Absolute Power writer Mark Tavener has died

Mark Tavener, the creator of the satirical sitcom Absolute Power, has died of cancer.

Tavener mainly worked as a writer for BBC Radio 4, where he also wrote High Power, Lower Orders and His Master's Voice. His 1989 novel In The Red was nominated for a P. G. Wodehouse Prize for comic writing.

Tavener's most successful work, Absolute Power, starred Stephen Fry and John Bird as Charles Prentiss and Martin "Marty" McCabe, a pair of amoral public relations experts. The original radio series ran for four series and a special between 2000-2006, with the second series starring Green Wing's Tamsin Greig as Charles' former love interest Gayle Shand (whom Charles later frames for smuggling drugs out of the country).

Absolute Power was adapted into two series for BBC2 in 2003 and 2005. Starring alongside Stephen Fry and John Bird in the television episodes were James Lance (I'm Alan Partridge, The Book Group), Zoe Telford (Teachers), Sally Bretton (Green Wing, Not Going Out) and Nick Burns (Nathan Barley, Other People).

During this time, Tavener attacked the BBC for what he saw as "editorial cowardice". It followed the corporation canceling an episode of his show in which he called Tony Blair a liar in the wake of the Hutton Report. In it, Charles says there is nothing to "teach this prime minister about deception, manipulation and lying. Except how to do it properly." Tavener said, "I was told: it has been pulled because you can't call Tony Blair a liar in the current climate." The episode was later broadcast, although cuts were made.

In 2005 an episode about the Bin Laden family was dropped from the schedules because it was due to be broadcast during the week of the London Tube bombings.

Caroline Raphael, commissioning editor of Radio 4 said Tavener would be "much missed." She also said: "he had a knack of finding situations that chimed with our times and then making listeners roar with delight. His work had everything the Radio 4 audience quite rightly demands - wit, intelligence, relevance, intriguing stories and memorable characters."