Steve Thompson (writer)

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Steve Thompson
Born1967 (age 56–57)
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s) Screenwriter, playwright
Years active2004–present
Known for Sherlock
Vienna Blood
Doctor Who
Jericho

Stephen Thompson (born 1967) is a British playwright and screenwriter.

Contents

Background

Thompson studied at the University of Warwick. He gained a maths degree but also did some English studies in his third year. [1] [2] Thompson worked as a maths teacher for twelve years at Tiffin School, and was head of maths. [1] [3]

Thompson left teaching in 2000 and became a full-time dad and house husband to his children. He has stated this was because his wife was earning much more money than him. [2]

Career

In an interview, Thompson said "I took a sudden left turn and became a scriptwriter.” [1] He trained on the RADA playwrights' course, and his first play, Damages, was performed at the Bush Theatre in 2004, winning the Meyer-Whitworth Award for new writing. [4]

In 2005, he was made Pearson writer in residence at the Bush Theatre where his next play Whipping It Up was also performed. Roaring Trade was performed by Paines Plough at the Soho Theatre. [5] His most recent play No Naughty Bits was performed at Hampstead Theatre in September 2011. [6]

His first credit for television came on the medical soap Doctors in 2005. Since then, he has contributed scripts for several popular shows, including Silk , Upstairs Downstairs , Doctor Who , and the first three series of Sherlock (the latter two both in collaboration with Steven Moffat). In 2016, he created the period drama series Jericho , which re-imagines the building of the Ribblehead Viaduct. In April 2016, ITV confirmed that a second series of Jericho was not going to be commissioned. [7]

On 3 October 2018, it was announced that Thompson would be teaming with Frank Spotnitz to develop a drama about Leonardo da Vinci. [8] On 17 February 2019, it was revealed that Thompson was developing an adaptation of Runestaff for BBC. [9] On 16 August 2019, the BBC announced they would broadcast Thompson's adaptation of the popular Liebermann novels by Frank Tallis, Vienna Blood. [10] On 6 July 2020, Endor Productions and MR Film announced that a second series had been jointly recommissioned by ORF, ZDF, BBC and PBS. [11] On 22 February 2022, a third series was commissioned. [12]

Bibliography

Television writing credits

ProductionEpisodesBroadcaster
Doctors
  • "Criminal Negligence" (2005)
  • "Sport for All" (2005)
 BBC One
The Whistleblowers
  • "No Child Left Behind" (2007)
 ITV
Mutual Friends
  • Episode 5 (2008)
 BBC One
Sherlock BBC One
Silk
  • "Episode #1.5" (2011)
BBC One
Doctor Who BBC One
Upstairs Downstairs
  • "All The Things You Are" (2012)
BBC One
Sinbad
  • "House of Games" (2012)
 Sky1
Jericho
  • Series creator, all episodes (2016)
ITV
Deep State
  • "Reunion" (2018)
  • "Stories" (2018)
  • "The New Normal" (co-written with Matthew Parkhill) (2019)
 Fox
Vienna Blood
  • Series creator, all episodes (2019-)
 BBC Two
Leonardo
  • Series co-creator (2021-)
 Rai 1

Personal life

Thompson is married to the media barrister Lorna Skinner [13] [14] and they have five children. [5]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "How mathematics inspires Doctor Who: Scriptwriter Stephen Thompson explains all".
  2. 1 2 Laws, Roz (13 April 2015). "New political play Feed the Beast to be premiered in Birmingham". Business Live. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 April 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ↑ Steve Thompson Profile in The Guardian, Retrieved 3 August 2010
  5. 1 2 "Steve Thompson". www.doollee.com.
  6. ↑ "New play by Steve Thompson exploring the English sense of humour at Hampstead Theatre | Fringe Theatre review". Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
  7. ↑ "Yorkshire Dales-set TV series Jericho is axed by ITV bosses". Craven Herald & Pioneer . 13 April 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  8. ↑ "Frank Spotnitz Developing Series Depicting Leonardo da Vinci as Gay Outsider (EXCLUSIVE)". 3 October 2018.
  9. ↑ "The BBC announces fantasy adaptation Runestaff". 17 February 2019.
  10. ↑ "BBC Buys 'Vienna Blood' Crime Thriller Series from 'Sherlock' Writer (EXCLUSIVE)". 16 August 2019.
  11. ↑ "'Vienna Blood' Gets Season 2 Order". The Hollywood Reporter. 6 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  12. ↑ "Period Crime Drama 'Vienna Blood' Gets Season 3 Order". The Hollywood Reporter . 22 February 2022.
  13. ↑ "Lorna Skinner QC".
  14. ↑ "Lorna Skinner". 3 January 2018.
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