Sam Bain (born 3 August 1971) is a British comedy writer, best known for the
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
sitcom ''
Peep Show
A peep show, peepshow, or, a peep booth is a presentation of a live sex show or pornographic film which is viewed through a viewing slot.
Several historical media provided voyeuristic entertainment through hidden erotic imagery. Before the devel ...
''. He attended
St Paul's School in London before graduating from
the University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
, where he met his writing partner
Jesse Armstrong
Jesse David Armstrong (born 13 December 1970) is a British screenwriter and producer. Known for writing for a string of several critically acclaimed British comedy series as well as satirical dramas, he has received numerous accolades includin ...
.
Career
Collaborations with Jesse Armstrong
At the beginning of their writing career, Bain and Armstrong wrote for the Channel 4 sketch show ''
Smack the Pony
''Smack the Pony'' is a British sketch comedy show that was originally broadcast between 1999 and 2003 on Channel 4. The main performers on the show were Fiona Allen, Doon Mackichan and Sally Phillips. There were also regular appearances from ...
'' and the children's shows ''
The Queen's Nose'' and ''
My Parents Are Aliens
''My Parents Are Aliens'' is a British children's television sitcom that was produced for eight series by ITV Yorkshire, Yorkshire Television and aired on ITV (TV network), ITV from 8 November 1999 to 18 December 2006.
Overview
The show primar ...
''.
They went on to create and write ''Peep Show'',
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...
sitcom ''
The Old Guys'', and most recently Channel 4 comedy-dramas ''
Fresh Meat'' and ''
Babylon
Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...
''. They also wrote for the
Radio Four
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting ...
sketch show ''
That Mitchell and Webb Sound
''That Mitchell and Webb Sound'' is a comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 28 August 2003. A second series was broadcast in 2005 with a third starting on 24 May 2007. The radio programme, which itself followed the 2001 ...
'', starring ''Peep Shows two main actors
David Mitchell and
Robert Webb
Robert Patrick Webb (born 29 September 1972) is an English comedian, actor and writer. He rose to prominence alongside David Mitchell as part of the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb.
Mitchell and Webb starred in the Channel 4 sitcom '' Peep Show' ...
, and its
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...
adaptation ''
That Mitchell and Webb Look
''That Mitchell and Webb Look'' is a British sketch comedy television series starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb that ran from 2006 to 2010. Many of its characters and sketches were first featured in the duo's radio show '' That Mitchell an ...
''. ''Peep Show'' has won several writing awards,
including a BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy in 2008.
To date, Bain and Armstrong have written two films together — the 2007 comedy ''
Magicians'', and, alongside
Chris Morris, the 2010 terrorism satire ''
Four Lions
''Four Lions'' is a 2010 British political satire black comedy film directed by Chris Morris (in his feature film debut) from a screenplay written by Morris, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. It stars Riz Ahmed, Kayvan Novak, Nigel Lindsay, ...
''.
Bain and Armstrong received the
Writers' Guild of Great Britain
The Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG).
History
The u ...
Award at the
British Comedy Awards 2010. In 2012 both Bain and Armstrong were featured on the TV industry journal ''
Broadcast
Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...
s 'Hot 100' list, highlighting the most successful people in UK television.
In 2012 Bain and Armstrong wrote the Channel 4 comedy pilot ''
Bad Sugar'', a spoof of ''
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others.
H ...
''-style soap operas, which starred
Olivia Colman
Sarah Caroline Sinclair ( Colman; born 30 January 1974), known professionally as Olivia Colman, is an English actress. She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, two Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Award ...
,
Julia Davis
Julia Davis (born August 1966) is an English actress, comedian, director and writer. She is known for writing and starring in the comedies Human Remains (TV series), ''Human Remains'' (2000) and ''Nighty Night'' (2004–2005). She later worke ...
and
Sharon Horgan
Sharon Lorencia Horgan (born ) is an Irish actress, writer, director, producer, and comedian. She is best known for creating and starring in the comedy series '' Pulling'' (2006–2009), '' Catastrophe'' (2015–2019), and '' Bad Sisters'' (2022 ...
, all of whom also co-conceived the show.
Other writing
Bain wrote the novel ''Yours Truly, Pierre Stone'', which was published by IMP Fiction in 2002.
Bain provided additional material for episode one of the
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 political satire ''
The Thick of It
''The Thick of It'' is a British comedy television series created, written and directed by Armando Iannucci that satirises the inner workings of British government. It was first broadcast for two short series on BBC Four in 2005, initially ...
'', and was the script editor for the second series of BBC2 sitcom ''
Rev''.
In 2017, the black comedy ''
Ill Behaviour'', his first television series written solo, screened on
BBC2
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...
and
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
.
In 2018, Bain was hired to write the spy action-comedy ''No Glory'' by Valparaiso Pictures & Gary Sanchez Productions.
Kumail Nanjiani
Kumail Ali Nanjiani (; ; Urdu: کمیل علی نانجیانی; born May 2, 1978) is a Pakistani-American stand-up comedian and actor. He is known for his role as Dinesh in the HBO comedy series ''Silicon Valley'' (2014–2019) and for co-writi ...
is attached to star.
Personal life
Bain is married to actress/screenwriter Wendy Bain. He was educated at
St Paul's School, where he was a classmate of future Chancellor
George Osborne
George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born 23 May 1971) is a British retired politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the Cameron government. A ...
.
[
]
His father was TV director
Bill Bain and his mother,
Rosemary Frankau, co-starred in the sitcom ''
Terry and June
''Terry and June'' is a BBC television sitcom, broadcast on BBC1 from 1979 to 1987. The show was largely a reworking of '' Happy Ever After'', and starred Terry Scott and June Whitfield as a middle-aged, middle-class suburban couple, Terry and J ...
''. Through his mother, Bain is related to a long line of noted British comedians and writers, including his grandfather
Ronald Frankau, his grandmother
Renee Roberts, his great-grandmother
Julia Davis
Julia Davis (born August 1966) is an English actress, comedian, director and writer. She is known for writing and starring in the comedies Human Remains (TV series), ''Human Remains'' (2000) and ''Nighty Night'' (2004–2005). She later worke ...
, and cousins
Pamela Frankau
Pamela Sydney Frankau (3 January 1908 – 8 June 1967) was a popular English novelist from a prominent artistic and literary family. She was abandoned by her novelist father Gilbert Frankau at an early age, and she became a prolific writer. Sh ...
and
Nicholas Frankau
Nicholas Frankau (born 16 July 1954) is an English actor best known for playing the role of Flt. Lt. Carstairs in the British sitcom Allo 'Allo!'' whose recurring theme involves failure to get back to Britain.
Early life and career
Frankau ...
.
References
External links
*
Sam Bain on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bain, Sam
Living people
British people of German-Jewish descent
British male television writers
Alumni of the University of Manchester
People educated at St Paul's School, London
1971 births
English television writers
British people of Australian descent
Frankau family