Peter Bowker
Encyclopedia
Peter Bowker is a British
playwright
and screenwriter
. He is best known for the television serials Blackpool
(2004), a musical drama about a shady casino
owner; Occupation
(2009), which follows three military servicemen adjusting to civilian life after a tour of duty in Iraq; and Desperate Romantics
(2009), a biographical drama about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
. In 2007, he adapted Blackpool for CBS
as Viva Laughlin
.
, Stockport
, Bowker read philosophy and English at the University of Leeds
. He taught for twelve years in a Leeds
hospital unit for the mentally handicapped, and went on to study for an M.A. in creative writing
at the University of East Anglia
, where his tutors were novelists Malcolm Bradbury
and Rose Tremain
. He switched to the screenwriting
course after realising he preferred writing dialogue.
Bowker began his career writing for the long-running BBC
medical drama Casualty
in 1992. He wrote seven episodes of the series, including the 1993 episode "Boiling Point", in which the emergency department is burnt down by rioters. "Boiling Point" attracted 17 million viewers and hundreds of complaints, and led to Bowker writing for Medics and Peak Practice
.
Bowker later began to write his own works for television, and in 2002 contributed the play Flesh and Blood to the BBC2 season on sex and disability. It was hailed as a breakthrough in the representation of learning disability. He has also contributed updated versions of "The Miller's Tale"
and A Midsummer Night's Dream
for the BBC's The Canterbury Tales
and Shakespeare ReTold series (2003 and 2005, respectively).
In 2009, Bowker rose back to prominence with a series of high profile and critically acclaimed serial dramas. Occupation
, based upon the backdrop of the Iraq War and starring James Nesbitt
and Stephen Graham
, ran for three consecutive nights on BBC One
. It averaged approximately 4 million viewers across the three nights and was described by The Independent
as a "masterly production", as well as gaining praise across the wider media. Bowker followed this with another BBC drama, Desperate Romantics
, and an adaptation of Emily Brontë
's classic novel Wuthering Heights
for ITV
.
Bowker executive produced
both Viva Laughlin
and Wuthering Heights
. He won the Royal Television Society
Award for Best Writer for both 2002, for Flesh and Blood, and 2009, for Occupation.
Bowker's future projects include an adaptation of Mark Haddon
's novel, A Spot of Bother
, a medical drama series called Monroe
for ITV1
, and a biopic
of Morecambe and Wise
for the BBC, broadcast on Jan 1st 2011.
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...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and screenwriter
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:...
. He is best known for the television serials Blackpool
Blackpool (TV serial)
Blackpool is a British television musical comedy drama serial, produced in-house by the BBC. It was screened on BBC One as six one-hour episodes on Thursday nights at 9pm from 11 November to 16 December 2004...
(2004), a musical drama about a shady casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
owner; Occupation
Occupation (TV serial)
Occupation is a BAFTA Award–winning three part drama serial broadcast by BBC One in June 2009. It was written by Peter Bowker and has been produced by Kudos for BBC Northern Ireland.It took four years to bring the serial to screen...
(2009), which follows three military servicemen adjusting to civilian life after a tour of duty in Iraq; and Desperate Romantics
Desperate Romantics
Desperate Romantics is a six-part television drama serial about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, first broadcast on BBC Two between 21 July and 25 August 2009.-Overview:...
(2009), a biographical drama about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti...
. In 2007, he adapted Blackpool for CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
as Viva Laughlin
Viva Laughlin
Viva Laughlin is an American musical–dramedy series adapted by Bob Lowry and Peter Bowker from the popular BBC British serial, Blackpool. They also served as executive producers alongside Hugh Jackman, John Palermo, Paul Telegdy and Gabriele Muccino. The latter also directed the pilot...
.
Biography
Born and raised in Hazel GroveHazel Grove
-Education:Hazel Grove has a number of primary schools and Hazel Grove High School, the local high school. Some do decide to go to other local high schools, such as local Marple Hall, in neighbouring village Marple. The main primary schools in the area are, Hazel Grove Primary School, Torkington...
, Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
, Bowker read philosophy and English at the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
. He taught for twelve years in a Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
hospital unit for the mentally handicapped, and went on to study for an M.A. in creative writing
UEA Creative Writing Course
The University of East Anglia's Creative Writing Course was founded by Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Sir Angus Wilson in 1970. The M.A. is widely regarded as the most prestigious and successful in the country and competition for places is notoriously tough....
at the University of East Anglia
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...
, where his tutors were novelists Malcolm Bradbury
Malcolm Bradbury
Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury CBE was an English author and academic.-Life:Bradbury was the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with his brother and mother...
and Rose Tremain
Rose Tremain
Rose Tremain CBE is an English author.-Life:Rose Tremain was born Rosemary Jane Thomson on August 2, 1943 in London and attended Francis Holland School then Crofton Grange School from 1954 to 1961; the Sorbonne from 1961–1962; and graduated from the University of East Anglia in 1965 where she then...
. He switched to the screenwriting
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....
course after realising he preferred writing dialogue.
Bowker began his career writing for the long-running 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...
medical drama Casualty
Casualty (TV series)
Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
in 1992. He wrote seven episodes of the series, including the 1993 episode "Boiling Point", in which the emergency department is burnt down by rioters. "Boiling Point" attracted 17 million viewers and hundreds of complaints, and led to Bowker writing for Medics and Peak Practice
Peak Practice
Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time...
.
Bowker later began to write his own works for television, and in 2002 contributed the play Flesh and Blood to the BBC2 season on sex and disability. It was hailed as a breakthrough in the representation of learning disability. He has also contributed updated versions of "The Miller's Tale"
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at...
and A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
for the BBC's The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales (TV Series)
The Canterbury Tales is a series of six single dramas that originally aired on BBC One in 2003. Each story is an adaptation of one of Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century Canterbury Tales which are transferred to a modern, 21st century setting, but still set along the traditional Pilgrims' route to...
and Shakespeare ReTold series (2003 and 2005, respectively).
In 2009, Bowker rose back to prominence with a series of high profile and critically acclaimed serial dramas. Occupation
Occupation (TV serial)
Occupation is a BAFTA Award–winning three part drama serial broadcast by BBC One in June 2009. It was written by Peter Bowker and has been produced by Kudos for BBC Northern Ireland.It took four years to bring the serial to screen...
, based upon the backdrop of the Iraq War and starring James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt is a Northern Irish actor. Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Nesbitt grew up in the nearby village of Broughshane, before moving to Coleraine, County Londonderry. He wanted to become a teacher like his father, so he began a degree in French at the University of Ulster...
and Stephen Graham
Stephen Graham (actor)
Stephen Graham is an English actor from Kirkby, Liverpool. He is best known for his roles as Tommy in the movie Snatch, Combo in This Is England and its four-part television sequel This Is England '86, Danny Ferguson in Occupation, Billy Bremner in The Damned United, notorious bank robber Baby...
, ran for three consecutive nights 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...
. It averaged approximately 4 million viewers across the three nights and was described by The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
as a "masterly production", as well as gaining praise across the wider media. Bowker followed this with another BBC drama, Desperate Romantics
Desperate Romantics
Desperate Romantics is a six-part television drama serial about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, first broadcast on BBC Two between 21 July and 25 August 2009.-Overview:...
, and an adaptation of Emily Brontë
Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother...
's classic novel Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights (2009 television serial)
Wuthering Heights is a two-part ITV television serial adaptation of the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The episodes were adapted for the screen by Peter Bowker and directed by Coky Giedroyc...
for 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...
.
