SWF Thought of the Day: "Screenwriters' Festival 2009 was the biggest and best yet! Let's do it again sometime!" So say we all!
 
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This new pdf file incorporates those speakers shown below and features many, many more not previously listed on this page of the site.

 


 

To view the line-up of representatives taking part in this year's Speed Dating sessions Click on the Following: 

PRODUCERS  /  AGENTS & SALES AGENTS

 


   

Justine Potter
Savvy Productions

From a career in theatre, Justine moved to BBC Radio Drama and on to Producing for Red TV Production Company before setting up her own business: Savvy Productions is a company which specialises in providing entertainment and drama experiences anywhere, anytime. They have created a multiplatform digital toolkit 'PlatformSavvy' which enables narratives to be delivered across, TV, theatre, online, mobile, games consoles, and portable devices. They are currently developing a range of dramas which utilise PlatformSavvy with the BBC, National Theatre of Scotland, Red TV Company, TV Nations and Regions Conference, Traverse Theatre, Sony PSN (PS3/PSP) and Pilot Theatre.

 

Simon van der Borgh

Screenwriter/Director/Development/Consultant 

Simon has written twelve screenplays and one theatre play (I'M HIM HE'S NOBODY) since his ‘spec' BONEY AND BETSY launched him as a writer in 1996. THE ALCHEMIST OF HAPPINESS (2004), a feature-length drama documentary by Ovidio Salazar of Simon's script, won several awards and still plays around the world. Simon wrote IN TRANZIT (2007), directed by Tom Roberts and produced by Thema. Other feature commissions include FAST FREDDY for Odusseia Films and a draft of THE BITTER SEA for Film & General (released as THE CHILDREN OF HUANG SHI in 2008 with Jonathan Rhys Myers and directed by Roger Spottiswoode). Simon also draws on his deep knowledge of genre in spec scripts such as supernatural thriller BLOOD OATH. Simon is one of the UK's leading screenwriting teachers. An advisory board member of the Screenwriters' Festival in Cheltenham, he regularly consults on feature scripts around the world; projects include Noel Clarke's KIDULTHOOD, Justin Kerrigan's I KNOW YOU KNOW starring Robert Carlyle, and Clarke's new film ‘83'. Since 1984 Simon has also worked as a director in theatre and TV, with people as diverse as Ruby Wax, John Humphrys, Carol Vorderman and Bruce Grobbelaar. Simon is currently attached as director to BLOOD OATH, which is scheduled to shoot in Australia in 2010.

Esther Wouda

Script Coach / Producer

Esther is an experienced international script consultant and producer. For 10 years she was responsible for selecting and developing feature films and television drama for (Eyeworks) Egmond Film and Television, the Oscar®-winning producer of Antonia's Line, co-creating popular Dutch TV series and internationally acclaimed feature films such as Nynke, Mon Ange, Duska, Bluebird and The Letter for the King.  Esther's own company 'Gloworm Film' aims to develop and produce enlightening feature films of high quality and international appeal. Gloworm Film also offers script consulting for writers, producers and broadcasters. Esther teaches screenwriting in Amsterdam and is currently coaching international clients across Europe, the US and South America; projects including film, theatre and television scripts in various genres and languages.

 

Stuart Hazeldine

Screenwriter

Stuart is one of a select number of UK-based screenwriters who write exclusively for the major Hollywood studios. After selling his first screenplay at the age of 24, his first credit was the sci-fi TV movie RIVERWORLD for the Sci-Fi Channel in 2003. 2007 saw him hit the industry stratosphere with a rewrite of the blockbuster sci-fi remake THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL for Twentieth Century Fox, directed by Scott Derrickson and starring Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly, followed by a rewrite of the supernatural thriller KNOWING for Summit Entertainment, directed by Alex Proyas and starring Nicolas Cage. He has just adapted John Milton's epic religious fantasy poem PARADISE LOST for Legendary Pictures (300, THE DARK KNIGHT), to be directed by Scott Derrickson in 2010, and he is currently adapting the sci-fi adventure novel THE TRIPODS with Alex Proyas for producer Don Murphy's Angry Pictures (TRANSFORMERS). EXAM marks Stuart's feature directing debut, following the twenty-minute short film CHRISTIAN, which he wrote and directed in 2005.

Robert Jones

Producer

Robert Jones's production credits include Academy Award winners 'The Usual Suspects', 'Gosford Park' and 'The Constant Gardner' as well as Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Hard Eight', Stephen Frear's 'Dirty Pretty Things', Mike Leigh's 'Vera Drake', David Schwimmer's 'Run, Fat Boy, Run', and Neil Marshall's 'Centurion'.  Formerly a professional music recording artist, Jones has 28 years experience in the feature film industry and has built an impressive track record, working with both established filmmakers and identifying and developing new talent and commercial feature film material.  

