THE death of a revered Evening Press journalist has closed one of the most colourful chapters in British TV history.

Terence Feely, who worked on the Evening Press in the 1950s as a reporter and columnist, went on to write scripts for some of the great cult TV shows of the 'swinging 60s', including The Avengers and The Prisoner.

He died last week, aged 72.

Mr Feely was born in Liverpool, and went into journalism at an early age. But his career switched tack in the 1970s, when he decided to go into creative writing.

He had his first West End hit with Shout For Life, and went on to sell a script called Heartbeat to Alfred Hitchcock.

Despite starting out in a straight dramatic vein, Mr Feely really saw his career blossom when the 60s spy thriller genre arrived.

But Chris Brayne, former news editor and later assistant editor of the Evening Press, remembers him in his early days at York.

He said: "Terence made quite an impact on Evening Press readers when he arrived in York.

"He started a daily column entitled "Blunt Speaking" written in a provocative style supposedly by a forthright Yorkshireman who called himself John Blunt.

"He attracted a great following when newspapers were having a hard time competing against the arrival of television to the masses.

"Journalists will remember him for his unfailing courtesy and his great sense of humour."

The Avengers starred Patrick McNee as the debonair agent John Steed, along with Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale and, later, Diana Rigg as Emma Peel. The surreal, colourful spy series ran for seven series between 1961 and 1969, and was packed with 60s chic.

The Prisoner, broadcast in 1967, was without doubt the most bizarre, but engrossing, spy series in British TV history. Each week, 'Number Six', played by Patrick McGoohan, would attempt to escape from the strange village where the unseen 'Number One' had imprisoned him.

Mr Feely penned many episodes, including possibly the best, in which a double of Number Six arrived. The episode was the first time that technicians used camera trickery to let an actor 'meet himself' on screen.