Mike Bullen
Encyclopedia
Mike Bullen is an English-born screenwriter
. Bullen grew up in the West Midlands
of England, attending the Solihull School
and later Magdalene College, Cambridge
. He left with a degree in history of art and became a radio producer
for the BBC World Service
. Unhappy with the quality of British television targeted at people his age, Bullen took a course in screenwriting and developed a one-off comedy drama for Granada Television
. This led to the commissioning of Cold Feet
, a multiple-award-winning comedy drama that aired on the ITV
network from 1998 to 2003. The series won Bullen the Writer of the Year award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards
. He wrote two more series for Granada; Life Begins
, which ran for three years, and All About George, which ran for only one. His works have been described as being "about the intricacies of interpersonal relationships and what happens when they break down".
Bullen moved with his wife and two children to Australia in 2002 and became an Australian citizen in 2005. In 2004 he directed his first short film, entitled Amorality Tale. He co-created the Australian/UK television series Tripping Over
in 2006 and the writer and director of the Australian television pilot Make or Break in 2007. He returned to producing work for British television in 2010 with the BBC pilot Reunited
.
, Cheshire
, England. His father, Alex, was a chemical engineer and his mother, Joan, a housewife. Bullen was raised with his sister Jane in Solihull
, where he attended Solihull School
. At the age of 18 he was accepted to Magdalene College, Cambridge
to read economics. He did not enjoy the subject, so switched to history of art. Despite his public school background, Bullen felt out of place at Cambridge among students who did not come from the urban West Midlands
, later stating that "Half the students were debutantes who spent a lot of time brushing their hair; the other half ended up working in Sotheby's
." His first experiences of writing came when he was a child and wrote a newspaper for his neighbours. At Cambridge, he dramatised a Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
novel.
Following his graduation, Bullen began a career as a media planner buyer for an advertising company. The job did not excite him and he has described it as "pretty pointless". He quit the job to go backpacking in South East Asia. On his return he applied for a position as a radio producer at Radio Netherlands Worldwide, having previously worked for a hospital radio
. He eventually began freelance work for the BBC World Service
, where he was a presenter and producer for the magazine programmes On Screen and Outlook.
(a show he "cancelled [his] social life for") and Thirtysomething. He began work on scripts for Pie in the Sky and Soldier Soldier
but did not complete either. To improve his writing skills, he took a writing course at the National Film and Television School, a comedy course by Anji Loman Field, and attended Robert McKee
's STORY seminar.
He began writing another script, this time drawing on his American television influences. Believing that there was nothing on British television for people in his age group that was not a soap opera or a costume drama, Bullen wrote a script entitled The Perfect Match
, about a man who proposes to his girlfriend using the screen at Wembley Stadium
during the FA Cup Final
. He secured an agent, who managed to sell the script on spec
to Andy Harries
, controller of comedy at Granada Television
. Harries described the writing as "impressive—cleverly constructed dialogue, very funny, well observed" and commissioned it as part of his drive to move away from making traditional-style sitcoms. Bullen described the moment he walked onto the set of The Perfect Match as "gobsmacking […] wandering around a room which had previously only existed in my head". It was broadcast on ITV in September 1995 to poor reviews.
Harries was pleased enough with Bullen's work to ask him to pitch some more ideas to The Perfect Match assistant producer Christine Langan
. Langan shared Bullen's desire to see more television directed at their age bracket. Bullen pitched the idea of a traditional "boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-wins-girl-back" story told from both sides of the relationship but using elements of fantasy and flashback to distort events to fit a character's point of view. Harries accepted the pitch and Bullen began work on Cold Feet
. Initially commissioned as a pilot for ITV's Comedy Premieres
programming strand, the prospect of a full television series was given to Bullen. Cold Feets main character, Adam Williams, a lothario character and a serial monogamist, was based on Bullen himself during his twenties. The other main character, Rachel Bradley, was based on a combination of his ex-girlfriends and the "ideal girlfriend". Harries suggested that if a series was commissioned, more characters would be needed to sustain the storylines, so Bullen developed a supporting cast for Cold Feet, basing each character on friends of his. The script for Cold Feet went through "six or seven" drafts before being filmed in 1996. It was broadcast in 1997 and, after a hiatus, was commissioned for a full series
. During the hiatus, he wrote a romantic comedy feature film script for Granada and developed a pilot for London Weekend Television
, neither of which were picked up. The Writers' Guild of Great Britain
presented to Bullen the award for New Writer of the Year at their awards ceremony in October 1997.
