Mark Burton (writer)
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Mark Burton (born 23 September 1960) is a British television writer, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and film director.


Television and radio career

After turning up at
BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
's Light Entertainment Department, Burton teamed up with John O'Farrell and the two were commissioned for ''Week Ending'' by
Harry Thompson Harry William Thompson (6 February 1960 – 7 November 2005) was an English radio and television producer, comedy writer, novelist and biographer. He was the creator of the dark humour television series '' Monkey Dust'', screened between 2003 ...
(who later named his two pet rats Burton and O'Farrell). The pair won the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
Light Entertainment Contract Award, and went on to write or contribute to a number of radio series, including ''Little Blighty on the Down'', ''McKay the New'' and with Pete Sinclair, the multi-award-winning ''A Look Back at the Nineties'' and ''Look Back at the Future'' in which Burton also performed.''Alphabetical Name Index''
"RadioHaHa". Burton also created the BBC Radio 4 panel game ''We've Been Here Before'' presented by Clive Anderson. Burton and O’Farrell were commissioned for ''
Spitting Image ''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ...
'' in 1988 and the following year became two of the lead writers on the show. They also wrote for ''
Clive Anderson Clive Stuart Anderson (born 10 December 1952) is an English television and radio presenter, comedy writer, and former barrister. Winner of a British Comedy Award in 1991, Anderson began experimenting with comedy and writing comedic scripts durin ...
Talks Back'', Nick Hancock on ''Room 101'', ''
Murder Most Horrid ''Murder Most Horrid'' is a British black comedy anthology series starring Dawn French. It was broadcast on BBC Two for four series runs, in 1991, 1994, 1996 and 1999. Created by Paul Smith, who also co-created ''Colin's Sandwich'' (with Terry ...
'', and co-wrote some of the ''Heads to Heads'' for
Alas Smith and Jones ''Alas Smith and Jones'' is a British comedy sketch television series starring comedy duo and namesake Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones that originally ran for four series and two Christmas specials on BBC2 from 1984 to 1988, and later as ''Smit ...
. In 1993, they left ''Spitting Image'' and became the first writers credited for the scripted parts of '' Have I Got News For You''. Also for Hat Trick Productions they wrote a
BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
sitcom ''
The Peter Principle The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to "a level of respective incompetence": employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until ...
'' starring Jim Broadbent (known as ''The Boss'' in the US).


Screenwriting

The pair are credited for ‘additional dialogue’ for the Aardman film ''
Chicken Run ''Chicken Run'' is a 2000 stop-motion animated comedy film produced by Pathé and Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. Aardman’s first feature-length film and DreamWorks Animation's fourth film, it was directed by ...
'', but after a decade of collaboration, Burton and O'Farrell began to work on separate projects. Although he continued to do some TV comedy scriptwriting (with credits for
2DTV ''2DTV'' is a British satirical animated television series which was co-created and produced by Giles Pilbrow for ITV. It premiered on ITV1 on 14 October 2001 and was nominated for the Rose d'Or Award in both 2002 and 2003. The programme was co ...
, ''
Never Mind the Buzzcocks ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' is a British comedy panel game show with a pop music theme. It has aired on Sky Max since September 2021, having originally aired between November 1996 and January 2015 on BBC Two. The original series was first hos ...
'' and '' Mike Bassett: Manager'') Burton began to focus on screenwriting, most notably with the DreamWorks Animation ''
Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
''. Other major screenplay credits include '' Wallace and Gromit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit'' (which won an Oscar in 2006 for Best Animated Feature Film), '' Gnomeo and Juliet'' and '' Aliens in the Attic''. He adapted the novel of his former writing partner for the ITV film 'May Contain Nuts' and also wrote and produced the BBC short film One of those Days. He also wrote and made his directorial debut with Richard Starzak with '' Shaun the Sheep Movie'', which got nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He would later return to write its sequel '' A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon'' with Jon Brown, based on a story by Starzak.


Composing

Burton is a musician and songwriter, having composed the music for the comedy rock musical ''The Next Big Thing'' which he wrote and produced with Pete Sinclair. He also shares the credit for the original music in 'One Of Those Days' and has written songs and parodies for a number of radio shows.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Mark 1960 births Living people Aardman Animations people DreamWorks Animation people People from South Oxfordshire District Alumni of the University of York Annie Award winners English television writers English radio writers English comedy writers English songwriters English film directors BBC people