THE television producer Peter Bryant began his career as an actor and was one of the original stars of The Grove Family, British TV’s first soap opera, broadcast from 1954 to 1957. The Groves (named after the BBC’s Lime Grove studios) were a middle-class suburban family who had come through the postwar shortages, and viewers were able to relate to their domestic proccupations.

Written by Michael and Roland Pertwee, the series featured Edward Evans as Bob Grove and Ruth Dunning as his wife Alice. Bryant was cast as the older son, Jack, who was doing National Service and was something of a tearaway. He had several romantic entanglements and at the height of the soap’s popularity Bryant was receiving huge amounts of fan mail. Nine million viewers watched each episode, a quarter of the adult population at the time.

The Queen Mother declared herself a keen fan, and once visited the set, exclaiming that the Grove family were “so English, so real”. When the scriptwriters asked for a break after three years The BBC refused but, to an outcry from the viewers, the series ended. In 1955 a spin-off film, It’s a Great Day, was released.

Peter Bryant was born in London in 1923 and began his acting career in repertory. He played several small roles in films and in 1953 was cast as Edgar in a televison production of Wuthering Heights, in which he appeared opposite Richard Todd and Yvonne Mitchell.

After starring in The Grove Family he became a BBC Radio announcer while writing radio scripts in his spare time. A literate man with a keen eye for promising new writers, he became a script editor in the BBC Radio Drama Department, and eventually the head of the Drama Script Unit.

In the 1960s he transferred to television and began a long association with the Doctor Who series. Initially working as a script editor he became an associate producer working on several of the most famous stories, including The Faceless Ones and The Evil of the Daleks. He was full producer for the bulk of the Patrick Troughton doctor stories and was influential in the casting of Jon Pertwee, who took over from Troughton.

In 1969 he was a producer for the BBC detective series Paul Temple, starring Francis Matthews as a literary private eye. Bryant also worked as a theatre director on productions at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre.

In 1999 he directed the actor Gerald Moon in his one-man show about variety, Guinness Permitting, which featured material from the comedians Al Read and Mrs Shufflewick (Rex Jameson). The play toured throughout the UK and and on one occasion was performed at Broadmoor Hospital. “What a marvellous audience they were,” recalled Bryant. “So much better than the average theatre crowd.”

In his later career Bryant was a successful literary agent, mainly specialising in children’s books. One of his clients was the Doctor Who writer Eric Pringle.

A genial and popular man who enjoyed good company and a large glass of red wine, Bryant was a popular member of the Green Room Club, London.

He is survived by his daughter.

Peter Bryant, actor, television producer and literary agent, was born on October 27, 1923. He died on May 19, 2006, aged 82.