When he first started writing professionally, Bullen could not structure his scripting in a coherent way, adopting a "mix and match" method; he began by structuring a script on cards, then typing what he had onto a computer, then returning to the cards. After completing the Cold Feet pilot, he starting writing ten pages of script per day, regardless of the quality of the writing. His own third draft was usually submitted to producers as the "first draft".
of Cold Feet began in January 1998. Bullen continued his method of developing storylines based on his own life; he and his wife had their first child in the latter half of 1997, so he integrated their experiences into the storyline of characters Pete and Jenny, who have their first child in Cold Feets first episode. Throughout 1998, he retained his job at the BBC, working on three radio shows per week at the same time as writing Cold Feet. During the second series he cut back to one show per week. By the time of the third series in 2000, he felt confident enough that he would have a future in television that he was able to give up radio presenting completely. He moved from his home in London to Cambridge, where he was able to write for two full days a week and at evenings and weekends. Bullen worked on other projects at the same time as Cold Feet: After watching the 1997 docusoap Holiday Reps, he became interested in what happens in the personal lives of holiday representatives while in foreign countries. Out of this idea he developed Sunburn
for BBC One
. Sunburn starred Michelle Collins
and was broadcast for two series from 1999 to 2000. Bullen shared writing duties with Lizzie Mickery and Sally Wainwright
.
Bullen's inspiration from American television continued; following the premiere of The West Wing in 1999, he began outlining a British version, The Firm, that would be set in Buckingham Palace
. The project never moved beyond planning stages because Bullen believed that British political issues such as "cod wars with Spain" are not as "sexy" as the issues covered in The West Wing. In 1999, Cold Feet was adapted into a series of the same name
for American network NBC
. Bullen wrote the screenplay for one of the pilot episodes. At the same time, NBC and Granada Entertainment USA commissioned a pilot script from Bullen entitled Small Beer, which centred on a group of people who take over a microbrewery in the Northwestern United States
.
The third series of Cold Feet (2000) was extended from six to eight episodes by ITV. Bullen believed that the production team had covered all potential storylines in the first two series, so declined to write any more episodes. A team of five writers was hired by Granada Television, overseen by Bullen as a co-executive producer
. Four out of the five writers left the team due to their scripts not being appropriate for the series, leaving only David Nicholls
on staff. The writing process had made Bullen think twice about not writing and he began thinking about further storylines, such as mid-life crises and IVF. The same year, he signed a two-year contract with Granada to develop new projects. A fourth series of Cold Feet, also of eight episodes, was commissioned for 2001. Bullen announced that he did not want to write a fifth series, and that the fourth would be the last. His reasons were that with ITV's proposed commission of up to 20 episodes a year, the series would become like a soap opera. The popularity of the fourth series persuaded Bullen to write four more episodes that formed the fifth series in 2003. The success of the fifth series won Bullen the Writer of the Year Award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards
.
In 2002, he began developing Life Begins
, a 60-minute television series. The following year he conceived George the Third. He moved to Australia in 2002 but continued to work on UK-based series.
for Sarah Lancashire
, who had signed an exclusive "golden handcuffs" deal with ITV. Two months after the series was announced, Lancashire left Life Begins, feeling unable to commit to a potentially long-running series. ITV's controller of drama Nick Elliot recast Lancashire's role with Caroline Quentin
. Life Begins concerns Maggie Mee (Quentin), a woman who believes she is in a loving relationship with her husband Phil (Alexander Armstrong
). When Phil announces to her on a family holiday that he is leaving her, Maggie realises she must begin her life again. Bullen wrote the series with John Forte. The first series was broadcast in 2004. Like with Cold Feet, he integrated events from his own life into the storylines; Maggie's father, Eric (Frank Finlay
), suffers from Alzheimer's disease
, like one of Bullen's relatives. He researched Maggie's travel agency job by spending a week at a travel agents' in Bristol.
In 2003, Bullen made a journey to Perth
's Small Screen Big Picture. On the return leg, after 12 hours of seeing nothing but the Nullarbor Plain
through the train window, he began developing a short subject
on infidelity at television conferences. The short, entitled Amorality Tale, also Bullen's directorial debut, was screened at various film festivals in 2005, and was a finalist for the first Rosemount Diamond at the Jackson Hole
Film Festival. On the themes of the film, Bullen said, "What has always interested me is the notion of ordinary people and how they react in ordinary situations […] what fascinated me is the way we arrive at the choices we make. The idea of this film is to say that the choices we make might not lead to the outcomes we expect." He had previously expressed interest in directing an episode of Cold Feet, but decided against it on the basis that his inexperience would make him "inadequate" and that the job was best left to professional directors. The short was produced by Pommie Granite Productions, a company set up by Bullen once his exclusive contract with Granada ended in September 2004. At the end of 2004, he became the seventh person to rewrite the script of the DreamWorks
/Aardman Animations
film Tortoise vs. Hare. He did at least three drafts.
