Stephen Garrett (producer)

Last updated

Stephen Garrett (born 16 April 1957) is a British film and television producer. He is best known for founding the Kudos production company, [1] and executive producing the BBC spy drama Spooks. As a film producer and executive producer, his credits include Eastern Promises (2007), Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008), Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011), and The Night Manager (2016). [2] In 2016, he launched a new production company, Character Seven. [3]

Biography

Born on 16 April 1957, Stephen Garrett was educated at Westminster School and Merton College, Oxford where he read Jurisprudence. In 1978 he started work at Granada, where he worked as a researcher on Granada Reports . From 1987 to 1992 he was Channel 4’s commissioning editor for youth programmes, commissioning The Word . [4]

In 1992 Garrett founded Kudos, with partner Debbie Mason. As joint managing director, first with Debbie Mason, then with Jane Featherstone, and later Executive Chairman, Garrett oversaw the development and production of programmes such as Spooks, Life on Mars , Hustle , Burn Up, M.I. High , Law & Order: UK and Hunted . He produced the Simon Beaufoy scripted films Among Giants (1998) and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008), the International Emmy Award-winning The Magician's House (1999), and Channel 4’s drama Psychos (1999). [2]

He originated the idea for BBC One’s spy drama Spooks, on which he acted as executive producer for series one and a producer for 2015’s feature film Spooks: The Greater Good . [5] Under Kudos’s filmmaking arm (and later Shine Pictures, after the sale of Kudos to Elisabeth Murdoch’s Shine Group) Garrett acted as executive producer on Keira Knightley’s Pure (2002), David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (2007) and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011), featuring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt.

In 2003 Kudos was named one of the top 50 most creative businesses in Britain [6] and in 2007 it was voted Best Independent Production Company by Broadcast magazine. Kudos was bought by Shine TV for £35m in 2006. [7] Garrett stood down from Kudos in 2014 to “reinvent [himself]” as an independent producer with the aim of “blurring the boundaries and the fusion of forms [of film and television]”. [1]

In collaboration with the Ink Factory, Garrett has been lead executive producer on The Night Manager (2016), a mini-series for the AMC TV channel and the BBC based on the eponymous John le Carré novel, starring Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston and directed by Susanne Bier. [8] In 2016, Garrett launched a new production company, Character Seven. [9] The Night Manager is Character Seven's first production.

Outside of production Garrett is Deputy Chair of the British Screen Advisory Council [10] and is on the Development Board of the London Film School. [11] In 2010, he was News International Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media at Oxford University, where he gave a series of lectures on creativity, business and the future of storytelling. [12] He also sponsors the Verity Bargate Award for new writing in theatre. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Laurie</span> English actor, comedian, and musician (born 1959)

James Hugh Calum Laurie is an English actor, comedian, writer, and musician. He first gained recognition for his work as one half of the English comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verity Lambert</span> English television and film producer

Verity Ann Lambert was an English television and film producer.

<i>Spooks</i> (TV series) British television drama series (2002–2011)

Spooks is a British television spy drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 to 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 seasons. The title is a colloquialism for spies, and the series follows the activities of the intelligence officers of Section D in MI5, based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a highly secure suite of offices known as The Grid. In the United States, the show is broadcast under the title MI-5. In Canada, the programme originally aired as MI-5, but later aired on BBC Canada as Spooks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Salmon (producer)</span> British television producer

Peter Salmon is a British television producer and executive. He is Chief Creative Officer of global content creator, producer and distributor Endemol Shine Group, leading the company’s creative direction globally and overseeing the Group’s UK business. Prior to taking his current role in April 2016, Salmon was Director of BBC Studios, the corporation's production arm, and before that held a number of senior BBC roles including Chief Creative Officer of BBC Vision, effectively overseeing all of BBC television's in-house programme production, and Director of BBC North.

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.

The 2005 British Academy Television Awards were held on Sunday 17 April at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. The ceremony was hosted by Irish comedian and television presenter Graham Norton.

Diederick Santer is a British television producer and is best known for his work on the popular BBC television soap opera EastEnders, a post which he assumed on 23 October 2006 and left on 1 March 2010. He was Chief Executive of production company Kudos from 2015 to 2019, and is currently Chief Creative Officer of BritBox International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soho Theatre</span> Theatre in Soho, London, England

The Soho Theatre is a theatre and registered charity in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, in London, England. It produces and presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret, across three performance spaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Hiddleston</span> English actor (born 1981)

Thomas William Hiddleston is an English actor. He gained international fame portraying Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), beginning with Thor in 2011 and including the Disney+ series Loki since 2021.

"Looking After Our Own" is the second episode of the British espionage television series Spooks. It first aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 20 May 2002. The episode was written by series creator David Wolstencroft, and directed by Bharat Nalluri. The episode focuses on MI5's efforts in bringing down right-wing leader Robert Osbourne, who is believed to be planning a series of race riots across the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Lanipekun</span> British actor (born 1981)

Alex Lanipekun is a British actor. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but left early to join the cast of the BBC drama Spooks as journalist-cum-spy Ben Kaplan, the role for which he is best known.

