Joe Ahearne
Encyclopedia
Joe Ahearne is a British
television
writer
and director
, best known for his work on several fantasy-based programmes including Ultraviolet
and Doctor Who
. By coincidence, he was born on 23rd November 1963, the day that the first ever Doctor Who story (An Unearthly Child) aired
Joe Ahearne is a British
television
writer
and director
, best known for his work on several fantasy-based programmes including Ultraviolet
and Doctor Who
. By coincidence, he was born on 23rd November 1963, the day that the first ever Doctor Who story (An Unearthly Child) aired
Joe Ahearne is a British
television
writer
and director
, best known for his work on several fantasy-based programmes including Ultraviolet
and Doctor Who
. By coincidence, he was born on 23rd November 1963, the day that the first ever Doctor Who story (An Unearthly Child) aired http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0013878/ .
in 1994, and shortly afterwards he began working for the independent television production company World Productions
. Among his work for World were episodes of the 1997 series the BBC Two
drama This Life
, for which Ahearne wrote two and directed another three episodes, making him the only person to both write and direct episodes for the series.
His next major production for World was the six-episode Channel Four vampire
series Ultraviolet
, which Ahearne both wrote and directed. Ultraviolet was broadcast in 1998 to high critical acclaim, and has subsequently been released on both VHS
and DVD. The series also ran on the Sci-Fi Channel
in the United States
, and the Fox Network in that country produced a pilot for their own version in 2001, although this did not lead to a series.
In 2002 Ahearne directed the pilot for the Big Bear Productions horror-fantasy drama Strange, written by Andrew Marshall
and broadcast on BBC One
. The pilot was successful enough for a series to be commissioned the following year, with Ahearne helming three of the six episodes, although the series was not a success and a second did not follow.
Ahearne both wrote and directed the two-part drama-documentary series Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets
for the BBC
and the Discovery Channel
in 2004. He was the director of five episodes of the 2005 series of the BBC's Doctor Who
, for which Ahearne was nominated for his first BAFTA
.
In December 2006 his drama Perfect Parents
, starring Doctor Who lead Christopher Eccleston
, was aired on ITV1. The following month, Ahearne returned to This Life to direct the one-off reunion episode "This Life +10", shown on BBC Two
on 2 January 2007.
, a supernatural series for the BBC which he has again written and directed. It began on BBC One
in November 2008.
He also wrote the four-issue Fantastic Force
mini-series for Marvel Comics
in 2009 and Fantastic Four Annual 32 in 2010.http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.7452.fantastic_force~colon~_nu_world_order
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
writer
Screenwriting
Screenwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is a freelance profession....
and director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
, best known for his work on several fantasy-based programmes including Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (TV serial)
Ultraviolet is a 1998 British television serial written and directed by Joe Ahearne and starring Jack Davenport, Susannah Harker, Idris Elba and Philip Quast. It was produced by World Productions for Channel 4.-Synopsis:...
and Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. By coincidence, he was born on 23rd November 1963, the day that the first ever Doctor Who story (An Unearthly Child) aired
Joe Ahearne is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
writer
Screenwriting
Screenwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is a freelance profession....
and director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
, best known for his work on several fantasy-based programmes including Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (TV serial)
Ultraviolet is a 1998 British television serial written and directed by Joe Ahearne and starring Jack Davenport, Susannah Harker, Idris Elba and Philip Quast. It was produced by World Productions for Channel 4.-Synopsis:...
and Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. By coincidence, he was born on 23rd November 1963, the day that the first ever Doctor Who story (An Unearthly Child) aired
Joe Ahearne is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
writer
Screenwriting
Screenwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is a freelance profession....
and director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
, best known for his work on several fantasy-based programmes including Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (TV serial)
Ultraviolet is a 1998 British television serial written and directed by Joe Ahearne and starring Jack Davenport, Susannah Harker, Idris Elba and Philip Quast. It was produced by World Productions for Channel 4.-Synopsis:...
and Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. By coincidence, he was born on 23rd November 1963, the day that the first ever Doctor Who story (An Unearthly Child) aired http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0013878/ .
Career
Ahearne's career began when the short film Latin for a Dark Room won an award at the Edinburgh FestivalEdinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
in 1994, and shortly afterwards he began working for the independent television production company World Productions
World Productions
World Productions is a British television production company, founded in the early 1990s by acclaimed producer Tony Garnett. The company's first major series was the police drama Between The Lines , and throughout the decade they went on to produce a succession of highly successful drama series...
. Among his work for World were episodes of the 1997 series the BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
drama This Life
This Life
This Life is a BBC television drama that was produced by World Productions and screened on BBC Two. Two series were broadcast in 1996 and 1997 and a reunion special in 2007....
, for which Ahearne wrote two and directed another three episodes, making him the only person to both write and direct episodes for the series.
His next major production for World was the six-episode Channel Four vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
series Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (TV serial)
Ultraviolet is a 1998 British television serial written and directed by Joe Ahearne and starring Jack Davenport, Susannah Harker, Idris Elba and Philip Quast. It was produced by World Productions for Channel 4.-Synopsis:...
, which Ahearne both wrote and directed. Ultraviolet was broadcast in 1998 to high critical acclaim, and has subsequently been released on both VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and DVD. The series also ran on the Sci-Fi Channel
Sci Fi Channel (United States)
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and the Fox Network in that country produced a pilot for their own version in 2001, although this did not lead to a series.
In 2002 Ahearne directed the pilot for the Big Bear Productions horror-fantasy drama Strange, written by Andrew Marshall
Andrew Marshall (writer)
Andrew Marshall is an English comedy screenwriter, most noted for the domestic sitcom 2point4 children. He was also the inspiration for Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...
and broadcast on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
. The pilot was successful enough for a series to be commissioned the following year, with Ahearne helming three of the six episodes, although the series was not a success and a second did not follow.
Ahearne both wrote and directed the two-part drama-documentary series Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets
Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets
Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets is a mockumentary about a manned voyage through the solar system. Space Odyssey premiered in 2004 and was made by the BBC...
for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
in 2004. He was the director of five episodes of the 2005 series of the BBC's Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, for which Ahearne was nominated for his first BAFTA
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
.
In December 2006 his drama Perfect Parents
Perfect Parents (2006 film)
Perfect Parents is a 2006 film written and directed by Joe Ahearne for ITV. It stars Christopher Eccleston and Susannah Harker as Stuart and Alison, who try to get their daughter Lucy into a Catholic school after she witnesses a knife fight at her old school.To improve their chances, they fake...
, starring Doctor Who lead Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...
, was aired on ITV1. The following month, Ahearne returned to This Life to direct the one-off reunion episode "This Life +10", shown on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
on 2 January 2007.
Current projects
Ahearne's latest project is ApparitionsApparitions (TV series)
Apparitions is a BBC drama about a priest, played by Martin Shaw, who examines evidence of miracles to be used in canonisation but also carries out exorcisms.The series is written by Joe Ahearne.- Episode 1 :...
, a supernatural series for the BBC which he has again written and directed. It began on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
in November 2008.
He also wrote the four-issue Fantastic Force
Fantastic Force
Fantastic Force was a superhero team in the Marvel Universe, a spin-off of the Fantastic Four. The team had its own title, which lasted for eighteen issues from November 1994 to April 1996...
mini-series for Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
in 2009 and Fantastic Four Annual 32 in 2010.http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.7452.fantastic_force~colon~_nu_world_order