Alongside the second series of Life Begins, Bullen continued developing George the Third. The title was changed to It Happens until eventually settling on All About George in time for filming in 2005. All About George starred Rik Mayall
as George Kinsey, a builder whose life is changed when six generations of his family move into his home. Initially excited about the series when he attended the cast read-throughs, Bullen's optimism waned by the time it was broadcast on TV; he believed that there were too many characters and the series premise was not clear enough. In a 2008 interview, he describes it as one of his worst TV series. Life Begins returned for a third and final series in 2006. The same year, filming commenced on Tripping Over
, a series about intercontinental backpackers in 1976 and 2006. SeaChange
writers Andrew Knight and Andrea Denholm conceived the idea in 2003 and asked Bullen, a friend of Knight's, to develop it with them. A co-production between Australia's Channel Ten and Britain's Five, Tripping Over was broadcast in both countries at the end of 2006.
had recently completed work on "Prayer of the Bone", a one-off special episode of Wire in the Blood
set in the United States. Green and Wire producer Sandra Jobling considered another special episode set in Australia. Green suggested asking Bullen to write the episode and Bullen responded by asking Green if he would like to play the lead in Make or Break. Fox World sent the script to Green and he signed on. As the pilot was Bullen's first attempt at directing television, he sought advice from the experienced production crew, in particular the director of photography. The pilot was first broadcast in March 2008. As of December 2007, Bullen and Fox World were seeking financial investment from a UK production company to develop a full-length series.
In 2010, Bullen wrote his first screenplay for the BBC since Sunburn; Reunited
is a pilot about six friends who once shared a house together reuniting after eight years. Bullen admitted that his career was "declining" before he made Reunited, and he even moved back to the UK for five months while it was produced. He considers Reunited his best work since the end of Cold Feet. The pilot received only 3.3 million viewers when it was broadcast, and a series was not commissioned. Bullen has since discussed other projects with Ed Byrne
, one of the actors in the pilot.
. They later moved to Newport, New South Wales
. They became Australian citizens in 2005.
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. Bullen grew up in the West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
of England, attending the Solihull School
Solihull School
Solihull School is a British Independent school situated near the centre of Solihull, West Midlands, England.2010 saw Solihull School celebrate its 450th anniversary since its foundation in 1560....
and later Magdalene College, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. He left with a degree in history of art and became a radio producer
Radio producer
A radio producer oversees the making of a radio show. There are two main types of producer. An audio or creative producer and a content producer. Audio producers create sounds and audio specifically, content producers oversee and orchestrate a radio show or feature...
for the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
. Unhappy with the quality of British television targeted at people his age, Bullen took a course in screenwriting and developed a one-off comedy drama for Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
. This led to the commissioning of Cold Feet
Cold Feet
Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...
, a multiple-award-winning comedy drama that aired on the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network from 1998 to 2003. The series won Bullen the Writer of the Year award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards
British Comedy Awards
The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...
. He wrote two more series for Granada; Life Begins
Life Begins
Life Begins is a British television drama first broadcast on ITV between February 2004 and October 2006, starring Caroline Quentin and Alexander Armstrong, Anne Reid and Frank Finlay.-History:...
, which ran for three years, and All About George, which ran for only one. His works have been described as being "about the intricacies of interpersonal relationships and what happens when they break down".
Bullen moved with his wife and two children to Australia in 2002 and became an Australian citizen in 2005. In 2004 he directed his first short film, entitled Amorality Tale. He co-created the Australian/UK television series Tripping Over
Tripping Over
Tripping Over is a British/Australian six-part drama series. Its first episode aired on Network Ten in Australia on 25 October 2006, and in the United Kingdom on Five on 30 October 2006. In the UK Tripping Over is repeated on Five Life....
in 2006 and the writer and director of the Australian television pilot Make or Break in 2007. He returned to producing work for British television in 2010 with the BBC pilot Reunited
Reunited (TV pilot)
Reunited is a British television pilot written by Mike Bullen and directed by Simon Delaney. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 30 June 2010.- Plot :Eight years after sharing a flat together while students at university, six friends reunite....
.
