Holmes and Gideon Fell stories and the Arnold Bennett novel Imperial Palace, and wrote scripts for the Radio 2 soap Waggoner's Walk in 1969. Obituary: Peter Link, The Times, 14 September 2006.
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