Burnham trained at the
Old Vic Theatre School, in the early 1950s and appeared in many popular British TV series such as
The Avengers episodes "The Fear Merchants", "The Town of No Return", and "The Forget-Me-Knot",
The Saint and
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) in 1969. In the mid-1970s he retired from acting and concentrated on screenwriting. With
Trevor Ray, he co-authored the fondly-remembered children's
science fiction horror serial
Children of the Stones (1977). A
novelization followed, also in 1977. A sequel novel,
Return to the Stones appeared in 2012 as an e-book and in 2015 as a physical book. Ray and Burnham collaborated on a less well-known children's five episode serial entitled
Raven (1977); they also wrote the novelization (1977). He also authored the children's tennis-based novel,
Break Point, which was made into a BBC television series in 1982. Burnham himself played the leading role of tennis coach Frank Abbott. Burnham also wrote for
The Avengers, in which he had also appeared as an actor (see entry above),
Minder and
Peak Practice. ==Selected acting credits==