Chris Chibnall

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Chris Chibnall is a British television writer. Raised in Lancashire, his initial career in television was as a football archivist and floor manager for Sky Sports, before leaving the television industry for a time to work as an administrator for various theatre companies.

From 1996 to 1999 he worked with the experimental theatre company Complicite, before he left to become a full-time writer. His initial success was as a playwright, where his work included Gaffer! (Rose and Crown Theatre, London, 1999) and Kiss Me Like You Mean It (Soho Theatre, London, 2001). The latter play was nominated for the Meyer-Whitworth Award, and has been produced in various venues across Europe, including a run in Paris in 2004.

In 2001 he was approached by the BBC to help develop the format for a drama series which eventually became Born and Bred. Born and Bred, a period drama set in the 1950s, ran successfully on BBC One for three years from 2002 to 2005, with Chibnall serving as head writer and consultant producer. Following its conclusion, Chibnall became involved in several other television projects, having already penned the successful monologue Stormin' Norman, starring James Bolam, for ITV.

He has written for the time travel / police drama Life on Mars, shown on BBC One from January 2006, and is currently lead writer and co-producer of Torchwood, which began transmission on BBC Three in October 2006. In August 2006, it was revealed that Chibnall would also be writing for Torchwood's parent series Doctor Who, for the 2007 third series of the revived version.^[1] Chibnall is a long-time fan of Doctor Who, and appeared on the BBC discussion programme Open Air in 1986 as a representative of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, criticising the then-current quality of the series.^[2]

During 2005, Chibnall was in charge of developing a proposed fantasy series involving the mythical magician Merlin for BBC One's early Saturday evening family drama slot. However, despite several scripts being written, BBC Head of Drama Jane Tranter eventually decided not to green-light the project.^[3]

Chibnall has a wife, Madeline, whom he met whilst working at Complicite in the 1990s.