Peter Bowker

Peter Bowker (born 5 January 1959) is a British playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the television serials ''Blackpool'' (2004), a musical drama about a shady casino owner in the north of England; '' Occupation'' (2009), which follows three military servicemen adjusting to civilian life after a tour of duty in Iraq; ''Capital'' (2015), an Emmy award-winning drama about real-estate bubbles in South London; and '' The A Word'' (2016), an adaptation of Keren Margalit's Israeli drama '' Yellow Peppers'' about a family raising an autistic child. In 2007, he adapted ''Blackpool'' for CBS as '' Viva Laughlin''.

Biography

Born and raised in Hazel Grove, Stockport, England. Bowker was educated at Marple Hall School and read Philosophy and English at the University of Leeds. He taught for twelve years in a Leeds hospital unit for the intellectually disabled, and went on to study for an M.A. in creative writing at the University of East Anglia, where his tutors were novelists Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. He switched to the screenwriting course after realising he preferred writing dialogue.

Bowker began his career writing for the long-running BBC medical drama ''Casualty'' in 1992. He wrote seven episodes of the series, including the 1993 episode "Boiling Point", in which the emergency department is burnt down by rioters. "Boiling Point" attracted 17 million viewers and hundreds of complaints, and led to Bowker writing for ''Medics'' and ''Peak Practice''.

Bowker later began to write his own works for television, and in 2002 contributed the play ''Flesh and Blood'' to the BBC Two season on sex and disability. It was hailed as a breakthrough in the representation of learning disability. He has also contributed updated versions of "The Miller's Tale" and ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' for the BBC's ''The Canterbury Tales'' and '' Shakespeare ReTold'' series (2003 and 2005, respectively).

In 2009, Bowker rose back to prominence with a series of high profile and sometimes critically well-received serial dramas. '' Occupation'', based upon the backdrop of the Iraq War and starring James Nesbitt and Stephen Graham, ran for three consecutive nights on BBC One. It averaged approximately 4 million viewers across the three nights and was described by ''The Independent'' as a "masterly production", as well as gaining praise across the wider media. Bowker followed this with another BBC drama, ''Desperate Romantics'', which received mixed reviews, and an adaptation of Emily Brontë's classic novel ''Wuthering Heights'' for ITV.

Bowker executive produced both '' Viva Laughlin'' and ''Wuthering Heights''.Peter Bowker – Filmography as Producer
''IMDB''. Retrieved on 8 August 2009. He won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Writer for both 2002, for ''Flesh and Blood'', and 2009, for ''Occupation''.Royal Television Society – Programme – Winners – 2002
Retrieved 17 March 2010.

Bowker's projects have included an adaptation of Mark Haddon's novel, '' A Spot of Bother'', a medical drama series called ''Monroe'' for ITV1, and the biographical BBC film '' Eric and Ernie'' about Morecambe and Wise, broadcast on 1 January 2011. In 2015, he wrote the three-part BBC series '' Capital'' based on John Lanchester's novel of the same name. In 2019, he wrote the Second World War drama World on Fire. It was renewed for a second series, which was broadcast in 2023.

Filmography

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowker, Peter
1959 births
Living people
20th-century British screenwriters
21st-century British screenwriters
People educated at Marple Hall School
Alumni of the University of Leeds
Alumni of the University of East Anglia
British male television writers
English television writers
English screenwriters
English male screenwriters
English soap opera writers
English dramatists and playwrights
English male dramatists and playwrights
People from Hazel Grove