Geoffrey John AtherdenAM, credited also asGeoff Atherden, is an Australian televisionscreenwriter andplaywright, especially of comedy. He is best known for creating the sitcomMother and Son.

Atherden attended theUniversity of Sydney in the 1960s. He trained as an architect.^[1]

Atherden practised as an architect until he was in his mid-thirties.^[2] He worked for the architectural firm of McConnel Smith and Johnson,^[3] and was responsible for designing theLaw Courts Building inQueens Square, Sydney.^[4]

In 1969, the founders ofProducers Authors Composers and Talent (now PACT Centre for Emerging Artists) attended aSydney University Architecture Revue, with sets by Atherden andGrahame Bond, and invited Bond, Atherden,Peter Weir and his friend, composerPeter Best, a chance to do a show at theNational Art School's Cellblock Theatre. SirRobert Helpmann saw the show and took it to theAdelaide Festival, and soon afterwards Weir and Bond were commissioned to write a Christmas special TV show forABC Television, calledMan on a Green Bike.^[5] Atherden was later a contributor toThe Aunty Jack Show, which starred Bond. He was script editor on a four-part sketch series,Jokes, which ran on ABC-TV in early 1979.^[6] In the middle of the same year he scripted a seven-part comedy,One-Day Miller.^[7] In 1981 he was writer on the seriesRatbags (1981) and the soap operaSons and Daughters the following year.^[8]

In 1976, Atherden designed sets for the rock operaHero, produced by Bond.^[9]

Atherden has written a number of plays. Prior to working in television he wroteBalloon Dubloon – the revue in 1965 and theatre show in 1970. He then concentrated on screenwriting, but continuing in writing for theatre again from 1994 onwards, includingHotspur (1994) andBlack Cockatoo (2020).^[10]

He is perhaps best known for creating and writing the sitcomMother and Son, which ran for over 10 years (January 1984 to March 1994).^[11] Other work includes the comedy-dramaGrass Roots and themockumentaryBabaKiueria.

Atherden served as the president ofAustralian Writers' Guild andAustralian Writers' Foundation. In 2016, Atherden joined theScreenrights Board,^[12][13] which licenses secondary users of broadcast content, along with other secondary functions.^[14]

He has also served two terms on the board ofScreen NSW.^[13]

Atherden was appointed aMember of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2009, "For service to the television industry as a scriptwriter, and to the advancement of writers for performance through executive roles with professional organisations.".^[15]

Mother and Son won several awards.

• Geoffrey Atherden atIMDb
• Geoffrey Atherden atAustralian Screen

• Living people
• Australian television writers
• Australian comedy writers
• Members of the Order of Australia
• Australian dramatists and playwrights
• Australian male television writers

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