Background
Mike Bullen was born on 13 January 1960 in BramhallBramhall
Bramhall is a suburb of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, in Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of about 25,500.Research by the University of Sheffield has placed Bramhall as the "least lonely" place in Britain. Bramhall is also regarded as an affluent area where most residents...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, England. His father, Alex, was a chemical engineer and his mother, Joan, a housewife. Bullen was raised with his sister Jane in Solihull
Solihull
Solihull is a town in the West Midlands of England with a population of 94,753. It is a part of the West Midlands conurbation and is located 9 miles southeast of Birmingham city centre...
, where he attended Solihull School
Solihull School
Solihull School is a British Independent school situated near the centre of Solihull, West Midlands, England.2010 saw Solihull School celebrate its 450th anniversary since its foundation in 1560....
. At the age of 18 he was accepted to Magdalene College, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
to read economics. He did not enjoy the subject, so switched to history of art. Despite his public school background, Bullen felt out of place at Cambridge among students who did not come from the urban West Midlands
West Midlands conurbation
The West Midlands conurbation is the name given to the large conurbation that includes the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton and the large towns of Dudley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Solihull, Stourbridge, Halesowen in the English West Midlands....
, later stating that "Half the students were debutantes who spent a lot of time brushing their hair; the other half ended up working in Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
." His first experiences of writing came when he was a child and wrote a newspaper for his neighbours. At Cambridge, he dramatised a Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
novel.
Following his graduation, Bullen began a career as a media planner buyer for an advertising company. The job did not excite him and he has described it as "pretty pointless". He quit the job to go backpacking in South East Asia. On his return he applied for a position as a radio producer at Radio Netherlands Worldwide, having previously worked for a hospital radio
Hospital radio
Hospital radio is a form of audio broadcasting produced specifically for the in-patients of hospitals. It is primarily found in the United Kingdom.-History:...
. He eventually began freelance work for the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
, where he was a presenter and producer for the magazine programmes On Screen and Outlook.
1994–1997
In 1994 Bullen began thinking about writing a television script, based on the idea that he could "write crap" on television. He was inspired in particular by the American television series Hill Street BluesHill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
(a show he "cancelled [his] social life for") and Thirtysomething. He began work on scripts for Pie in the Sky and Soldier Soldier
Soldier Soldier
Soldier Soldier is a British television drama series. The title comes from a traditional song of the same name.Produced by Central Television and broadcast on the ITV network, it ran for a total of seven series and 82 episodes from 1991 to 1997...
but did not complete either. To improve his writing skills, he took a writing course at the National Film and Television School, a comedy course by Anji Loman Field, and attended Robert McKee
Robert McKee
Robert McKee, born 1941, is a creative writing instructor who is widely known for his popular "Story Seminar", which he developed when he was a professor at the University of Southern California. McKee is the author of a "screenwriters' bible" called Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the...
's STORY seminar.
He began writing another script, this time drawing on his American television influences. Believing that there was nothing on British television for people in his age group that was not a soap opera or a costume drama, Bullen wrote a script entitled The Perfect Match
The Perfect Match
The Perfect Match is a British comedy-drama television film written by Mike Bullen and directed by Nick Hurran. It stars Saskia Reeves and Con O'Neill as Bridget and Phil, a couple whose marriage proposal is broadcast to football fans. It was first broadcast on the ITV network on 6 September 1995...
, about a man who proposes to his girlfriend using the screen at Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium
The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...
during the FA Cup Final
FA Cup Final
The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. With an official attendance of 89,826 at the 2007 FA Cup Final, it is the fourth best attended domestic club championship event in the world and the second most...
. He secured an agent, who managed to sell the script on spec
Spec script
A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or studio....
to Andy Harries
Andy Harries
Andrew D. M. Harries is a British television and film producer. After graduating from Hull University in the 1970s, Harries began his television career on the Granada Television current affairs series World in Action, before moving on to freelance work...
, controller of comedy at Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
. Harries described the writing as "impressive—cleverly constructed dialogue, very funny, well observed" and commissioned it as part of his drive to move away from making traditional-style sitcoms. Bullen described the moment he walked onto the set of The Perfect Match as "gobsmacking […] wandering around a room which had previously only existed in my head". It was broadcast on ITV in September 1995 to poor reviews.
Harries was pleased enough with Bullen's work to ask him to pitch some more ideas to The Perfect Match assistant producer Christine Langan
Christine Langan
Christine Langan is an English film producer who has been Creative Director of BBC Films since April 2009.After graduating from Cambridge University in 1987 and working in advertising for three years, Langan joined Granada Television's drama serials department where she script edited daytime soap...
