Anthony Hinds aka Tony Hinds, aka John Elder, is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

 and producer

Film producer

A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...

. He is the son of the founder of Hammer Film Productions

Hammer Film Productions

Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...

, William Hinds

William Hinds

William "Will" Hinds , stage name Will Hammer, was one of the founders of Hammer Film Productions.-Jeweller:Hinds was a jeweller from London who, with his brother Frank, owned and ran Hinds Jewellers...

.

Early life

Tony Hinds was educated at St Paul's School. He joined his father's business briefly before he went off to become a pilot

Aviator

An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

 in the RAF during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Hammer Films

Hinds returned to Hammer in 1946 and initially produced a great many modest thrillers. One of these was The Dark Road (1947), one of the quota quickies, which featured a jewellery shop called 'Hinds', a reference to his father's original business. This business had been divided in the 1920s between William and his brother Frank Hinds. Frank's part is now the F. Hinds

F. Hinds

F. Hinds is a jewellery retailing chain, operating in England and Wales. There are currently 110 F Hinds stores within the United Kingdom.The chain is an independent retailer which was founded in 1856 by George Henry Hinds, although his father Joseph was also a clockmaker in Stamford,...

 national jewellery chain.

In the summer of 1953, like so many other British television viewers, Hinds had been enthralled by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's The Quatermass Experiment

The Quatermass Experiment

The Quatermass Experiment is a British science-fiction serial broadcast by BBC Television in the summer of 1953 and re-staged by BBC Four in 2005. Set in the near future against the background of a British space programme, it tells the story of the first manned flight into space, overseen by...

, a six part science fiction

Science fiction film

Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...

 thriller written by Nigel Kneale

Nigel Kneale

Nigel Kneale was a British screenwriter from the Isle of Man. Active in television, film, radio drama and prose fiction, he wrote professionally for over fifty years, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and was twice nominated for the British Film Award for Best Screenplay...

. Hinds was so impressed by what he saw that he suggested that Hammer should buy the big screen rights. They approached the BBC and snapped up the rights. The Quatermass Xperiment

The Quatermass Xperiment

The Quatermass Xperiment is a 1955 British science fiction horror film. Made by Hammer Film Productions, it was based on the 1953 BBC Television serial The Quatermass Experiment written by Nigel Kneale. It was directed by Val Guest and stars Brian Donlevy as the eponymous Professor Bernard...

(1955) was a runaway success and was the first of the three Quatermass

Quatermass

Quatermass may best be known as the surname of the title character of a British science fiction franchise of several television serials and films, and a radio production...

 cinema films based on the television serials.

Hinds came up with the idea of hiring country houses and shooting films in the rooms and grounds of the locations, which saved the cost of kitting out a full studio and was one of the most important decisions in Hammer's history.

Screenwriting as John Elder

Under the pseudonym John Elder, he was a prolific screenwriter and from the mid 1960s he concentrated on this activity, returning to production for The Lost Continent (1968). He is a very influential figure in the Hammer success story.

Television career

Hinds produced

Television producer

The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...

 the TV series Journey to the Unknown

Journey to the Unknown

Journey To The Unknown was a British TV anthology series made in 1968, by Hammer Film Productions Ltd. It has a fantasy, science fiction and supernatural theme. It featured both British and American actors...

for LWT (1968–71).

External links