Nick Leather

Last updated
Nick Leather
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, Playwright
Known for The Control Room
Rocket's Island
Hollyoaks

Nick Leather is a British screenwriter and playwright, best known as the creator of the drama series The Control Room for BBC One, as well as the CBBC children's series Rocket's Island .

Contents

Early life

Leather grew up in Newton-le-Willows. He worked for a time at local newspaper The Newton Guardian, the experience inspiring him to write. [1]

Career

Leather began in theatre, with his first play All The Ordinary Angels produced by Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, and later winning the Pearson Award for Best New Play. He would become the Royal Exchange's Playwright-in-Residence. He subsequently moved into radio and then television, writing for series such as Justice, Secrets and Words and Jimmy McGovern's Moving On , as well as multiple episode of Hollyoaks . In 2012, he won the Writer’s Guild Award for Best Episode Of A Continuing Drama for his work on Hollyoaks. [2]

In 2012, he created the children's series Rocket's Island, about a family taking care of foster children at their island farm. [3] It was nominated for a BAFTA children's award in the drama category in 2016 but lost out to the winner Refugee. [4] Leather would alternate between adult and children's drama, writing for McGovern's Broken , and the Apple TV+ thriller Suspicion , as well as The Dumping Ground and The Worst Witch . In 2018, he wrote the television film Mother's Day, based on an infamous IRA bombing attack in Warrington, close to where Leather had grown up and which he had memories of. [5]

In 2021, the BBC commissioned The Control Room, a three part thriller about an Emergency call handler, which would air on BBC One in 2022. [6] Leather was inspired to write the series by a real-life health-scare involving his daughter. [7] [8] It was announced on 8 December 2022 that Leather was writing a six-part thriller for BBC One, Nightsleeper. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Moffat</span> Scottish television writer and producer

Steven William Moffat is a Scottish television writer, television producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work as showrunner, writer and executive producer of the science fiction television series Doctor Who and the contemporary crime drama television series Sherlock, based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. In the 2015 Birthday Honours, Moffat was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama.

James Stanley McGovern is an English screenwriter and producer. He is best known for creating the drama series Cracker (1993–1995), for which he received two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. He also received recognition for creating drama series such as Hillsborough, The Lakes, The Street, and Accused, among others. On 8 December 2021 Jimmy was conferred the Freedom of Liverpool, in recognition of his life's work.

Kay Mellor was an English actress, scriptwriter, producer and director. She was known for creating television series such as Band of Gold, Fat Friends, and The Syndicate, as well as co-creating CITV's children's drama Children's Ward (1989–2000).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lime Pictures</span> British television production company

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.

Roy Samuel Williams is a British playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daran Little</span> British television writer

Daran Little 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 and EastEnders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Lang</span> British actor and writer

Chris Lang is a British screenwriter, producer and actor. Lang has written for many British television series but is best known as the writer, creator and executive producer of Unforgotten.

Michael Bartlett is an English playwright and screenwriter for film and TV series. His 2015 psychological thriller TV series, Doctor Foster, starring Suranne Jones, won the New Drama award from National Television Awards. Bartlett also won Best Writer from the Broadcast Press Guild Awards. A BBC TV Film of Bartlett's play King Charles III was broadcast in May 2017 and while critically acclaimed, generated some controversy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sally Wainwright</span> British television writer, producer and director

Sally Anne Wainwright is an English television writer, producer, and director from Yorkshire. Early in her career, Wainwright worked as a playwright, and as a scriptwriter on the long-running radio serial drama The Archers. In the 1990s, Wainwright began her television career, and, in 2000, created her first original drama series At Home with the Braithwaites (2000–2003).

Danny Brocklehurst is an English screenwriter and playwright. He has won both BAFTA and Royal Television Society writing awards. He was featured in the writers' section of the Broadcast magazine Hot 100 2007. His Sky comedy Brassic has the highest audience appreciation score of any UK comedy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heidi Thomas</span> English screenwriter and playwright

Heidi Thomas is an English screenwriter and playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jed Mercurio</span> British television writer, producer and director

Gerald Gary "Jed" Mercurio is a British television writer, producer, director and novelist. A former hospital doctor and Royal Air Force officer, Mercurio has been ranked among UK television's leading writers. In 2017, Mercurio was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Television Society and the Baird Medal by RTS Midlands.

Tim Firth is an English dramatist, screenwriter and songwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nico Mirallegro</span> English actor (b. 1991)

Nico Cristian Mirallegro is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Barry "Newt" Newton in the soap opera Hollyoaks (2007–2010), Finn Nelson in My Mad Fat Diary (2013–2015), Joe Middleton in The Village (2013), and Johnjo O'Shea in Common (2014). His feature film credits include Spike Island (2012), Anita B. (2014), The Pass (2016), and Peterloo (2018).

Alexander Peter Moffat is a British playwright and screenwriter.

Pete McTighe is a British screenwriter and executive producer. He is originating writer of Wentworth, a female ensemble prison drama series that won Most Outstanding and Most Popular Drama at the Logie Awards. He is the creator and writer of the BBC1 mystery thriller series The Pact and has written various television productions in the UK and internationally including Doctor Who, The Rising, Glitch, Nowhere Boys and A Discovery of Witches. McTighe has received five Australian Writers Guild Award and one Welsh BAFTA nomination for his work.

Clive Bradley is a British screenwriter who has written for film and television. After graduating from the National Film and Television School, he was one of the winners of the first Orange Prize for Screenwriting in 1999.

Allan Cubitt was previously a teacher at John Ruskin High School, Croydon during the 1980s teaching English and Drama who became a British television, film, and theatre writer, director, and producer, best known for his work on Prime Suspect II and The Fall.

Roanne Bardsley is a Welsh television screenwriter, best known her work on the long-running Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks. She was originally from Lampeter, later moving to Liverpool.

The Control Room is a 2022 British thriller television series created by Nick Leather and produced by Hartswood Films. It stars Iain De Caestecker and Joanna Vanderham. The three-part series was broadcast on BBC One over consecutive nights from 17 to 19 July 2022, and was simultaneously available on BBC iPlayer.

References

  1. "Mother's Day writer: 'It would be wrong if the story of the Warrington bombing and the Parrys wasn't told'". 3 September 2018.
  2. "Writers' Guild Awards 2012".
  3. "Rocket's Island". www.all3mediainternational.com. Retrieved 2021-06-09.
  4. "2016 Children's Drama | BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  5. "Mother's Day writer reveals what he almost got very wrong with the drama". Digital Spy . 3 September 2018.
  6. "BBC Drama Reveals Raft of New Commissions and Commissioning Roles". 30 March 2021.
  7. "The Control Room writer explains real-life inspiration for thriller".
  8. "The Control Room". 13 July 2022.
  9. "The BBC commissions new suspense thriller Nightsleeper from Fremantle's Euston Films".