. Langan shared Bullen's desire to see more television directed at their age bracket. Bullen pitched the idea of a traditional "boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-wins-girl-back" story told from both sides of the relationship but using elements of fantasy and flashback to distort events to fit a character's point of view. Harries accepted the pitch and Bullen began work on Cold Feet
Pilot (Cold Feet)
Cold Feet is a British television pilot directed by Declan Lowney. It stars James Nesbitt and Helen Baxendale as Adam and Rachel, a couple who meet and fall in love, only for the relationship to break down when he gets cold feet. John Thomson, Fay Ripley, Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst appear...
. Initially commissioned as a pilot for ITV's Comedy Premieres
Comedy Premieres
Comedy Premieres was a programming strand of four one-off television comedies, produced by Granada Television for the ITV network and broadcast throughout 1997.- Premieres :- Production :...
programming strand, the prospect of a full television series was given to Bullen. Cold Feets main character, Adam Williams, a lothario character and a serial monogamist, was based on Bullen himself during his twenties. The other main character, Rachel Bradley, was based on a combination of his ex-girlfriends and the "ideal girlfriend". Harries suggested that if a series was commissioned, more characters would be needed to sustain the storylines, so Bullen developed a supporting cast for Cold Feet, basing each character on friends of his. The script for Cold Feet went through "six or seven" drafts before being filmed in 1996. It was broadcast in 1997 and, after a hiatus, was commissioned for a full series
Cold Feet
Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...
. During the hiatus, he wrote a romantic comedy feature film script for Granada and developed a pilot for London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
, neither of which were picked up. The Writers' Guild of Great Britain
Writers' Guild of Great Britain
The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...
presented to Bullen the award for New Writer of the Year at their awards ceremony in October 1997.
When he first started writing professionally, Bullen could not structure his scripting in a coherent way, adopting a "mix and match" method; he began by structuring a script on cards, then typing what he had onto a computer, then returning to the cards. After completing the Cold Feet pilot, he starting writing ten pages of script per day, regardless of the quality of the writing. His own third draft was usually submitted to producers as the "first draft".
1998–2003
Production on the first seriesCold Feet (series 1)
The first series of the British comedy-drama television series Cold Feet was first broadcast on the ITV network from 15 November to 20 December 1998. The six episodes were written by series creator Mike Bullen, produced by Christine Langan, and directed by Declan Lowney, Mark Mylod and Nigel Cole....
of Cold Feet began in January 1998. Bullen continued his method of developing storylines based on his own life; he and his wife had their first child in the latter half of 1997, so he integrated their experiences into the storyline of characters Pete and Jenny, who have their first child in Cold Feets first episode. Throughout 1998, he retained his job at the BBC, working on three radio shows per week at the same time as writing Cold Feet. During the second series he cut back to one show per week. By the time of the third series in 2000, he felt confident enough that he would have a future in television that he was able to give up radio presenting completely. He moved from his home in London to Cambridge, where he was able to write for two full days a week and at evenings and weekends. Bullen worked on other projects at the same time as Cold Feet: After watching the 1997 docusoap Holiday Reps, he became interested in what happens in the personal lives of holiday representatives while in foreign countries. Out of this idea he developed Sunburn
Sunburn (TV series)
Sunburn is a British television series that followed the lives of a group of British holiday reps. It was broadcast on BBC One between 16 January 1999 and 1 May 2000, running for two series of six and eight episodes respectively. The first was set and filmed in Cyprus and the second in Algarve...
for 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...
. Sunburn starred Michelle Collins
Michelle Collins
Michelle Danielle Collins is a British actress best known for her roles on television in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, as Cindy Beale, Coronation Street as Stella Price, and BBC dramas Sunburn and Two Thousand Acres of Sky...
and was broadcast for two series from 1999 to 2000. Bullen shared writing duties with Lizzie Mickery and Sally Wainwright
Sally Wainwright
Sally Wainwright is a British BAFTA nominated television writer and playwright. She won 2009 Writer of the Year Award given by the RTS in 2009 for Unforgiven.She was born in Halifax.Original television productions include:*Scott & Bailey...
.
Bullen's inspiration from American television continued; following the premiere of The West Wing in 1999, he began outlining a British version, The Firm, that would be set in Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
. The project never moved beyond planning stages because Bullen believed that British political issues such as "cod wars with Spain" are not as "sexy" as the issues covered in The West Wing. In 1999, Cold Feet was adapted into a series of the same name
Cold Feet (U.S. TV series)
Cold Feet is an American television series produced by Kerry Ehrin Productions and Granada Entertainment USA for NBC. Based on the British TV series of the same name, the series follows three Seattle couples, each at different stages of their romantic relationships. It premiered on September 24,...
for American network NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. Bullen wrote the screenplay for one of the pilot episodes. At the same time, NBC and Granada Entertainment USA commissioned a pilot script from Bullen entitled Small Beer, which centred on a group of people who take over a microbrewery in the Northwestern United States
Northwestern United States
The Northwestern United States comprise the northwestern states up to the western Great Plains regions of the United States, and consistently include the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, to which part of southeast Alaska is also sometimes included...
