Vale: John Patterson
Writer John Patterson, who created ABC kid's series Johnson & Friends, has died.
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Writer John Patterson, who created ABC kid’s series Johnson & Friends, has died, aged 67.
He died recently in Coffs Harbour. An autopsy is yet to confirm the cause of death.
Patterson wrote all 78 episodes of the series, which ran from 1990 to 1995. The series also aired in the UK, US and Japan. The show featured Alfred the leaky hot water bottle, McDuff the cheeky concertina, Diesel the noisy dump truck, Squeaky the shy robot and Victoria the gracious dinosaur.
He started his creative career with the Tasmanian Theatre Company before working on the Tasmanian produced series Fatty and George in the 80s. He then moved to Sydney and co-created Johnson & Friends with Ian Munro and Ron Saunders..
He also wrote the lyrics to all the show’s songs, and penned Johnson & Friends books.
Other credits included Letters from Felix, Boffins, Land of Hope and Felix: Ein Hase Auf Weltreise.
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- Tagged with Boffins, Fatty and George, Land of Hope, Letters from Felix
7 Responses
I could swear that there was a photo of John on this page last night. Can anyone help me get a copy of it?
I never had a photo of John so I used Johnson & Friends.
Went to school with John. We were looking for him for a number of years. Just missed him last year when his ABN was closed. If there is anyone who had been in contact recently, please try and contact me
John was also the co-writer of the screenplay for Annie’s Coming Out.
Very sad news. One of the few ABC Kids programs I actually got to see (always had problems getting ABC on the old analogue signal with rabbit ears)
Aww 🙁 RIP John Patterson. I remember growing up with this show – it was one of my favourites on ABC back in the day. Also remember going to see Johnson & Friends Live too, actually 🙂
Johnson & Friends was an absolute favourtie of mine growing up. RIP Mr. Patterson.