Matt Greenhalgh

Screenwriter / Director

Matt wrote the BBC television series ‘Burn It' and the TV film ‘Legless' but is perhaps best known for his feature film script for ‘Control', a biopic about Joy Division front man Ian Curtis, (an adaptation of the book ‘Touching From a Distance' by Deborah Curtis) for which he  received several nominations and notable awards. He has since written the screenplay for the forthcoming John Lennon biopic ‘Nowhere Boy' (adapted from the book ‘Imagine This' by Julia Baird). Matt has also written for ‘Clocking Off' and ‘Cold Feet'. Currently in development is ‘Xcalibre' for Origin/BBC/UKFC.

Peter Bloore

Academic/Consultant/Screenwriter/Director

Peter Bloore is Senior Lecturer in Creativity at UEA (the University of East Anglia in Norwich), and teaches on the scriptwriting strand of UEA's MA in Creative Writing, and the MA in Creative Entrepreneurship.  He is a Visiting Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University Media School, and was previously Course Leader on the UK's first Media MBA. Prior to that he was Associate Director of the Film Business Academy at Cass Business School in London. Over the last ten years he has worked as a media business consultant for organisations including the National Film and TV School; Media Xchange; Prescience; and a range of production companies including Rebecca O'Brien and Ken Loach's company Sixteen Films; and Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen's Number 9 Films. He has a track record as a produced film screenwriter ("The Truth About Love" starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Dougray Scott); and as a director of television and short films for the BBC. He is currently co-writing a screenplay called "Words Fail Me".

Phil Parker

Script Development Consultant

Phil Parker is the director of NyAC, a film production company founded in 2006 to create a series of original, feature films. NyAC's first five projects - Bait, Almost Jamaica, The Reluctant Orator, Innocent and Relative Desire - are currently being packaged for production in 2009 -10.

Phil is one of Europe's most distinguished independent development consultants and has run a successful training and development consultancy, pH Screenplay, for over ten years. Clients include Aardmann Animation, Mob Films, Berlin Brandenburg Medienboard and numerous independent producers and screenwriters. Recent projects include the Oscar and Bafta winning '`Wallace and Gromit- Curse of the Ware Rabbit'; the award winning 'El Greco' and 'Terry Prachett's Hogfather'. Phil was the founder, and the course director (until 2004) of the MA Screenwriting course at London College of Communication (formerly London College of Printing) part of the University of the Arts London. This is the most successful screenwriting course in the UK with over 180 credited screenwriters from its 250 graduates. Screenwriters from the course have won a Palme D'or, several BAFTAs, RTS awards, numerous short film festival awards, including Berlin and Toronto,, and been Oscar© nominated.

Ellin Stein

Script Editor / Writer / Journalist

Ellin Stein operates script consultancy Solid Script Services and teaches screenwriting at Roehampton University. Previously a story analyst for Miramax UK, Zoetrope and New Line, she has led a double life as a journalist, working as a theater critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, a reporter for People Magazine and InStyle, and a contributor to publications including The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, The New York Times, and salon.com. She has also written for Radio 4's The News Quiz.  Her short 'Debate of the Dead' was accepted into several international festivals, winning prizes at five. Ellin began her career writing plays with music (since moving to Britain she has realized these were actually pantos for grown-ups) that were produced in San Francisco and New York. She has recently returned to scriptwriting, pursuing a possibly quixotic interest in reinventing the ‘women's picture' - stories with strong female leads full of drama, romance, and action (and great clothes).

Dan Turner

Director

Dan is an award winning feature film director, with his first feature, Experiment, being distributed worldwide and achieving festival acclaim.  As well as directing a number of shorts, Dan is signed to direct the screenplay of the novel Spanky, and is currently developing a TV drama of Eric Morecambe's Mr Lonely.  Dan is the co-creator of the comedy sketch show Splendid and co-creator of the upcoming web drama Girl Number 9 with James Moran.

 

Mark McKergow

Consultant 

Dr Mark McKergow is a consultant and trainer specialising in accelerated learning, management development solution focused change. His skill and enthusiasm have led to successful results in over 250 assignments. He now devotes himself to developing Solutions Focus work with organistions.  A full-time consultant since 1992, Mark McKergow has a wealth of experience in the application of solutions focus and accelerated learning methods in business. He has presented in Europe, North America, the former Soviet Union, Australia & New Zealand, South Africa and Singapore. Recent clients include Shell, Procter & Gamble, British Nuclear Fuels, Ashridge Management College and Imperial College London.

