Nick Leather Explained

Nick Leather
Nationality:British
Occupation:Playwright, screenwriter
Known For:The Control Room
Rocket's Island
Hollyoaks

Nick Leather is a British playwright and screenwriter.

He is known as the creator of the drama series The Control Room for BBC One, as well as the CBBC children's series Rocket's Island.

Early life

Leather grew up in Newton-le-Willows. He worked for a time at local newspaper The Newton Guardian, the experience inspiring him to write.[1]

Career

Leather began in theatre, with his first play All The Ordinary Angels produced by Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre, and later winning the Pearson Award for Best New Play. He would become the Royal Exchange's Playwright-in-Residence.

He subsequently moved into radio and then television, writing for series, including Justice, Secrets and Words and Jimmy McGovern's Moving On, as well as multiple episode of Hollyoaks. In 2012, he won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain award for Best Episode of a Continuing Drama for his work on Hollyoaks.[2]

In 2012, he created the children's series Rocket's Island, about a family taking care of foster children at their island farm.[3] It was nominated for a BAFTA children's award in the drama category in 2016 but lost out to the winner Refugee.[4] Leather would alternate between adult and children's drama, writing for McGovern's Broken, and the Apple TV+ thriller Suspicion, as well as The Dumping Ground and The Worst Witch.

In 2018, he wrote the television film Mother's Day, based on an infamous IRA bombing attack in Warrington, close to where Leather had grown up and of which he had memories.[5]

In 2021, the BBC commissioned The Control Room, a three-part thriller about an Emergency call handler, which would air on BBC One in 2022.[6] Leather was inspired to write the series by a real-life health-scare involving his daughter.[7] [8]

It was announced on 8 December 2022 that Leather was writing a six-part thriller for BBC One, Nightsleeper.[9]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Mother's Day writer: 'It would be wrong if the story of the Warrington bombing and the Parrys wasn't told' . 3 September 2018 .
  2. Web site: Writers' Guild Awards 2012 .
  3. Web site: Rocket's Island. 2021-06-09. www.all3mediainternational.com.
  4. Web site: 2016 Children's Drama BAFTA Awards. 2022-01-18. awards.bafta.org.
  5. Web site: Mother's Day writer reveals what he almost got very wrong with the drama . . 3 September 2018 .
  6. Web site: BBC Drama Reveals Raft of New Commissions and Commissioning Roles . 30 March 2021 .
  7. Web site: The Control Room writer explains real-life inspiration for thriller .
  8. Web site: The Control Room . 13 July 2022 .
  9. Web site: The BBC commissions new suspense thriller Nightsleeper from Fremantle's Euston Films .