John Morton (writer)

Last updated

John Morton is a British writer and director for television and radio, perhaps best known as the creator of People Like Us , which starred Chris Langham as the hapless documentary maker Roy Mallard. He is also the creator and writer of several other comedies for the BBC including The Sunday Format , Broken News , W1A and Twenty Twelve .

Contents

Career

Morton gave up a career as an English teacher to become a writer in 1990. His first success came when BBC Radio accepted his pilot comedy script for People Like Us . It ran for three series on BBC Radio 4 from 1995 and won Sony Radio Award and a Writer's Guild Award for Best Radio Comedy before being adapted for BBC Two (with Langham in the same role) in 1999.

Morton went on to create and write the Sony Radio Award-winning satirical newspaper supplement show The Sunday Format [1] for BBC Radio 4 and co-created the BBC One sitcom Kiss Me Kate with Chris Langham. For the launch night of BBC Four in 2001 John wrote the one-off special The Gist, a spoof arts review show presented by Robert Webb.

In 2005 Morton teamed up with writer Tony Roche on Broken News , a six-part comedy series about a 24-hour rolling news station which broadcast on BBC Two.

In August 2010, the BBC announced a new six-part series Twenty Twelve , written and directed by Morton. This series is centered on the organisers of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, similar to ABC Australia's The Games . John Clarke and Ross Stevenson, creators of The Games, claimed to have had many phone conferences, meetings and over four years of email exchanges with Morton, and yet the series was made without their participation or permission. [2] Following a 'thorough legal assessment', the BBC rejected their claims stating that; 'while the premise of the two shows was similar – focusing on the buildup to the staging of the Olympic games – the content and the style of the two shows was very different'. [3] The series commenced on 14 March 2011 on BBC Four. [4] A second series was broadcast on BBC2 in the run up to the 2012 London Olympic Games. [5]

In 2022, Morton helmed a remake of the French comedy series Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent), titled Ten Percent . It streamed on Amazon Prime. [6] Morton felt there were two directions the adaptation could have gone: by portraying the agent-client relationships either cynically or affectionately. Morton decided he wanted to take the latter route, which also aligned best with the tone of the original series. [7]

Personal life

Morton is married to the actress Helen Atkinson-Wood who, on first hearing People Like Us on the radio, rang the BBC in praise of the programme and was given Morton's phone number. She called him to tell him how much she liked it and Morton is said to have replied "Thanks a lot. Fancy getting married?" [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Morris (satirist)</span> English comedian

Christopher J Morris is an English comedian, radio presenter, actor, and filmmaker. Known for his deadpan, dark humour, surrealism, and controversial subject matter, he has been praised by the British Film Institute for his "uncompromising, moralistic drive".

Paul Julian Whitehouse is a Welsh actor, writer, presenter and comedian. He was one of the main stars of the BBC sketch comedy series The Fast Show, and has also starred with Harry Enfield in the shows Harry & Paul and Harry Enfield & Chums. He has also starred with Bob Mortimer in the BBC series Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. He has also acted in films appearing in Corpse Bride (2005), Alice in Wonderland (2010), and The Death of Stalin (2017).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Partridge</span> British comedy character

Alan Gordon Partridge is a comedic character portrayed by the English actor Steve Coogan. A parody of British television personalities, Partridge is a tactless and inept broadcaster with an inflated sense of celebrity. Since his debut in 1991, he has appeared in media including radio and television series, books, podcasts and a feature film.

<i>Not the Nine OClock News</i> British television comedy sketch show

Not the Nine O'Clock News is a British television sketch comedy show which was broadcast on BBC2 from 1979 to 1982. Originally shown as a comedy alternative to the Nine O'Clock News on BBC1, it features satirical sketches on then-current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy sketches, re-edited videos, and spoof television formats. The programme features Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith, and Griff Rhys Jones, as well as Chris Langham in the first series.

Christopher Langham is an English writer, actor, and comedian. He is known for playing the cabinet minister Hugh Abbot in the BBC sitcom The Thick of It, and as presenter Roy Mallard in People Like Us, first on BBC Radio 4 and later on its transfer to television on BBC Two, where Mallard is almost entirely an unseen character. He subsequently created several spoof advertisements in the same vein. He also played similar unseen interviewers in an episode of the television series Happy Families and in the film The Big Tease. He is also known for his roles in the television series Not the Nine O'Clock News, Help, and Kiss Me Kate, and as the gatehouse guard in Chelmsford 123. In 2006, he won BAFTA awards for The Thick of It and Help.

<i>People Like Us</i> (mockumentary)

People Like Us is a British radio and TV comedy programme, a spoof on-location documentary written by John Morton, and starring Chris Langham as Roy Mallard, an inept interviewer. Originally a radio show for BBC Radio 4 in three series from 1995 to 1997, it was made into two television series for BBC Two broadcast between September 1999 and June 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armando Iannucci</span> British comedian, film director and producer

Armando Giovanni Iannucci is a Scottish satirist, writer, director, producer, performer and panellist. Born in Glasgow to Italian parents, Iannucci studied at the University of Glasgow followed by the University of Oxford. Starting on BBC Scotland and BBC Radio 4, his early work with Chris Morris on the radio series On the Hour transferred to television as The Day Today.