Richard Tierney

Producer

Richard Tierney is producer of more than 200 productions working in the UK and over 30 countries. He has recently undertaken a study of the creative process for CreativeTalks.com and is an associate of Industry@Saatchi; Saatchi & Saatchi's R&D lab for Creative Strategy in Business. His book on Creativity is finally due next year. He loves the sound of deadlines as they woosh by.

Will Machin
Head of Distribution (Ealing Studios) 

Will is currently Head of Distribution for Ealing Studios International, the sales and distribution arm of Ealing Studios. The current slate consists of films such as Olly Parker's "Dorian Gray" starring Ben Barnes, Colin Firth and Rebecca Hall, Richard Eyres, "The Other Man" starring Liam Neeson, Antonio Banderas and Laura Linney and the sensational "St. Trinians" franchise to name a few. Ealing Studios produces and distributes high quality, creative and distinct commercial independent films. Will previously worked for international sales and production companies such as Capitol Films, Lolafilms, Carnaby Films and Thinkfilm International in a range of roles across the international film business.

Piers Nightingale
Head of Development (High Point) 

As Head of Development Piers assesses all new film and TV scripts and submitted productions. Piers has also represents High Point at co-production markets such as SPAAMart in Australia and on script panels at various film events put on by producer's organisations such as the New Producers Alliance.

 

Arvind Ethan David
CEO and Producer

Arvind Ethan David is the CEO and a Producer at Slingshot, the next generation film company which he co-founded in 2005. Arvind leads both business and creative strategy for the company, and has served as a producer on all of the company's films to date - Sugarhouse, Faintheart, French Film, Tormented and the currently in production The Infidel.

Prior to Slingshot, Arvind served as Commercial Advisor to Headline Pictures, the production company set up by Stewart Mackinnon, Kevin Hood and the late Mark Shivas.

Between 2003 to 2004, Arvind was Interim Managing Director of Ruby Films, working for Oscar-nominated producer Alison Owen. In 1999, he founded hahabonk, one of the UK's early internet entertainment companies, which produced more than 100 short animated films and interactive games for cable television and broadband internet, as well as helped launch the careers of such comedians as Jimmy Carr, Mackenzie Crook and The Hollow Men.

Ollie Madden
Vice President of Production - Warner Bros. 

Ollie Madden started his career at Graham Broadbent and Damian Jones' company, Dragon Pictures.

He later became an Acquisitions Executive at Atom Films, the world's largest short film distribution company. In 2001 Madden moved on to be a Director of Production and Development at Miramax Films, where he worked for three years and was involved with such films as Dirty Pretty Things, Bride and Prejudice and Proof.

In late 2004, Madden joined Intermedia Films as Head of UK Production and Development, where he worked on The Hunting Party and Basic Instinct 2 and produced comedy Magicians for Intermedia and Universal.

In 2007 Madden joined Warner Bros. as their UK based VP of Production and is currently developing a slate of films for the studio.

Sam Taylor
Producer F.& M.E.

Sam Taylor is the co-founder/owner of Film and Music Entertainment.

Since 1994 she has produced over thirty films - beginning with Before the Rain, including The Young Poisoner's Handbook, Murk and Deathwatch. In 2009 she produced Dominic Murphy's White Lightnin, (Sundance 2009/Berlin Panorama and Best Film at Dinard 2009). Sam also produced the feature doc Turtle: The Incredible Journey which opens on 200 prints for Fox Germany this September. Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre was completed in August and will be released by E1 in the UK in January 2010 and Donkey won Best film in Sarajevo.Co-productions Gareth Roberts' The Mortician starts shooting on 16th November and Jitters on October 19th.

Steven Moffat

Screenwriter

Steven Moffat is one of the UK's most eminent television writers in both comedy and drama. His contributions to the revived Doctor Who (The Empty Child, The Girl in the Fireplace, Blink, Silence in the Library) have all won him considerable acclaim and a host of awards, and as a result he now succeeds Russell T Davies as Doctor Who's 'showrunner' (Head Writer/Exec Producer).

Steven's other work over the years includes the award-winning cult BBC2 sitcom Coupling, writing 28 episodes over 4 series.

Steven's first television work was as writer of all 43 episodes over 5 series of Press Gang, about a group of wayward high school students who are given a local newspaper to run, it won several awards and nominations and introduced the world to Dexter Fletcher and Julia Sawahla.

He then wrote two sit-coms for the BBC, Joking Apart and Chalk, the later caused uproar in the teaching profession.

More recently Steven penned an updated version of Jekyll starring James Nesbitt, and prior to taking over the show-runner duties on Doctor Who, scripted the forthcoming feature film adaptation of Tintin subtitled The Secert of the Unicorn (directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson). 

Next year will also see a modern rendering of Sherlock Holmes written for the BBC by Steven in collaboration with fellow Doctor Who writer and League of Gentlemen star Mark Gatiss.

