Born in
Paisley in 1961, Steven Moffat started his career as a
teacher before a fortuitous chain of events allowed him
to create the hugely successful
Press Gang for Richmond Films. Five series on and a
couple of top industry awards later, he had established
himself as a writer who could stretch the traditional 25
minute format into new and fascinating shapes, and drive
astonishing emotional drama from what could have been
'merely' top-notch humour for kiddies.
His
'adult' situation comedies -
Joking Apart,
Chalk and
Coupling - have enjoyed varying degrees of
success. Each of them demand considerably more from the
viewer than the average comedy half-hour, with
Coupling in particular creating dizzying new
narrative templates, and executed to perfection in
episodes such as Nine and a Half Minutes and
Split.
As a
life-long fan of
Doctor Who, it is fitting that the series has given
Moffat his most mainstream successes to date, with the
instantly-iconic gasmask-wearing "Are You My Mummy?" boy
from The Empty Child/Doctor Dances earning him
the Top TV Moment of 2005, The Girl in the Fireplace
earning him a second Hugo award, and the exemplary
Blink snagging two BAFTA awards.
2007
brought his first post-watershed drama, in the form of
the astonishing
Jekyll, and a
bonkers time-bending romp in the form of
Time Crash for
Children in Need.
2008 saw
the transmission of his latest
Doctor Who
episodes -
Silence in the Library and
Forest of the Dead - and
delivered two BAFTA awards for
Blink, as well as an unprecedented third Hugo
Award.
In May
2008 it was announced that Steven Moffat will be Lead
Writer and Executive Producer for Series 5 of
Doctor Who, although this has proved to be at the
expense of his involvement in the forthcoming TinTin
movies.
Watch this
space for news of other forthcoming projects including
Adam & Eve, the Sherlock Holmes project, plus the
20th anniversary of
Press Gang, and of course any
Doctor Who developments.
You can read
more about Steven Moffat at the
Hartswood Films website, and learn
more about how
Doctor
Who influenced Steven's writing career from the transcript
of
Doctor Who Confidential: Do You Remember the First Time?
first shown 9th June 2007.
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 The
Broadcast Hot 100, December 2007
Hot 100 - Writers
Steven Moffat
The twin successes of BBC1 dramas
Doctor Who and Jekyll single out Steven Moffat this year. His interpretation of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic was described as "ingeniously playful". The same could be said of his work on
Doctor Who, where he's tipped to take over from head writer Russell T Davies in 2009. Moffat's work has attracted attention from
Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, who recommended Moffat to Steven Spielberg as the writer for the duo's new
Tintin trilogy. Moffat's break into TV was with BBC
[sic] series
Press Gang. He went on to create comedy drama Coupling, produced by wife Sue Vertue. The partnership continues with his next series for the BBC,
Adam and Eve. There's even talk of Moffat updating Press Gang. "I'd love to do a return visit to the characters," he says. "They'll all be sad and fat, decaying in middle age."
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Big Issue Scotland, 29 May - 4 June 2008
In his first full-length interview since being announced as
the next lead writer and executive producer of
Doctor
Who, Steven Moffat admits that he had to think hard
about whether to accept the role, comparing his replacing
Russell T Davies with fellow Scot Gordon Brown succeeding
Tony Blair as Prime Minister.
"You wouldn’t immediately say yes to that job. You imagine
that you would say yes immediately, but it’s a huge job and
you have to think about it. I was kind of the other
contender, which puts me sort of in the position of Gordon
Brown. And look how that turned out. The surly Scot comes in
and it all goes to ******."
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Steven Moffat as Lead
Writer & Executive Producer of
Doctor Who
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