Matthew Charman is a British screenwriter, playwright, and producer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his 2015 film Bridge of Spies, directed by Steven Spielberg and co-written with Joel and Ethan Coen. Charman started out writing for theatre, making a breakthrough as writer-in-residence at the National Theatre in London, where then-director Nicholas Hytner described Charman as having "a priceless nose for a story".

<i>Spooks</i> series 1 1st series of the British television show Spooks

The first series of the British spy drama television series Spooks began broadcasting on 13 May 2002 on BBC One, and ended on 17 June 2002. It consists of six episodes. Spooks follows the actions of Section D, a counter-terrorism division of the British Security Service (MI5). Among the storylines, main character Tom Quinn faces dilemmas living a double life with his girlfriend, who at first does not know he is really a spy, and Tessa Phillips is submitting expenses for fictitious assets she claims to be handling and pocketing the money. Matthew Macfadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner, Esther Hall, Heather Cave, Hugh Simon and Greame Mearns are listed as the main cast.

<i>Spooks</i> series 3 Third series of the British spy drama television series Spooks

The third series of the British spy drama television series Spooks began broadcasting on 11 October 2004 on BBC One, and ended on 13 December 2004. It consists of ten episodes which continue to follow the actions of Section D, a counter-terrorism division of the British Security Service (MI5). It also sees the departure of three principal characters: Tom Quinn is decommissioned in the second episode, Zoe Reynolds is exiled to Chile in the sixth episode, and Danny Hunter is killed in the series finale. In addition to Macfadyen, Hawes and Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Rupert Penry-Jones, Nicola Walker, Hugh Simon, Shauna Macdonald and Rory MacGregor are listed as the main cast.

<i>Hunted</i> (2012 TV series) 2012 British television drama series

Hunted is a 2012 British television drama series created and written by Frank Spotnitz and produced by Kudos and Big Light Productions for British broadcaster BBC, for its main channel BBC One and American premium cable broadcaster Cinemax. The series premiered on Thursday 4 October 2012 on BBC One and on Friday 19 October 2012 on Cinemax.

"Nest of Angels" is the second episode of the second series of the British espionage television series Spooks, and the eighth episode overall. It was originally broadcast on BBC Three on 2 June 2003, and repeated on frontline channel BBC One on 9 June. The episode was written by Howard Brenton, and directed by Bharat Nalluri. The episode centres on MI5's actions in stopping Muhammed Rachid, a radicalised mullah in a mosque and community centre in Birmingham, who they believe is recruiting young suicide bombers. After their previous asset is discovered and brutally expelled, the team turn to Muhammed Ibhn Khaldun, an Algerian agent who left his country to work with the British.

The Verity Bargate Award is a biennial British theatre award for new writing. It was established in 1981–82 in memory of Verity Bargate, the co-founder of Soho Poly, precursor to Soho Theatre.

<i>The Night Manager</i> (British TV series) 2016 British television serial based on a novel by John le Carré

The Night Manager is a British spy thriller television serial based on the 1993 novel of the same name by John le Carré and adapted by David Farr. The six-part first series, directed by Susanne Bier and starring Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, Olivia Colman, Tom Hollander, David Harewood and Elizabeth Debicki, began broadcasting on BBC One on 21 February 2016. It has been sold internationally by IMG to over 180 countries.

Derek Wax is a British television executive producer. His work includes The Rig, The Sixth Commandment, Sex Traffic, Occupation, The Hour,Troy: Fall of a City,Capital,Humans, Lip Service, Tsunami: The Aftermath and From There to Here. He was a producer at Granada TV from 2001 to 2005 and an Executive Producer at Kudos from 2005 to 2017.

Jane Elizabeth Featherstone is an English television producer and founder of Sister Pictures, a global TV and film production and development company. Prior to that, she was the chief executive of Kudos and co-chairman of Shine UK, now part of Endemol Shine Group.

References

  1. 1 2 Leo Barraclough (2 April 2014). "Kudos Co-Founder Stephen Garrett to Step Down". Variety.
  2. 1 2 Stephen Garrett at IMDb
  3. ↑ "Character Seven Launch". Variety. 5 February 2016.
  4. ↑ Maggie Brown (15 February 2010). "Maggie Brown interviews Stephen Garrett, the founder of Kudos". the Guardian.
  5. ↑ MI-5 at IMDb
  6. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-12. Retrieved 2016-02-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ↑ Owen Gibson (18 June 2007). "British star of the small screen that wants to be a Hustler in Hollywood". the Guardian.
  8. ↑ "BBC - Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston to Star in The Night Manager - Media Centre". BBC.
  9. ↑ "Official website". Character Seven.
  10. ↑ "About Us".
  11. ↑ "Development Committee". London Film School..
  12. ↑ "Stephen Garrett lecture podcasts". Oxford University.
  13. ↑ "Verity Bargate Award". Soho Theatre.
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.