Phyllida Lloyd

Director

Phyllida has directed opera, theatre, and recent smash hit musical sensation Mamma Mia!  Theatre includes: Six Degrees of Separation, Hysteria, Wild East (Royal Court), The Threepenny Opera, Boston Marriage (Donmar Warehouse), Mary Stuart (Donmar Warehouse and Apollo), The Way of the World, Pericles, What the Butler Saw, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Duchess of Malfi (Royal National Theatre), Artists and Admirers, The Virtuoso (Royal Shakespeare Company), MAMMA MIA! (London, Broadway and worldwide).

Opera: La Bohème, Medea, Carmen, L¹Etoile, Gloriana, Albert Herring Peter Grimes (Opera North), Macbeth (Paris and Royal Opera House, London), The Handmaid's Tale (Copenhagen, English National Opera and Toronto), The Carmelites, The Verdi Requiem and Wagner¹s Ring Cycle (English National Opera).

For Gloriana a Film, she received an International Emmy, an E.I.P.A. dOr, and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award. For Mary Stuart, Phyllida was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Director and won the South Bank Theatre award 2006

James Schamus
CEO Focus Features

James Schamus is an award-winning screenwriter, The Ice Storm, and producer, Brokeback Mountain, and is Professor in Columbia University's School of the Arts, where he teaches film history and theory. He is CEO of Focus Features, the motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company whose films have included Lost in Translation, Milk, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Pianist, Atonement, The Constant Gardener and Coraline.

James Schamus will explain at SWF:

"Why screenwriting is more important to the porn industry than it is to the Hollywood studios - [and he won't be kidding]"

 

 

Samantha Horley
Managing Director of Salt

Samantha Horley has more than 13 years' experience in international sales, working with prestigious companies including PolyGram, Summit and Myriad.

She has handled sales for a diverse and impressive array of films including box office hits Fargo, American Pie, The Blair Witch Project, Memento and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Samantha has been Managing Director of Lumina Films (as Salt was formerly known) since September 2004.

Christine Langan
Creative Director of BBC Films

As creative director of the feature film making arm of the BBC, Christine oversees commissioning, development and production of the whole slate for BBC Films. Christine made her name at Granada producing the first three series of Cold Feet.

She subsequently produced numerous projects for television, including Peter Morgan's BAFTA award-winning The Deal, and the critically-acclaimed Dirty Filthy Love starring Michael Sheen.

In 2005 Christine produced her debut feature Pierrepoint, starring Timothy Spall, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Carl Foreman award. She then renewed her collaboration with Peter Morgan and Stephen Frears, producing the The Queen, which was a critical and box-office hit. 

In September 2006, Christine took up a new role as Executive Producer at BBC Films. In October 2007 she was appointed Commissioning Editor and in April 2009 she became Creative Director of the division. Recent releases include Armando Iannucci's hit directorial debut In the Loop, The Damed United and Is Anybody There.

Both Jane Campion's Bright Star and Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank were selected for the Cannes 2009 Official Competition, where the latter went on to win the Cannes Jury Prize.

Other critical and box office successes include Mark Herman's The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas and Saul Dibb's The Duchess, which was the highest grossing independent film at the British box office in 2008.

 

Julian Friedmann

Agent: Blake Friedmann

Julian represents both book and script writers across a broad range of subjects and formats. He started as an editor for two academic publishers in the early 1970s before setting up his own publishing company. He set up a literary agency in 1976, later merging with Carole Blake to establish Blake Friedmann.

He has lectured all over the world on the business of scriptwriting and has published a book called HOW TO MAKE MONEY SCRIPTWRITING.  He edited two volumes called WRITING LONG-RUNNING TELEVISION SERIES and is the Publisher and Editor of Europe's leading scriptwriting magazine, SCRIPTWRITER (www.scriptwritermagazine.com). He is on the Board of the Screenwriters' Festival.

Caroline Ferguson

Writer/Consultant

Caroline Ferguson is a published writer and optioned screenwriter. In her day job as marketing consultant www.safehandsmarketing.com, she has worked with many professional services, investment, media and entertainment organisations.

 

Janice Day 

Screenwriter/Author/Performer

Janice Day is a commissioned screenwriter currently working on two high budget feature-films, collaborating on a sitcom with Raymond Allen (writer of 'Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em') and writing a radio adaptation of her comedy cancer survival memoir 'Getting it off my Chest' which was published this July by Old Street Publications. Janice has been shortlisted for UKFC 25 Words or Less Competition, longlisted for BBC3 Last Laugh End of Sitcom Competition, twice selected for first round of TAPS and awarded her MA fees by the Equity Trust Fund. A seasoned performer, she was the original singer with both the Piccadilly Dance Orchestra and the Cotton Club Orchestra, and performs in private cabaret with her 1930s alter-ego Mrs Pinkerton-Lovely. Janice has in recent years embraced the world of stand-up comedy, where she won the Sabotage Comedy Icon competition for best stand-up comedian, was runner up in the Windows Lives Spaces Stand-up Comedian competition, and was audience favourite at the Absolute Moose end of Stand up and Deliver Comedy course at Edinburgh Fringe 2007.

