Ashley Pharoah | |
---|---|
Born | Southampton, United Kingdom | 13 September 1959
Occupation | Screenwriter and television producer. |
Nationality | English |
Education | Queen Elizabeth's Hospital; University Of Sussex; National Film And Television School. |
Genre | Drama, science fiction |
Notable works | Life on Mars Ashes to Ashes Wild at Heart |
Notable awards | International Emmy |
Ashley Pharoah (born 13 September 1959) is a British screenwriter and television producer. He is best known as the co-creator/writer of the successful drama series Life on Mars , which began on BBC One in 2006, and creator/writer of the family drama Wild at Heart , which aired on ITV1 from 2006 until 2012.
Pharoah attended Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, an independent school in Bristol. [1]
Pharoah began his television writing career on the BBC soap opera EastEnders in 1991, on which he worked for four years and where he met co-writer Matthew Graham. He went on in 1994–1995 to contribute five episodes to the popular BBC One drama series Casualty and four episodes to Silent Witness (1996). [2]
For ITV he created the long-running series Where the Heart Is , for which he wrote episodes from 1997 to 2000, and created the BBC One TV programme Down to Earth in 2001. Among other work in the early 2000s he scripted an adaptation of Tom Brown's Schooldays , starring Stephen Fry, for the ITV1 network in 2005. [2]
Meanwhile, Pharoah, Matthew Graham and veteran Eastenders writer Tony Jordan spent years co-creating Life on Mars, which was first shown in 2006, and Pharoah contributed episodes to both series of the show. Other work around this time included creating the series Wild at Heart (2006 – 2012) for Company Pictures and adapting Under the Greenwood Tree for Ecosse Films. [2]
In 2006, he formed Monastic Productions with Matthew Graham. Monastic Productions is involved in the Life on Mars spin-off Ashes to Ashes and co-produced Bonekickers , a six-part drama series about archaeology, set in Bath, Somerset. Both series are productions for BBC One. [3] He has won two International Emmys for "Life on Mars", a series which was remade for ABC in America, starring Harvey Keitel.
In 2010, Pharoah adapted Case Histories , the novel by Kate Atkinson, for the BBC. It stars Jason Isaacs and was a co-production between Monastic Productions and Ruby Television. Other work around this time include "Eternal Law" for ITV and an adaptation of Moonfleet for Sky, starring Ray Winstone. His series The Living And The Dead , starring Colin Morgan, was screened on BBC1 in the summer of 2016.
Pharoah was co-creator, writer and executive producer on an adaptation of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days , which starred David Tennant and was screened around the world in 2021.
In February 2011, Pharoah was made an Honorary Fellow of the National Film and Television School; this is awarded "in recognition of outstanding contribution to the British film and television industry". [4]
In a ceremony at Bath Abbey in 2016, Pharoah was made a Doctor of Letters by Bath Spa University for his contribution to screenwriting and television production.
He was awarded the Hamilton Deane Award by the Dracula Society for The Living And The Dead in 2016.
Production | Notes | Broadcaster |
---|---|---|
White Elephant |
| N/A |
Water's Edge |
| BBC2 |
EastEnders |
| BBC1 |
Casualty |
| BBC1 |
Silent Witness |
| BBC1 |
Where the Heart Is |
| ITV |
City Central |
| BBC1 |
Life Support |
| BBC1 |
Down to Earth |
| BBC1 |
Anchor Me |
| ITV |
Paradise Heights |
| BBC1 |
The Eustace Bros. |
| BBC1 |
Hustle |
| BBC1 |
Tom Brown's Schooldays |
| ITV |
Under the Greenwood Tree |
| ITV |
Wild at Heart |
| ITV |
Life on Mars |
| BBC1 |
Bonekickers |
| BBC1 |
Ashes to Ashes |
| BBC1 |
Case Histories |
| BBC1 |
Eternal Law |
| ITV |
Moonfleet |
| Sky One |
The Living and the Dead |
| BBC1 |
Around the World in 80 Days |
| BBC1 |
Journey to the Center of the Earth [5] |
| BBC1 |
Year | Award | Work | Category | Result | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1989 | Gold Hugo | Water's Edge | Best Short Film (with Suri Krishnamma) | Nominated | |
2006 | TV Quick Awards | Life on Mars | Best New Drama (with Matthew Graham and Tony Jordan) | Nominated | |
2007 | Broadcasting Press Guild Awards | Writer's Award (with Matthew Graham and Tony Jordan) | Won | ||
2007 | TV Quick Awards | Best Loved Drama (with Matthew Graham and Tony Jordan) | Nominated | ||
2007 | Edgar Allan Poe Awards | Life on Mars: "Episode 1" | Best Television Episode Teleplay | Won | |
2007 | Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award | Life on Mars: Series 2 | Soap/Series (TV) (with Chris Chibnall, Mark Greig, Matthew Graham, Guy Jenkin, Tony Jordan and Julie Rutterford) | Nominated | |
2008 | Cinéma Tous Ecrans | Ashes to Ashes | Audience Award for Best International Television Series (with Matthew Graham) | Won | |
2008 | Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award | Television Drama Series (with Matthew Graham, Mark Greig, Julie Rutterford and Mick Ford) | Nominated | ||
2010 | TRIC Awards | TV Crime Programme (with Matthew Graham and Tony Jordan) | Nominated | ||
2010 | TV Quick Awards | Best Drama Series (with Matthew Graham) | Won | ||
2010 | Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award | Television Drama Series (with Matthew Graham, Julie Rutterford, Tom Butterworth, Chris Hurford, Jack Lothian and James Payne) | Nominated | ||
2011 | TRIC Awards | TV Drama Programme of the Year (with Matthew Graham) | Nominated |
Clare Julia Hawes, known professionally as Keeley Hawes, is an English actress. After beginning her career in a number of literary adaptations, including Our Mutual Friend (1998) and Tipping the Velvet (2002), Hawes rose to fame for her portrayal of Zoe Reynolds in the BBC series Spooks (2002–2004), followed by her co-lead performance as DI Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes (2008–2010). She is also known for her roles in Jed Mercurio's Line of Duty as DI Lindsay Denton (2014–2016) and in BBC One drama Bodyguard (2018), in which she played Home Secretary Julia Montague.