.
The third series of Cold Feet (2000) was extended from six to eight episodes by ITV. Bullen believed that the production team had covered all potential storylines in the first two series, so declined to write any more episodes. A team of five writers was hired by Granada Television, overseen by Bullen as a co-executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
. Four out of the five writers left the team due to their scripts not being appropriate for the series, leaving only David Nicholls
David Nicholls (writer)
-Background:Nicholls is the middle of three siblings. He attended Barton Peveril sixth-form college at Eastleigh, Hampshire, from 1983 to 1985 , and playing a wide range of roles in college drama productions...
on staff. The writing process had made Bullen think twice about not writing and he began thinking about further storylines, such as mid-life crises and IVF. The same year, he signed a two-year contract with Granada to develop new projects. A fourth series of Cold Feet, also of eight episodes, was commissioned for 2001. Bullen announced that he did not want to write a fifth series, and that the fourth would be the last. His reasons were that with ITV's proposed commission of up to 20 episodes a year, the series would become like a soap opera. The popularity of the fourth series persuaded Bullen to write four more episodes that formed the fifth series in 2003. The success of the fifth series won Bullen the Writer of the Year Award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards
British Comedy Awards
The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...
.
In 2002, he began developing Life Begins
Life Begins
Life Begins is a British television drama first broadcast on ITV between February 2004 and October 2006, starring Caroline Quentin and Alexander Armstrong, Anne Reid and Frank Finlay.-History:...
, a 60-minute television series. The following year he conceived George the Third. He moved to Australia in 2002 but continued to work on UK-based series.
2004–2006
Life Begins was inspired by Bullen's re-evaluation of the lives of people around him as they approached 40 years old. During a conversation with a friend he realised that three women he knew had had failed marriages by the time they reached 40. The series was designed as a vehicleStar vehicle
A star vehicle has historically been a movie, play, TV series, or other production whose primary purpose, besides turning a profit, is to enhance someone's career. Vehicles are most commonly produced when a young or inexperienced actor has signed a long-term contract with a major studio...
for Sarah Lancashire
Sarah Lancashire
Sarah Lancashire is an English actress, probably best recognised for her role as Raquel Watts in Coronation Street. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1986.-Television:...
, who had signed an exclusive "golden handcuffs" deal with ITV. Two months after the series was announced, Lancashire left Life Begins, feeling unable to commit to a potentially long-running series. ITV's controller of drama Nick Elliot recast Lancashire's role with Caroline Quentin
Caroline Quentin
Caroline Jones known by her stage name Caroline Quentin, is an English actress. Quentin became known for her television appearances in Men Behaving Badly, playing Dorothy, and playing Maddy Magellan in Jonathan Creek for three years.-Early life:...
. Life Begins concerns Maggie Mee (Quentin), a woman who believes she is in a loving relationship with her husband Phil (Alexander Armstrong
Alexander Armstrong (comedian)
Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong is a British comedian, actor and television presenter.-Early life and career:Armstrong was born in Rothbury, Northumberland, the youngest of three children, to Henry Angus Armstrong and his wife Emma Virginia Peronnet Thompson-McCausland, daughter of Lucius...
). When Phil announces to her on a family holiday that he is leaving her, Maggie realises she must begin her life again. Bullen wrote the series with John Forte. The first series was broadcast in 2004. Like with Cold Feet, he integrated events from his own life into the storylines; Maggie's father, Eric (Frank Finlay
Frank Finlay
Francis Finlay, CBE is an English stage, film and television actor.-Personal life:Finlay was born in Farnworth, Lancashire, the son of Margaret and Josiah Finlay, a butcher. A devout Catholic, he belongs to the British Catholic Stage Guild. He was educated at St...
), suffers from Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, like one of Bullen's relatives. He researched Maggie's travel agency job by spending a week at a travel agents' in Bristol.