Simon Beaufoy

Screenwriter/Filmmaker (Slumdog Millionaire, The Full Monty) 

Simon, the multiple Oscar-winning writer of  ‘Slumdog Millionaire' and ‘The Full Monty' is a graduate of Bournemouth Film School where he produced RELEASE ME, a half-hour drama which premiered on BBC 2 and won five awards at international film festivals. He subsequently made a 30-minute documentary SHATTERED DREAM, a co-production with John Gau Productions, broadcast on BBC 2's 40 Minutes in 1993. Simon's first script CELLO won the Euston Films Best Script Award at the 1991 Fuji Film Competition. PHYSICS FOR FISH, co-written and co-directed with Bille Eltringham, was produced for BBC 2's 10 x 10 series and was transmitted in December '93. In June '96 Simon co-directed with Bille Eltringham a short, YELLOW, which he and Bille co-wrote for Footprint/BFI/Channel 4. In October '96 he co-directed (again with Bille Eltringham) CLOSER for Footprint/BBC/Channel 4, as part of the Brief Encounters strand. ‘The Full Monty' was his first feature. His second feature, a three-way love story entitled ‘Among Giants' was released in 1999. Simon co-directed his third feature ‘The Darkest Light'. ‘Yasmin', Screen Yorkshire's first venture, followed in 2003. The following year's ‘This is Not a Love Song', filmed in Scotland as a low-budget DV project was well received.

 

 

 

 

Bob Baker
Screenwriter

Bob Baker's most famous credits are as the author of four scripts for the Wallace and Gromit films ‘The Wrong Trousers', ‘A Close Shave', ‘Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' and ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death' (in which a character is named after him). Bob is also acclaimed for his numerous scripts for Doctor Who between 1971 and 1979. For the majority of his Doctor Who scripts Bob collaborated with his friend and co-writer the late Dave Martin and together they were nicknamed "The Bristol Boys" by the Doctor Who production teams with whom they worked. Their most notable contributions to the Doctor Who mythos were probably the robot computer dog 'K-9', and the renegade Time Lord 'Omega'. Together with Martin, Bob also created fantasy television serials for children including the 1975 ‘Sky'. Baker's other contributions to British television include scripts for episodes of ‘Shoestring' and ‘Bergerac'. The coming months will see the reinvention of K-9 in a new children's adventure series, a UK-Australian co-production, scripted by Bob in collaboration with other writers and with series co-creator Paul Tams.

Terrance Dicks

Screenwriter/Author/Script Editor

Terrance was born in London's East End, he attended Grammar School and received an English Scholarship to Cambridge.  He worked as an advertising copy writer and then as a script writer on the original Crossroads. He was Script editor of 'Doctor Who' from the end of the Patrick Troughton period (co-writing the Troughton finale 'The War Games') through the entire Jon Pertwee era and then contributed many further scripts for the series thereafter including Tom Baker's debut adventure 'Robot' and culminating in the programme's 20th anniversary show 'The Five Doctors'.  Terrance's prolific output of Doctor Who TV novelisations  over the years number almost seventy! He continues to write orginal Who novels today, most recently 'Made of Steel' and 'Revenge of the Judoon' featuring the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant). Terrance is amazed that Doctor Who is still so much a part of his life after all these years!

Photo: courtesy Stephen Dicks 

Michael Stevens
Commissioning Editor, BBC Audiobooks

Originally trained as an actor, Michael worked as a website editor for Blackwell's before joining BBC Audiobooks as a copywriter in 2000. For the past six years he has managed the company's portfolio of Doctor Who and science fiction titles. He commissions and exec produces several ranges of ‘audio original' CD and download stories based on the current series of Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. The readers of these include David Tennant, Catherine Tate, Freema Agyeman, John Barrowman and Elisabeth Sladen. This year Michael conceived and script edited the Hornets' Nest multi-voice series which, written by Paul Magrs, has seen Tom Baker return to the role of the Doctor for the first time in 28 years.

Benjamin Cook

Journalist

Ben is a journalist and regular contributor to Radio Times and Doctor Who Magazine. He has also been published in Filmstar, TV Zone, Cult Times, TV Times and The Stage. In 2008, BBC Books released The Writer's Tale, based on a year-long e-mail correspondence between Cook and Doctor Who Executive Producer Russell T Davies. A revised and updated edition, covering a second year's worth of correspondence and taking in David Tennant's final episodes as the Doctor, will be published in January 2010. Benjamin lives in London.