Kudos is a British film and television production company. It has produced television series for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, Amazon and Netflix and its productions include Tin Star, Humans, Broadchurch, The Tunnel, Grantchester, Apple Tree Yard, Utopia,Spooks, Hustle and Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes. In 2007 it was voted Best Independent Production Company by Broadcast magazine. Formed in 1992, since 2007 it has been part of the Shine Group. In 2007 it also set up the film unit, Kudos Pictures. In 2011, the Shine Group was 100% acquired by News Corporation and was part of the 50-50 joint-venture Endemol Shine Group. On 3 July 2020, France-based Banijay bought the studio through former's acquisition of Endemol Shine Group.
Carnival Film & Television Limited, trading as Carnival Films, is a British production company based in London, UK, founded in 1978. It has produced television series for all the major UK networks including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Sky, as well as international broadcasters including PBS, A&E, HBO and NBC. Productions include single dramas, long-running television dramas, feature films, and stage productions.
Graham John Yost is a Canadian film and television screenwriter. His best-known works are the films Speed, Broken Arrow, and Hard Rain and the TV series Justified and Silo.
Sean Harris is an English actor. He played Ian Curtis in 24 Hour Party People (2002), Micheletto Corella in The Borgias (2011–2013), Fifield in Prometheus (2012), Solomon Lane in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) and Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018), Philip in Possum (2018), William Gascoigne in The King (2019) and Henry Peter Teague / Peter Morley in The Stranger (2022).
Darren John Boyd is a British actor who starred in the Sky 1 series Spy, for which he won BAFTA TV Award for Best Male Comedy Performance. His work in television and film spans comedy and drama.
Tony Jordan is a British television writer. For many years, he was lead writer and series consultant for BBC One soap opera EastEnders. He has written over 250 episodes for the programme since 1989, including the 2008 single-hander "Pretty Baby....". He created the series Hustle, HolbyBlue, City Central, Moving Wallpaper, Echo Beach, The Nativity, The Passing Bells and Dickensian, and co-created Life on Mars and By Any Means.
Life on Mars is a British television series broadcast on BBC One between 9 January 2006 and 10 April 2007. It follows Sam Tyler, a Manchester policeman in 2006 who wakes up after a car accident to discover that he has time-travelled to 1973, where he works the same job in the same location under the command of Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt while attempting to solve the mystery of what has happened to him.
Christopher Antony Chibnall is an English television writer and producer, best known as the creator and writer of the award-winning ITV mystery-crime drama Broadchurch (2013-17) and as the third showrunner of the 2005 revival of the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who (2018–22). Chibnall wrote five episodes of the series under previous showrunners Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat, and he was also the head writer for the first two series of the spinoff Torchwood (2006-08).
Philip Haywood Glenister is an English actor. He is known for his role as DCI Gene Hunt in the BBC series Life on Mars (2006–2007) and its sequel Ashes to Ashes (2008–2010). He also played DCI William Bell in State of Play (2003) and Reverend Anderson in Outcast (2016–2018).
Matthew Graham is a British television writer, and the co-creator of the BBC/Kudos Film and Television science fiction series Life on Mars, which debuted in 2006 on BBC One and has received international critical acclaim.
DCI Gene Hunt is a fictional character in BBC One's science fiction/police procedural drama Life on Mars and its sequel, Ashes to Ashes. The character is portrayed by Philip Glenister in both shows. His younger self, also known as the ghost of Gene Hunt, is portrayed by Mason Kayne. In the American adaption, he is portrayed by Harvey Keitel.
DCI/DI Sam Tyler is a fictional character in BBC One's science fiction/police procedural drama, Life on Mars.
Ashes to Ashes is a British fantasy crime drama and police procedural drama television series, serving as the sequel to Life on Mars.
Shaun Evans is an English actor. He is best known for playing a young Endeavour Morse in the ITV drama series Endeavour and Coxswain Elliot Glover in Vigil.
Bonekickers is a BBC drama about a team of archaeologists, set at the fictional Wessex University. It made its début on 8 July 2008 and ran for one series.
The Living and the Dead is a British six-episode supernatural horror television series created by Ashley Pharoah. The plot revolves around Nathan Appleby and his wife, Charlotte Appleby, whose farm is believed to be at the centre of numerous supernatural occurrences.
John Roland Clifford Yorke is a British television producer and script editor, who was head of Channel 4 Drama 2003–2005, controller of BBC drama production 2006-2012 and MD of Company Pictures (2013-2015).
Allan Cubitt is a British television, film, and theatre writer, director, and producer and former teacher, best known for his work on Prime Suspect II and The Fall.