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Leonard White, who co-created The Avengers and producer of many series including Police Surgeon, Out of This World, and Armchair Theatre, has died aged 99.

The news was announced on the Big Finish website, where John Dorney, currently script editor of the company’s range of adaptations of the very first series of The Avengers, has penned a tribute. “His innovations and inspirations all helped mark the series out, and without his vision I doubt we’d still be watching the series today,” Dorney noted.

Before and after the second world war, White was an actor before taking the CBC directors’ training course and in 1960 joined Sydney Newman at ABC. He worked on various series there, and was a key figure in the creation and production of The Avengers – a series in which he had a particular interest, contributing many elements to help the reconstruction of lost episodes for DVD.

In later years, he was the producer of Sky, the ITV children’s serial by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, as well as the unusual children’s show King of the Castle. His last genre credit was the short-lived Shadow of the Stone in 1987, although he continued producing until 1993.