In 2003, Bullen made a journey to Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
's Small Screen Big Picture. On the return leg, after 12 hours of seeing nothing but the Nullarbor Plain
Nullarbor Plain
The Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world's largest single piece of limestone, and occupies an area of about...
through the train window, he began developing a short subject
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
on infidelity at television conferences. The short, entitled Amorality Tale, also Bullen's directorial debut, was screened at various film festivals in 2005, and was a finalist for the first Rosemount Diamond at the Jackson Hole
Jackson Hole
Jackson Hole, originally called Jackson's Hole, is a valley located in the U.S. state of Wyoming, near the western border with Idaho. The name "hole" derives from language used by early trappers or mountain men, who primarily entered the valley from the north and east and had to descend along...
Film Festival. On the themes of the film, Bullen said, "What has always interested me is the notion of ordinary people and how they react in ordinary situations […] what fascinated me is the way we arrive at the choices we make. The idea of this film is to say that the choices we make might not lead to the outcomes we expect." He had previously expressed interest in directing an episode of Cold Feet, but decided against it on the basis that his inexperience would make him "inadequate" and that the job was best left to professional directors. The short was produced by Pommie Granite Productions, a company set up by Bullen once his exclusive contract with Granada ended in September 2004. At the end of 2004, he became the seventh person to rewrite the script of the DreamWorks
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
/Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations, Ltd., also known as Aardman Studios, or simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit...
film Tortoise vs. Hare. He did at least three drafts.
Alongside the second series of Life Begins, Bullen continued developing George the Third. The title was changed to It Happens until eventually settling on All About George in time for filming in 2005. All About George starred Rik Mayall
Rik Mayall
Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall is an English comedian, writer, and actor. He is known for his comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, his over-the-top, energetic portrayal of characters, and as a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s...
as George Kinsey, a builder whose life is changed when six generations of his family move into his home. Initially excited about the series when he attended the cast read-throughs, Bullen's optimism waned by the time it was broadcast on TV; he believed that there were too many characters and the series premise was not clear enough. In a 2008 interview, he describes it as one of his worst TV series. Life Begins returned for a third and final series in 2006. The same year, filming commenced on Tripping Over
Tripping Over
Tripping Over is a British/Australian six-part drama series. Its first episode aired on Network Ten in Australia on 25 October 2006, and in the United Kingdom on Five on 30 October 2006. In the UK Tripping Over is repeated on Five Life....
, a series about intercontinental backpackers in 1976 and 2006. SeaChange
SeaChange
SeaChange was a popular Australian television show that ran for 39 episodes from 1998 to 2001 on the ABC. It was created by Andrew Knight and Deborah Cox and starred Sigrid Thornton, David Wenham, William McInnes, John Howard, Tom Long and Kerry Armstrong...
writers Andrew Knight and Andrea Denholm conceived the idea in 2003 and asked Bullen, a friend of Knight's, to develop it with them. A co-production between Australia's Channel Ten and Britain's Five, Tripping Over was broadcast in both countries at the end of 2006.
2007–2010
In 2007, Bullen was approached by David Maher, a Fox World producer, who commissioned him to write a television pilot for UKTV. Bullen agreed and spent a "torturous" time trying to come up with an idea for the script. Continuing his trend for taking ideas from real life, he decided to write about a family moving from the UK to Australia. The pilot, entitled Make or Break, was also Bullen's television directoral debut. British actor Robson GreenRobson Green
Robson Green is an English actor, singer–songwriter and presenter.-Biography:Robson Golightly Green was born in Hexham, Northumberland, and baptised in Bethel Chapel, , and named in Northeast tradition as first son after family surnames: Robson is his grandmother's maiden surname, while Golightly...
had recently completed work on "Prayer of the Bone", a one-off special episode of Wire in the Blood
Wire in the Blood
Wire in the Blood was a British crime drama television series, devised and produced by Coastal Productions for the ITV network that ran from 2002 to 2009. The series is based on characters created by Val McDermid; a university clinical psychologist, Dr Anthony "Tony" Valentine Hill , is teamed with...
set in the United States. Green and Wire producer Sandra Jobling considered another special episode set in Australia. Green suggested asking Bullen to write the episode and Bullen responded by asking Green if he would like to play the lead in Make or Break. Fox World sent the script to Green and he signed on. As the pilot was Bullen's first attempt at directing television, he sought advice from the experienced production crew, in particular the director of photography. The pilot was first broadcast in March 2008. As of December 2007, Bullen and Fox World were seeking financial investment from a UK production company to develop a full-length series.