Phil Collinson

Head of Drama, BBC North

Phil Collinson graduated from Bretton Hall College with a Drama degree. He began his television career at Granada Television in 1997 where he was Script Editor in the Drama Serials Department, working on Springhill, Coronation Street and Emmerdale. In 1998 he moved to Carlton as Script Editor and then Story Editor of Peak Practice, eventually becoming Producer for two series in 1999/2000. He subsequently worked as Series Producer on Born and Bred, Linda Green and Sea Of Souls (all for BBC1) before becoming Producer of Doctor Who in 2004. As part of the team responsible for overseeing the return of BBC1's sci fi hero Phil helped take the show to the top of the TV charts winning 4 successive National Television Awards, A Broadcast Award and Best Drama Series BAFTA 2005. In June 2008 he was appointed Head Of Drama for BBC North, Executive Producing Debbie Horsfield's All The Small Things and overseeing a growing development slate.

Joseph Lidster 

Screenwriter & Author 

Joseph Lidster wrote his first script for television in 2007. His episode of "Torchwood", A Day In The Death, lead to him getting further work for BBC Wales - contributing scripts to series two and three of "The Sarah Jane Adventures". Prior to this, he had written a number of audio plays, short stories and novellas. He has also written for Radio 4 and currently has a number of television shows in development for the BBC.

 

 

Philip Hinchcliffe

Producer

After studying English at Cambridge, Philip Hinchcliffe joined ITV and worked for several years as a script editor. He joined the BBC in 1974 and produced three seasons of Doctor Who featuring the debut of Tom Baker in the title role. He went on to produce many series and single dramas for UK television, including the award winning 'Private Schulz' (BBC), and 'The Charmer' (LWT). In 1994 he jointly produced Mike Newell's feature film 'An Awfully Big Adventure' starring Hugh Grant. Later in his career, as Controller of Drama at STV, he maintained Taggart's popularity in the ITV schedule and introduced Ian Rankin's 'Rebus' to the small screen.

Philip has worked with many well known actors over the years including Pierce Brosnan, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir Ben Kingsley and on a topical note, Christoph Waltz, star of Quentin Tarantino's new film 'Inglorious Basterds'. Interestingly for Doctor Who fans, he also gave Christopher Eccleston his first television role.

Kenton Allen

CEO Big Talk Productions 

Kenton Allen is joint CEO of production company Big Talk (its credits include television series FREE AGENTS, SPACED and BLACK BOOKS and the hit movies SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HOT FUZZ) and as a multi-award winning programme maker he has Producer credits including the multi BAFTA winning sitcom The Royle Family and the Oscar award winning short film Six Shooter.  He was Creative Head of BBC Comedy and BBC Comedy North between 2003 and 2008 where he Executive Produced a diverse range of comedy programming including the BAFTA award winning sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look (BBC2), the BAFTA nominated drama series Funland (BBC3) along with numerous other projects.

 

Andrew Cartmel

Screenwriter - Script Editor - Author

Andrew is currently writing for Torchwood.  He started working in television at the BBC as Script Editor on 'Doctor Who', a post he held for the three seasons starring 7th Doctor Sylvester McCoy.  He subsequently became senior script editor on 'Casualty' and then at Five as script editor and lead writer on 'Dark Knight'.  Andrew has worked as a stand-up comedian and was a finalist in the Nicotinell Comedy Tour in 2007.  His stage plays, produced on the London fringe include 'End of the Night' and 'Under the Eagle', hailed by Time Out as "bitingly funny".  He has also had a number of novels published, including 'The Wise' and most recently 'Miss Freedom'.

Gareth Roberts -
Screenwriter & Author

Gareth Roberts has written The Shakespeare Code and The Unicorn And The Wasp for Doctor Who, along with co-writing the 2009 Easter Special Planet Of The Dead with Russell T Davies. He has also written many scripts for the children's spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures. Previous credits include five years as a storyliner and scriptwriter on Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Brookside, and episodes of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) and Swiss Toni. He has also penned many tv tie-in books, including Doctor Who and Cracker.

 

 

James Moran - Screenwriter 

James Moran is a British screenwriter for television and film, whose first film was 'Severance', a horror movie starring Laura Harris and Danny Dyer. He has written episodes for Doctor Who (series 4 episode 2 "The Fires of Pompeii"), Torchwood (series 2 episode 2 "Sleeper", and series 3 episode 3), Primeval (series 3 episode 2), Crusoe (series 1 episode 4 "High Water"), Spooks (series 7 episode 7), as well as its spinoff show Spooks: Code 9 (series 1 episode 4). James has also written stories for the Big Finish Short Trips collections Transmissions and Christmas Around the World, the 2009 and 2010 Doctor Who Storybooks, and Torchwood: Consequences. He is currently working on more films and television shows in various stages of development. 