Hello Cheeky is a comedy series starring Barry Cryer, John Junkin and Tim Brooke-Taylor, broadcast on BBC Radio 2 between 1973 and 1979, and also broadcast on television - on the ITV network - in 1976. The format was short comedy sketches, often as short as one line, with occasional longer sketches.

The Sunday Format, "BBC Radio 4's first high-quality weekend broadsheet newspaper", is a British satirical radio comedy. The programme is a parody of British middle class newspapers, in particular the lifestyle supplements and glossy celebrity magazines that fill Sunday papers. The programme consists of a series of short sketches that dramatise the articles in the eponymous newspaper, with the cast assuming accents to convey the characters of the journalists or columnists. The articles are presented in the format of a British Sunday newspaper, with the copy distributed in columns across the body of the paper, and commonly feature lists of items or instructions. Sketches are broken up, and often use backing music which also stops and starts along with the reading of the column. This leads to a surreal, Dadaist juxtaposition of sketches, with jokes being set up at the beginning of the episode and the punchline being delivered at a random point before the end.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Brooker</span> English television presenter, writer, and producer

Charlton Brooker is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series Black Mirror, and has written for comedy series such as Brass Eye, The 11 O'Clock Show and Nathan Barley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Holmes</span> British writer, comedian and broadcaster

Jon Holmes is a British comedian, writer, presenter and broadcaster known for his work on such programmes as The Skewer,The Now Show, Listen Against, along with both music and spoken word radio. He has appeared on numerous television programmes.

Jesse David Armstrong is a British author, screenwriter, and producer. He is a co-creator of the Channel 4 comedy series Peep Show (2003–2015) and Fresh Meat (2011–2016), and the creator of the HBO satirical drama series Succession (2018–2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felix Dexter</span> British actor, comedian, and writer

Felix Dexter was a Saint Kitts-born British actor, comedian and writer.

Rhys Thomas is a British director, producer, actor, comedian and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Dutton</span> British comedian

Julian Dutton is an English comedy writer and performer, principally for television and radio, whose work has won a British Comedy Award, a BAFTA, and a Radio Academy Gold Award for Best Comedy. He is the author of five books.

Tony Roche is an English television, radio and film comedy writer and producer, best known as a writer of the HBO comedy Veep, the BBC Television series The Thick of It and its film spin-off In the Loop.

<i>Just a Minute</i> British radio programme

Just a Minute is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy panel game, hosted by Sue Perkins since 2021. For more than 50 years, with a few exceptions, it was hosted by Nicholas Parsons. Following Parsons' death in 2020, Perkins assumed the host's chair permanently, starting with the 87th series. Just a Minute was first transmitted on Radio 4 on 22 December 1967, three months after the station's launch. The programme won a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award in 2003.

<i>Newsjack</i> Satirical sketch show on BBC Radio

Newsjack was a British satirical sketch show which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra between 2009 and 2021. It was hosted by Miles Jupp, Justin Edwards, Romesh Ranganathan (2014), Nish Kumar (2015-2016), Angela Barnes (2017-2018) and Kiri Pritchard-McLean (2019-2021). It was first broadcast on 4 June 2009. The series was notable for having an "Open door" policy on writing, advertising itself as "the scrapbook sketch show written entirely by the Great British public" meaning that unsolicited writers without contract to the BBC could send in material. The show was designed to give new writers an opportunity to get material broadcast. It was hoped by the people behind the show that it would be a modern version of Week Ending, an earlier sketch show which also accepted material the same way. Most shows were recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House.

<i>Twenty Twelve</i> British TV series or programme

Twenty Twelve is a BBC television comedy series written and directed by John Morton. Starring Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Hynes and Amelia Bullmore, the programme is a spoof on-location mockumentary following the organisation of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. It was first broadcast on UK television station BBC Four in March 2011 to coincide with the 500-day countdown to the opening ceremony.

<i>W1A</i> (TV series) British comedy

W1A is a British mockumentary sitcom television series that satirises the management of the BBC. It was created by John Morton, and first broadcast on BBC Two on 19 March 2014. The series is the follow-up to Twenty Twelve, a BAFTA-winning comedy series by the BBC about the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. It sees the reintroduction of Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes as their Twenty Twelve characters, alongside a new cast, with David Tennant's role as narrator also continuing from the earlier series.

References

  1. ↑ "Radio 4 – Comedy – The Sunday Format". BBC. 27 January 2006. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  2. ↑ John Clarke and Ross Stevenson. "How television works: a heart-warming story for all the family – The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Abc.net.au. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  3. ↑ John Plunkett (16 March 2011). "BBC denies Olympics comedy stole from Australian TV show | Media | guardian.co.uk". London: Guardian. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  4. ↑ Vicky Frost (11 March 2011). "Sebastian Coe proves he's game for a laugh in BBC Olympics spoof | Television & radio". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  5. ↑ Neilan, Catherine (15 April 2011). "Twenty Twelve to return for second series | News | Broadcast". Broadcastnow.co.uk. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  6. ↑ Thompson, Jessie (25 April 2022). "Ten Percent review: British Call My Agent! is comme-ci, comme-ça". Evening Standard. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  7. ↑ Gilbert, Sophie (30 April 2022). "Sympathy for the Movie Star". The Atlantic. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  8. ↑ Culture (30 June 2001). "The man who wouldn't give up". London: Telegraph. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.