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Daran Little (born 11 May 1966) is a BAFTA-winning and Emmy Award-nominated British television writer. He is the only writer to pen more than 100 episodes of both Coronation Street (from 2000 until 2010) and EastEnders (from 2010 onwards).
While at Manchester Polytechnic, he wrote his dissertation about Coronation Street and Tony Warren who became his mentor and insisted the producers gave him a job. After graduating, he was taken on by Granada Television as an archivist, when the previous incumbent of the job, Eric Rosser, left. He has written 11 books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the show and its characters and co-wrote Betty Driver's autobiography. [1]
Little left Granada in 2006 after writing 95 episodes of Coronation Street and introducing the first gay character, Todd Grimshaw. He created the characters Sean Tully, Archie Shuttleworth, Bev Unwin and Eric Gartside who was played by Peter Kay. He created, wrote and produced a 20-part series called Hollyoaks: In the City for Mersey Television. The series was not recommissioned for a second series. He joined the Hollyoaks writing team, writing 12 episodes before moving to New York to work on All My Children .
ABC Daytime hired him to be a creative consultant on All My Children. He worked closely with Brian Frons, Barbara Esensten, James Harmon Brown, Charles Pratt, Jr. and Julie Hanan Carruthers. He was an Associate Head Writer from 14 July 2008 to 2 November 2009.
In 2018, Little was hired as a story consultant on the CBS Daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless , reuniting with Mal Young. [2] Little's first episode aired on 3 December 2018 and last aired on 19 March 2019.
Little, formerly a member of the Writers Guild of America, East, left and maintained financial core status. [3]
In 2009, he returned to Coronation Street, writing a further nine episodes. On 2 March 2010, it was confirmed that Little had left Coronation Street and joined its rival EastEnders. [4] In September 2010, his drama The Road to Coronation Street was broadcast on BBC4, telling the story of Coronation Street's conception 50 years earlier, centering on Tony Warren. The drama won Best Single Drama at the 2011 BAFTAs and Royal Television Society and Little won the Best Scriptwriter at the RTS North West Awards. In 2013, Little wrote a comedy pilot Kitten Chic about a psychotic fag hag that aired on Sky Living and rejoined the writing team of Hollyoaks. He rejoined EastEnders in 2013 as part of Dominic Treadwell-Collins' team, receiving acclaim for an episode where Johnny Carter came out to his father Mick, played by Danny Dyer.
Little worked as story producer on the first series of ITV2 structured reality show The Only Way Is Essex before helping to cast, set up and story produce all series of E4's BAFTA winning show Made in Chelsea . To date,[ when? ] he has worked as Story Executive on all 19 series and Summer specials. He is also an Executive Producer on ITV2's The Real Housewives of Cheshire .
From 2022 onward, Little has been involved in the production of Netflix reality shows Young, Famous & African and Dubai Bling. [5] [6]
Little is a direct descendant of Alfred the Great and William the Conqueror, as well as famed Australian bush wrangler Daniel Priest.
Little is gay but married a woman when he was younger. "I'm gay and I got married in a church... to a woman... because I feared being gay in a world that didn't accept me. That was 25 years ago." [7]
He currently lives in Los Angeles with his Canadian husband, Patrick Rankin. [8] [9]
Coronation Street is a British television soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced street in the fictional Weatherfield, a town based on inner-city Salford, England.
Stephen Russell Davies, better known as Russell T Davies, is a Welsh screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for being the original showrunner and head writer of the 2005 revival of the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who, from 2005 to 2010 and again from 2023. His other notable works include creating the series Queer as Folk (1999–2000), Bob & Rose (2001), The Second Coming (2003), Casanova (2005), Doctor Who spin-offs Torchwood (2006–2011) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011), Cucumber (2015), A Very English Scandal (2018), Years and Years (2019), It's a Sin (2021) and Nolly (2023).
Paul Abbott is an English screenwriter and producer. He became one of the most successful television writers in Britain following his work on popular series such as Cracker (1993–2006) and Coronation Street (1960–present), and would become more widely known for creating some of the most acclaimed television dramas of the 1990s and 2000s, including Reckless (1997), Touching Evil (1997–1999), Clocking Off (2000–2003), State of Play (2003), Shameless (2004–2013), and No Offence (2015–2018).
Lime Pictures, formerly known as Mersey Television, is a British television production company, founded by producer and writer Phil Redmond in the early 1980s. They produce drama and entertainment shows, for the international market including Hollyoaks, The Only Way is Essex, Geordie Shore and Free Rein.
Ben Price is a British actor, director and writer. He has played the role of Nick Tilsley in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street and has made four films as a writer/director, the first of which, I'm Sorry To Tell You, was BAFTA-shortlisted.
Shaun Duggan is a BAFTA nominated English writer based in the UK. He has repeatedly collaborated with Jimmy McGovern. He has written several plays and has worked extensively for television including Brookside and EastEnders (BBC1).
Paul Marquess is a television producer from Belfast, Northern Ireland. His credits include Brookside, The Bill, Family Affairs, Hollyoaks, Crime Stories, Suspects and Hope Street. He also originated the idea for the series Footballers' Wives. He currently holds the post of managing director of Newman Street, a label of Fremantlemedia.
Sally Anne Wainwright is an English television writer, producer, and director. She is known for her dramas, which are often set in West Yorkshire, where she originates from, and feature "strong female characters". Wainwright has been praised for the quality of her dialogue.
Peter Kosminsky is a British writer, director and producer. He has directed Hollywood movies such as White Oleander and television films like Warriors, The Government Inspector, The Promise, Wolf Hall and The State.
Claire Elizabeth Cooper is a British actress, best known for portraying Jacqui McQueen in Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, a character she played full time from 2006 to 2013 and returned for 1 episode in 2023.
The Street is a British drama television series created by Jimmy McGovern and produced by Granada Television for the BBC. The series follows the lives of various residents of an unnamed street in Manchester and features an all-star cast including Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent, Jane Horrocks, Bob Hoskins, and David Thewlis.
Shed Productions, part of Warner Bros. Television Productions UK, was an independent UK television production company, specialising in contemporary, original drama programming and content. It was established in 1998 by Eileen Gallagher, Brian Park, Ann McManus and Maureen Chadwick, who previously worked together at Granada Television. As of October 2015 it no longer exists as a company with all properties folded into Wall to Wall.
Ian Puleston-Davies is a Welsh actor and writer. He is best known for his role as builder Owen Armstrong in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street from 2010 to 2015. In November 2014, ITV announced that Puleston-Davies had quit his role as Owen Armstrong in Coronation Street, and his character departed from the show on 15 April 2015.
Jack Thorne FRSL is a British playwright, television writer, screenwriter, and producer.
The Road to Coronation Street is a 2010 British drama first broadcast on BBC Four. It is a dramatisation of the creation of Coronation Street, the UK's longest-running television soap opera, from conception to its first transmission in December 1960. Set mainly at Granada Studios, Manchester in 1960, the 75-minute-long programme follows the true story of Tony Warren, a struggling scriptwriter who creates a vision of a television programme depicting normal life in a Salford street of terraced houses. The production first aired in October 2010, and was one of several programmes celebrating the 50th anniversary of Coronation Street that year.
Gareth Philips is a television producer.
Nicola Shindler is a British television producer and executive, and founder of the independent television drama production company Quay Street Productions, having founded and run Red Production Company from 1998 to 2020. She has won eleven BAFTA TV Awards.
Peter Hoar is an Emmy-nominated British director of film and television, known for his work on Daredevil, The Umbrella Academy, Doctor Who and It's a Sin.
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