Though Sydney Newman oversaw the conception and C.E. Webber wrote the initial format, it was Anthony Coburn who wrote the first produced script:
In the street we hear two things. We hear the striking of three o’clock from a nearby clocktower and following teat we hear the approaching crunch of a pol iceman on his beat.
We see the policeman only as a vague, slowly-moving figure, coming towards us in the fog.
We pull back to see the policeman against these Gates.
In one of the gates is a smaller entry gate. This is closed.
The policeman flashes his torch on the gates.
We read the faded writing on the gates. I. M. FOREMAN, SCRAP MERCHANT, and a smaller, newer sign: “PRIVATE — KEEP OUT”
The policeman pushes the smaller gate, which opens. He looks through it into the yard. Then he closes it and moves on.
We stay on the gate. We see swirling of fog in front of the small gate and slowly it opens, creaking a bit as it does.
There is all manner of junk lying about the yard.
We see a police box.
Anthony Coburn (1917–77)