In 2010, Bullen wrote his first screenplay for the BBC since Sunburn; Reunited
Reunited (TV pilot)
Reunited is a British television pilot written by Mike Bullen and directed by Simon Delaney. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 30 June 2010.- Plot :Eight years after sharing a flat together while students at university, six friends reunite....
is a pilot about six friends who once shared a house together reuniting after eight years. Bullen admitted that his career was "declining" before he made Reunited, and he even moved back to the UK for five months while it was produced. He considers Reunited his best work since the end of Cold Feet. The pilot received only 3.3 million viewers when it was broadcast, and a series was not commissioned. Bullen has since discussed other projects with Ed Byrne
Ed Byrne
Ed Byrne is a Perrier Award-nominated, Irish stand-up comedian, voice over artist and actor. He has presented television shows Uncut! Best Unseen Ads and Just for Laughs, and is a regular guest on various television panel games...
, one of the actors in the pilot.
Personal life
Bullen is married to Lisa Bullen, who he met while working at the BBC. They have two children: Maggie (born 1997) and Rachel (born 1999). In 2002 the family moved to Avalon, New South WalesAvalon, New South Wales
Avalon is a northern beachside suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Avalon is located 35 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Pittwater Council, in the Northern Beaches region....
. They later moved to Newport, New South Wales
Newport, New South Wales
Newport is a suburb in northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Newport is located 31 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Pittwater Council, and is part of the Northern Beaches region....
. They became Australian citizens in 2005.
Screenplays
- The Perfect MatchThe Perfect MatchThe Perfect Match is a British comedy-drama television film written by Mike Bullen and directed by Nick Hurran. It stars Saskia Reeves and Con O'Neill as Bridget and Phil, a couple whose marriage proposal is broadcast to football fans. It was first broadcast on the ITV network on 6 September 1995...
(1995) - Comedy PremieresComedy PremieresComedy Premieres was a programming strand of four one-off television comedies, produced by Granada Television for the ITV network and broadcast throughout 1997.- Premieres :- Production :...
: Cold FeetPilot (Cold Feet)Cold Feet is a British television pilot directed by Declan Lowney. It stars James Nesbitt and Helen Baxendale as Adam and Rachel, a couple who meet and fall in love, only for the relationship to break down when he gets cold feet. John Thomson, Fay Ripley, Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst appear...
(1997, pilot) - Cold FeetCold FeetCold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...
(1998–2003) - SunburnSunburn (TV series)Sunburn is a British television series that followed the lives of a group of British holiday reps. It was broadcast on BBC One between 16 January 1999 and 1 May 2000, running for two series of six and eight episodes respectively. The first was set and filmed in Cyprus and the second in Algarve...
(1999–2000) - Life BeginsLife BeginsLife Begins is a British television drama first broadcast on ITV between February 2004 and October 2006, starring Caroline Quentin and Alexander Armstrong, Anne Reid and Frank Finlay.-History:...
(2004–2006) - All About George (2005)
- Amorality Tale (2005)
- Make or Break (2008, pilot)
- ReunitedReunited (TV pilot)Reunited is a British television pilot written by Mike Bullen and directed by Simon Delaney. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 30 June 2010.- Plot :Eight years after sharing a flat together while students at university, six friends reunite....
(2010, pilot)
Unmade scripts
- Cold Feet (1998, American pilot)
- Small Beer (1999, American pilot)
- Tortoise vs. Hare (2004, feature film rewrite)
Acting appearances
- Comedy PremieresComedy PremieresComedy Premieres was a programming strand of four one-off television comedies, produced by Granada Television for the ITV network and broadcast throughout 1997.- Premieres :- Production :...
: Cold FeetPilot (Cold Feet)Cold Feet is a British television pilot directed by Declan Lowney. It stars James Nesbitt and Helen Baxendale as Adam and Rachel, a couple who meet and fall in love, only for the relationship to break down when he gets cold feet. John Thomson, Fay Ripley, Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst appear...
(1997) as Actor - Cold FeetCold FeetCold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...
- Series 1, Episode 1 (1998) as Man on Phone
- Series 1, Episode 2 (1998) as Neighbour
- Series 1, Episode 3 (1998) as Man in shower (scene deleted)
- Series 1, Episode 4 (1998) as Japanese Woman's Husband
- Series 3, Episode 8 (2000) as Workman
- Series 4, Episode 6 (2001) as Charles (uncredited)
- Joanne Lees: Murder in the OutbackJoanne Lees: Murder in the OutbackJoanne Lees: Murder in the Outback is a television film produced by Channel Ten and ITV Productions, which first aired in Australia on Channel Ten on 18 March 2007 and in the UK on ITV on Sunday 8 April, where it was titled Murder In The Outback...
(2007) as TV Producer
External links
- Mike Bullen at the British Film InstituteBritish Film InstituteThe British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...