Jason Arnopp 

Screenwriter/Author/Journalist

Jason Arnopp is a London-based screenwriter, with optioned/commissioned feature scripts and produced shorts. A finalist in 2008's Red Planet Prize competition, he has worked on Eye Film & TV's online drama series Tempting Fates and Magician Pictures' comedy sketch-show Splendid. A reader for Screen East, he has contributed material to Radio 4 comedy shows and numbers among the commissioned writing team for the next series of Recorded For Training Purposes. 2005 saw the publication of his first novel, Friday The 13th: Hate-Kill-Repeat. In a past life, he was a journalist and still writes for Heat, The Word and Doctor Who Magazine. Find him online at jasonarnopp.com, and on Twitter as @JasonArnopp.

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Lindy Heymann
Director 

Lindy is a writer/director and her first feature Showboy won the Best Directorial Debut at the British Independent Film Awards. 

In 2008 she completed her second feature Kicks  which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festvial 2009 and was been nominated for the Michael Powell Award.

Lindy also has a prolific career in music video, directing over one hundred to date. Lindy has worked with artists and bands as diverse as Paul McCartney, John Lydon, Sinead O'Connor, David Gray, The Charlatans, Suede, Leftfield, Terry Hall and Faithless.

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Tessa Ross
Controller of Film and Drama, Channel 4/Film4
 

Tessa was appointed Head of Film4 in December 2002. In November 2004, her role was expanded to include that of Channel 4's Head of Drama - she is now Controller of Film and Drama.

Tessa came to Channel 4 from the BBC's Independent Commissioning Group where she was Head of Drama, a position she took up in October 1993, building up an entirely new department with an annual output of 120 hours of film and television drama. Drama and film she has commissioned and executive produced for the BBC includes Billy Elliot, Clocking Off, Hearts and Bones, In a Land of Plenty, Cops, Talking Heads II, Liam, Playing the Field, Births Marriages and Deaths, Sex Chips and Rock and Roll.

During her earlier stewardship of Channel 4 Drama, Ross successfully innovated the strategy that has cemented a drama reputation based on risk and innovation. Pieces commissioned during that time include Shameless, Teachers, Not Only But Always, Bodily Harm, White Teeth, No Angels, The Navigators, Buried, Forty and Second Generation.

Other drama highlights commissioned by Ross include Peter Flannery's Civil War drama The Devil's Whore, Longford starring Jim Broadbent and Samantha Morton, Bradford Riots, Skins and The Mark Of Cain.

Channel 4's film department has built a reputation for developing and financing films such as Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which has won multiple awards including eight Oscars, four Golden Globes, seven BAFTAs and a BIFA for Best Film, Oscar®-winning The Last King of Scotland, BAFTA winning This is England, Steve McQueen's Hunger, which won the Camera d'Or at Cannes, three BIFAs and BAFTA's Carl Foreman Award, The Motorcycle Diaries, Touching the Void and The Road to Guantanamo.

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Leigh Campbell
Screenwriter

Leigh is a screenwriter whose feature script Kicks has recently finished production. Shot by director Lindy Heymann and starring Kerrie Hayes and Nicola Burleigh, it was financed by BBC Films, The Film Council and Liverpool Capital of Culture and premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2009 where it was been nominated for the Michael Powell Award.

Leigh has been picked as a Trailblazer, one of the crop of new talent at the EIFF.

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Stephen Volk
Screenwriter

Stephen was the creator/lead writer of the multi award-winning ITV drama series Afterlife starring Lesley Sharp and Andrew Lincoln, and the notorious, almost legendary, 1992 BBCTV "Halloween hoax" mockumentary Ghostwatch featuring Michael Parkinson and Sarah Greene.

A BAFTA-winning screenwriter, The Deadness of Dad, his credits include Ken Russell's wild, iconoclastic Gothic, William Friedkin's The Guardian, and Octane starring Madeleine Stowe, as well as various standalone TV films like Cyclops for Channel 4's series Shockers, Massage and I'll Be Watching You for the BBC series Ghosts, and the acclaimed stage play Answering Spirits.

His first collection of crime, horror and psychological short stories, Dark Corners, was published in 2006, from which his story 31/10 (a sequel to Ghostwatch) was shortlisted for both a Bram Stoker and British Fantasy Award.

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Marc Price
Screenwriter/Director

30-year-old Welsh film-maker Marc Price made his debut feature film Colin part-time over an 18-month period, using an old mini-dv camcorder, help from his housemates, and spending just £45.

