Peter Straughan | |
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Born | 1968 (age 56–57) |
Occupation | Dramatist |
Spouse |
Peter Straughan (born 1968) is a British playwright, screenwriter and author, based in the north-east of England. He was writer-in-residence at Newcastle's Live Theatre Company. Whilst there, Live staged his plays Bones and Noir. He has been commended[ by whom? ] for having a talent for writing dark, twisted and witty stories.
Straughan's first ambition was to be a professional musician and he achieved this while playing bass guitar with Newcastle-based band The Honest Johns. He spent four years touring and recording with the band through the late 1980s and into the early 1990s before leaving to take up full-time education at Newcastle University. While Straughan was a student he was also a member of the band Cactusman. He wrote the song "Killer", which appeared on the CD album North of London, a collection of music by North East bands released through Newcastle Arts. [1]
Straughan co-wrote the 2006 feature film, Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution and adapted Toby Young's memoir How to Lose Friends & Alienate People . He is the writer of the 2009 film The Men Who Stare at Goats , and co-writer of the 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay, a screenplay he wrote in collaboration with his late wife Bridget O'Connor. O'Connor died of cancer, aged 49, in 2010, before the film was released. They were awarded a BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay. [2]
He adapted Wolf Hall for television. [3] [4] Series 2 of Wolf Hall was confirmed to be in development on 27 May 2019. [5]
In 2025, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay for Conclave . [6]
Short film
Year | Title | Director | Writer |
---|---|---|---|
2011 | Gee Gee | Yes | Yes |
Film writer
Television
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Playhouse Presents | Yes | Yes | Episode "Nosferatu in Love" |
2015, 2024 | Wolf Hall | No | Yes | 12 episodes |
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 1974 spy novel by the author and former spy John le Carré. It follows the endeavours of the taciturn, ageing spymaster George Smiley to uncover a Soviet mole in the British Secret Intelligence Service. The novel has received critical acclaim for its complex social commentary—and, at the time, relevance, following the defection of Kim Philby. It was followed by The Honourable Schoolboy in 1977 and Smiley's People in 1979. The three novels together make up the "Karla Trilogy", named after Smiley's long-time nemesis Karla, the head of Soviet foreign intelligence and the trilogy's overarching antagonist.
Paul Edward Dehn was a British screenwriter, best known for Goldfinger, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Planet of the Apes sequels and Murder on the Orient Express. Dehn and his life partner, James Bernard, won the Academy Award for Best Story for Seven Days to Noon.
John Irvin is an English film director. Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, he began his career by directing a number of documentaries and television works, including the BBC adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He made several Hollywood films in the 1980s, including The Dogs of War (1980), Ghost Story (1981) and Hamburger Hill (1987).
Douglas Urbanski is an American film producer and occasional film actor. He is a twice Oscar-nominated, Golden Globe Nominated and BAFTA-winning motion picture producer.
Peter Julian Robin Morgan is a British screenwriter and playwright. He has written for theatre, films and television, often writing about historical events or figures such as Queen Elizabeth II, whom he has covered extensively in all major media. He has received a number of accolades including five BAFTA Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award. In February 2017, Morgan was awarded a British Film Institute Fellowship.
The BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to a screenwriter for a specific film.
The BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to a screenwriter for a specific film.
Arthur Hopcraft was a British screenwriter, well known for his TV plays such as The Nearly Man, and for his small-screen adaptations such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; Hard Times, Bleak House, and Rebecca. Before taking up writing for TV, he was a sports journalist for The Guardian and The Observer, writing The Football Man: People and Passions in Soccer. He also had four other books published, including an autobiographical account of his childhood, and wrote the screenplay for the film Hostage. Hopcraft won the BAFTA Writers Award in 1986.
A Perfect Spy is a BBC serial adaptation of John le Carré's 1986 spy novel A Perfect Spy which was aired on BBC2 and broadcast from 4 November to 16 December 1987. It follows the career of the British MI6 spy Magnus Pym from his early days as a schoolboy to his eventual disappearance as a suspected agent of the Czech secret service. The series was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries and the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series in 1988.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 Cold War spy film directed by Tomas Alfredson. The screenplay was written by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan, based on John le Carré's 1974 novel of the same name. The film stars an ensemble cast including Gary Oldman as George Smiley, with Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciarán Hinds, David Dencik and Kathy Burke. It is set in London in the early 1970s and follows the hunt for a Soviet double agent at the top of the British secret service.
Bridget O'Connor was a BAFTA-winning author, playwright and screenwriter.
The 10th Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards were given out on December 5, 2011.
The 10th San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards, honoring the best in film for 2011, were given on 11 December 2011.
The 24th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 2011, were announced on December 19, 2011.
The 32nd London Film Critics Circle Awards, honouring the best in film for 2011, were announced by the London Film Critics Circle on 19 January 2012.
The 15th Online Film Critics Society Awards, honoring the best in film for 2011, were announced on 2 January 2012.
The 65th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, were held on 12 February 2012 at the Royal Opera House in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2011. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, accolades are handed out for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 2011.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 1979 British seven-part spy drama by the BBC. John Irvin directed and Jonathan Powell produced this adaptation of John le Carré's novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974). The serial, which stars: Alec Guinness, Alexander Knox, Ian Richardson, Michael Jayston, Bernard Hepton, Anthony Bate, Ian Bannen, George Sewell and Michael Aldridge, was shown in the United Kingdom from 10 September to 22 October 1979, and in the United States beginning on 29 September 1980. The US version was re-edited from the original seven episodes to fit into six episodes.
Smiley’s People is a 1982 British six-part spy drama by the BBC. Directed by Simon Langton and produced by Jonathan Powell, it is the television adaptation of the 1979 spy novel Smiley's People by John le Carré, and a sequel to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Starring Alec Guinness, Michael Byrne, Anthony Bate and Bernard Hepton, it was first shown in the United Kingdom from 20 September to 25 October 1982, and in the United States beginning on 25 October 1982.