Bowker executive produced
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...
both Viva Laughlin
Viva Laughlin
Viva Laughlin is an American musical–dramedy series adapted by Bob Lowry and Peter Bowker from the popular BBC British serial, Blackpool. They also served as executive producers alongside Hugh Jackman, John Palermo, Paul Telegdy and Gabriele Muccino. The latter also directed the pilot...
and Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights (2009 television serial)
Wuthering Heights is a two-part ITV television serial adaptation of the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The episodes were adapted for the screen by Peter Bowker and directed by Coky Giedroyc...
. He won the Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
Award for Best Writer for both 2002, for Flesh and Blood, and 2009, for Occupation.
Bowker's future projects include an adaptation of Mark Haddon
Mark Haddon
Mark Haddon is an English novelist and poet, best known for his 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.- Life and work :...
's novel, A Spot of Bother
A Spot of Bother
A Spot of Bother is the second adult novel by Mark Haddon, who is best known for his prize-winning first novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time...
, a medical drama series called Monroe
Monroe (TV series)
Monroe is a British medical drama television series created and written by Peter Bowker and produced by Mammoth Screen for the ITV network. The series follows a neurosurgeon named Gabriel Monroe, played by James Nesbitt. The six-part series was commissioned by ITV as one of a number of replacements...
for ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
, and a biopic
Biographical film
A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...
of Morecambe and Wise
Morecambe and Wise
Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, usually referred to as Morecambe and Wise, or Eric and Ernie, were a British comic double act, working in variety, radio, film and most successfully in television. Their partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death in 1984...
for the BBC, broadcast on Jan 1st 2011.
Filmography
- CasualtyCasualty (TV series)Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
(various episodes; 1992–97) - Medics (various episodes; 1993)
- Out of the Blue (1995–96)
- Peak PracticePeak PracticePeak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time...
(various episodes; 1995) - The Uninvited (1997)
- Where the Heart IsWhere the Heart Is (1997 TV series)Where the Heart Is is a British television drama series set in the fictional town Skelthwaite.First shown in 1997, it was created by Ashley Pharoah and Vicky Featherstone...
(various episodes; 1998) - Undercover Heart (1998)
- A Christmas CarolA Christmas Carol (2000 film)A Christmas Carol is a 2000 television movie modern adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It stars Ross Kemp in the role of Eddie Scrooge.-Plot:...
(2000) - Hidden Treasure (2001)
- Flesh and Blood (2002)
- The King and Us (2002)
- "The Miller's Tale" (The Canterbury TalesThe Canterbury Tales (TV Series)The Canterbury Tales is a series of six single dramas that originally aired on BBC One in 2003. Each story is an adaptation of one of Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century Canterbury Tales which are transferred to a modern, 21st century setting, but still set along the traditional Pilgrims' route to...
; 2003) - Single (various episodes; 2003)
- BlackpoolBlackpool (TV serial)Blackpool is a British television musical comedy drama serial, produced in-house by the BBC. It was screened on BBC One as six one-hour episodes on Thursday nights at 9pm from 11 November to 16 December 2004...
(2004) - "A Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
" (Shakespeare ReTold; 2005) - Viva BlackpoolBlackpool (TV serial)Blackpool is a British television musical comedy drama serial, produced in-house by the BBC. It was screened on BBC One as six one-hour episodes on Thursday nights at 9pm from 11 November to 16 December 2004...
(2006) - Viva LaughlinViva LaughlinViva Laughlin is an American musical–dramedy series adapted by Bob Lowry and Peter Bowker from the popular BBC British serial, Blackpool. They also served as executive producers alongside Hugh Jackman, John Palermo, Paul Telegdy and Gabriele Muccino. The latter also directed the pilot...
(co-written with Bob Lowry; 2007) - Occupation (2009)
- Desperate RomanticsDesperate RomanticsDesperate Romantics is a six-part television drama serial about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, first broadcast on BBC Two between 21 July and 25 August 2009.-Overview:...
(2009) - Wuthering HeightsWuthering Heights (2009 television serial)Wuthering Heights is a two-part ITV television serial adaptation of the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The episodes were adapted for the screen by Peter Bowker and directed by Coky Giedroyc...
(2009)