Marc wrote his script with a lack of money in mind, and has created an original and critically-acclaimed genre film that has caught the attention of most of the Hollywood studios. Marc not only wrote, directed, and produced Colin, he was also cameraman, editor, sound designer, composer, grader, and an extra in the film.

He learned his skills from watching DVD extras, and didn't go to film school. Marc has written his next project Thunderchild, that is an original cross-genre script on a low budget.

Marc and his partner Justin Hayles are Nowhere Fast Film Productions.

Click here to go over to our Colin page and read about the film

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Helen Grace
Screenwriter/Producer/Director

Helen Grace has written, produced and directed her own projects, and co-produced author Irvine Welsh's directorial debut for TV.

With a strong affinity to her film-making background, she set up Left Films to find new online distribution and viral marketing opportunities for very low budget films, that may not suit traditional distribution routes. Left represents a small catalogue of feature films and short films for video-on-demand and other sales.

Helen is the sales agent for Colin, and is now working with Marc Price as producer of his next film. Helen, who's from Wales, studied Law at Cambridge, and came to film from TV News (she was once a Producer on ITN's News at Ten).

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Doug Chamberlin
Screenwriter

Doug Chamberlin has been a professional working screen and television writer for nearly twenty years. One of his films was the 16th highest grossing film of all time; Toy Story 2.

He has written numerous screenplays, dozens of television scripts, given over 100 pitches, taken hundreds of script meetings, and has worked at every major motion picture studio.


Over the course of his career, Doug has worked with Steven Spielberg, John Landis, Barry Levinson, Jeff Katzenberg, Bruce Willis, Brian Grazer, Barry Sonnenfeld, Caryn Mandabach, Robert De Niro, Bugs Bunny (seriously), Kevin Bright ("Friends"), Harry Shearer and John Lasseter, to name a few. He has worked directly with the heads of Universal, Dreamworks, Pixar and Paramount.

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Catherine Johnson
Screenwriter/Playwright

Catherine is a screenwriter/playwright, producing works for stage and television, best known for her script for the musical Mamma Mia! and screenplay for the film of the same name, which became the highest grossing UK film of all time and the biggest selling UK DVD of all time in January 2009.

Catherine wrote Rag Doll a play about incest and child abuse, which won the competition and was staged by the Bristol Old Vic. Further plays for the Bush Theatre in London, Bristol Old Vic and Show of Strength followed along with work on television series including Linda Green, Casualty, Love Hurts and Byker Grove.

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Mark Tonderai
Screenwriter/Director

Mark is an ex-disc jockey, writer, actor and film director. He is co-founder of the London-based production company Shona Productions, with partner Zoe Stewart.

His debut film as screenwriter-director, called Hush, was released in March 2009. A psychological thriller, the film deals with issues of road rage, when a couple in their car on a motorway become involved in an altercation with a truck driver.

Mark and producer Mark Herbert from Warp X are in talks to co-produce Tonderai's next script, another thriller called I Die At Midnight. Film industry magazine Screen International has reported that Tonderai has his next five films already planned, including a Western called Stance.

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Francesca Martinez
Writer / Comedienne

Francesca is an award-winning comedian who has toured internationally including sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Festival, the Melbourne Comedy Festival and the prestigious Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. Francesca’s a regular face on TV and is best known for her starring role in Ricky Gervais’ EXTRAS. Ricky is a huge supporter of hers and hand-wrote the role for her. He also appeared on her non-broadcast chat-show where she interviewed him. Both Lee Mack and Russell Brand have asked her to be in their shows.

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Nik Powell
Producer

In the early 1970's Nik set up Virgin Records with Richard Branson and in the space of ten years the pair turned a small mail-order record operation into a multi-million pound conglomerate.

Nik then went into partnership with Stephen Woolley, proprietor of the Scala Cinema, having sold out from Virgin with the sale of his 40% shareholding in the previous year.   Together they formed Palace Video, followed by Palace Pictures, and then Palace Productions, soon establishing each as highly regarded entities within the film distribution and production industry.

 As Executive Producer Nik has worked on some of the most influential films over the past three decades including Neil Jordan's 'Company of Wolves', 'Mona Lisa', 'The Miracle' and 'The Crying Game'; Michael Caton-Jones' 'Scandal'; Richard Stanley's 'Hardware' and 'Dust Devil'; Ian Softley's 'Backbeat';Terance Davies' 'The Neon Bible'; Michael Radford's 'B.Monkey'; Shane Meadow's 'Twentyfour Seven'; Chris Menges' 'The Lost Son'; Mark Herman's 'Little Voice'; Kay Mellor's 'Fanny a