Phillip Jon Plowman (born 1953 in

Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town an ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

) is a British television and film producer. He has been a producer at the

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. ...

since 1980, when he produced

Russell Harty Frederic Russell Harty (5 September 1934 – 8 June 1988) was an English television presenter of arts programmes and chat shows. Early life Harty was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, the son of greengrocer Fred Harty, who ran a fruit-and-veg ...

's chat show ''Harty''. He moved on to executive producing at the BBC in 1986, working on sketch show ''

A Bit of Fry and Laurie ''A Bit of Fry & Laurie'' is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring former Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, broadcast on both BBC1 and BBC2 between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series ...

'', and became Head of Comedy Entertainment in 1994, mainly responsible for sketch shows. He produced the first four series of the BBC comedy show ''

Absolutely Fabulous ''Absolutely Fabulous'' (also known as ''Ab Fab'') is a British television sitcom based on the ''French and Saunders'' sketch, " Modern Mother and Daughter", created by Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. The show was created and written by Saun ...

'' between 1992 and 2001, plus the big screen version in 2016.

Biography

Plowman was educated in

, Hertfordshire and at

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...

, where was a member of the University College Players and made friends with others who went on to establish successful careers in comedy. One,

Mel Smith Melvyn Kenneth Smith (3 December 1952 – 19 July 2013) was an English comedian, actor and director. Smith worked on the sketch comedy shows ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' and ''Alas Smith and Jones'' with his comedy partner, Griff Rhys Jones. S ...

, directed Plowman in a production of ''

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead ''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'' is an absurdist, existential tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966. The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare's ''Haml ...

''. After Oxford, Plowman followed Smith to the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal ...

, where he met the director

Lindsay Anderson Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading-light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered f ...

. Plowman worked in theatre for a while, then joined

Granada TV ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

. He was responsible for producing and commissioning programmes produced in-house at the BBC, of which the greatest successes include '' The Office'' and '' French & Saunders''. Plowman became Head of Comedy in October 2005, and oversaw the BBC's in-house comedy production, but no longer commissioned programmes. In June 2007, Plowman announced he was quitting his post at the BBC after 27 years. He decided to become a freelance producer for other shows and hoped to carry on his relationship with the BBC, continuing to create programmes "for them and elsewhere." In December 2003, ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...

'' named him in its list of the '50 Funniest or Most Influential People in British Comedy'. On 14 March 2006, he was honoured with the 'Judges' Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Television' at the Royal Television Society awards. Later he moved into the world of theatre. He co-produced ''Lucky You'', the Carl Hiaasen best-seller that premiered as a theatre production at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

in 2008.

Honours

Plowman was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the

2013 Birthday Honours The 2013 Birthday Honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of ...

for services to British comedy.

Films produced

* '' Ab Fab: The Movie'' (2016)

Programmes produced

* ''

'' (1986) * '' French & Saunders'' (1987) * '' Smith and Jones'' (1989) * '' Bottom'' (1991) * ''

'' (1992) * '' Kit and The Widow'' (1992) * '' The Stand Up Show'' (1994) * ''

The Vicar of Dibley ''The Vicar of Dibley'' is a British sitcom which originally ran on BBC One from 10 November 1994 to 1 January 2007. It is set in a fictional small Oxfordshire village called Dibley, which is assigned a female vicar following the 1992 changes ...

'' (1994) * '' Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round'' (1998) * '' Goodness Gracious Me'' (1998) * '' The Ben Elton Show'' (1998) * '' This Morning with Richard Not Judy'' (1998) * '' BBC New Comedy Awards'' (1999) * '' Gimme Gimme Gimme'' (1999) * ''

Let Them Eat Cake "Let them eat cake" is the traditional translation of the French phrase "'", said to have been spoken in the 17th or 18th century by "a great princess" upon being told that the peasants had no bread. The French phrase mentions brioche, a bread ...

'' (1999) * '' People Like Us'' (1999) * '' Sir Bernard's Stately Homes'' (1999) * ''

The League of Gentlemen ''The League of Gentlemen'' is a surreal British comedy horror sitcom that premiered on BBC Two in 1999. The programme is set in Royston Vasey, a fictional town in northern England, originally based on Alston, Cumbria, and follows the live ...

'' (1999) * '' Bruiser'' (2000) * '' Life's A Pitch'' (2000) * '' Mirrorball'' (2000) * '' Rhona'' (2000) * '' The Nearly Complete And Utter History of Everything'' (2000) * '' The Office'' (2000) * '' The Way It Is'' (2000) * ''

Tv to Go ''TV to Go'' is a British television sketch show that aired on BBC One during 2001 and 2002. It starred Mackenzie Crook, Hugh Dennis, Mina Anwar and Debra Stephenson. Notes and references''TV to Go''at BBC Online BBC Online, formerly kno ...

'' (2000) * '' Victoria Wood With All The Trimmings'' (2000) * '' We are History'' (2000) * '' Aaagh! It's the Mr. Hell Show'' (2001) * ''

15 Storeys High ''15 Storeys High'' is a British sitcom, set in a tower block. It originated as two radio series broadcast in 1998–2000, transferring to television in 2002–2004. The main characters in the television series are Vince Clark, a depressed, s ...

'' (2002) * '' Celeb'' (2002) * ''

Cyderdelic ''Cyderdelic'' was a BBC Three spoof documentary following the activities of a 'West Country direct action group within the growing anti-capitalist movement'. It was subtitled 'The Revolution Will Be Televised'. ''Cyderdelic'' was narrated by J ...

'' (2002) * '' Dead Ringers'' (2002) * ''

Grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in law ...

'' (2003) * '' Little Britain'' (2003) * ''

The Harringham Harker ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

'' (2003) * '' Doctors and Nurses'' (2004) * ''

Comic Aid a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate d ...

'' (2005) * '' Extras'' (2005) * '' The Late Edition'' (2005) * '' The Robinsons'' (2005) * ''

The Thick of It ''The Thick of It'' is a British comedy television series that satirises the inner workings of British government. Written and directed by Armando Iannucci, it was first broadcast for two short series on BBC Four in 2005, initially with a sm ...

'' (2005) * '' The Brown Couch'' (2006) * '' Jam and Jerusalem''