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 network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
sitcom ''
Peep Show
A peep show or peepshow 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 development of the c ...
''. He attended
St Paul's School in London before graduating from
the University of Manchester
, mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity
, established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...
, where he met his writing partner
Jesse Armstrong
Jesse David Armstrong (born 13 December 1970) is a British author, screenwriter, and producer. He is a co-creator of the Channel 4 comedy series '' Peep Show'' (2003–2015) and '' Fresh Meat'' (2011–2016), and the creator of the HBO satiric ...
.
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
''The Queen's Nose'' is a children's novel by Dick King-Smith, first published by Gollancz in 1983 with illustrations by Jill Bennett. Set in England, where King-Smith lived, it features a girl who can use a fifty pence coin to make wishes. W ...
'' and ''
My Parents Are Aliens
''My Parents Are Aliens'' is a British children's television sitcom that was produced for eight series by Yorkshire Television and aired on ITV from 8 November 1999 to 18 December 2006.
Overview
The show primarily follows the lives of three ...
''.
They went on to create and write ''Peep Show'',
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News ...
sitcom ''
The Old Guys'', and most recently Channel 4 comedy-dramas ''
Fresh Meat'' and ''
Babylon''. They also wrote for the
Radio Four
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
sketch show ''
That Mitchell and Webb Sound
''That Mitchell and Webb Sound'' is a comedy sketch show on BBC Radio 4 which started on 28 August 2003. A second series was broadcast in 2005 with a third starting on 24 May 2007. The series became adapted for television as '' That Mitchell an ...
'', starring ''Peep Shows two main actors
David Mitchell and
Robert Webb
Robert Patrick Webb (born 29 September 1972) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He is one half of the double act Mitchell and Webb, alongside David Mitchell. Webb and Mitchell both starred in the Channel 4 sitco ...
, and its
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...
adaptation ''
That Mitchell and Webb Look
''That Mitchell and Webb Look'' is a British sketch comedy television show 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 and W ...
''. ''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
Magician or The Magician may refer to:
Performers
* A practitioner of magic (supernatural)
* A practitioner of magic (illusion)
* Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context
Entertainment
Books
* ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...
'', and, alongside
Chris Morris, the 2010 terrorism satire ''
Four Lions
''Four Lions'' (originally titled ''We Are Four Lions'') is a 2010 British political satire black comedy film directed by Chris Morris (in his directorial debut) and written by Morris, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. The film, a jihad satire fol ...
''.
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 ...
Award at the
British Comedy Awards 2010. In 2012 both Bain and Armstrong were featured on the TV industry journal ''
Broadcast
Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...
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,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...
''-style soap operas, which starred
Olivia Colman
Sarah Caroline Sinclair ( Colman; born 30 January 1974), known professionally as Olivia Colman, is an English actress. Known for her comedic and dramatic roles in film and television, she has received various accolades, including an Academy A ...
,
Julia Davis
Julia Charlotte L. Davis (born 25 August 1966) is an English actress, comedian, director and writer. She is known for writing and starring in the BBC Three comedy '' Nighty Night'' (2004–2005) and the comedies '' Hunderby'' (2012–2015) and ...
and
Sharon Horgan
Sharon Lorencia Horgan (born 13 July 1970) is an Irish actress, writer, director, comedian and producer who co-wrote and starred in the comedy series '' Pulling'' (2006–2009) and '' Catastrophe'' (2015–2019). She also created the HBO comedy ...
, 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 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 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 ...
'', 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 network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...
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 ...
.
In 2018, Bain was hired to write the spy action-comedy ''No Glory'' by Valparaiso Pictures & Gary Sanchez Productions.
Kumail Nanjiani
Kumail Ali Nanjiani (; ur, کمیل علی ننجیانی, ; born May 2, 1978) is a Pakistani-American actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is known for his role as Dinesh in the HBO comedy series ''Silicon Valley'' (2014–2019) and for co-w ...
is attached to star.
Personal life
Bain is married to actress/screenwriter
Wendy Bain
Sam Bain (born 3 August 1971) is a British comedy writer, best known for the Channel 4 sitcom '' Peep Show''. He attended St Paul's School in London before graduating from the University of Manchester, where he met his writing partner Jesse Ar ...
. He was educated at
St Paul's School, where he was a classmate of future Chancellor
George Osborne
George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British 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 ...
.
[
]
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, which was 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 ...
''. Through his mother, Bain is related to a long line of noted British comedians and writers, including his grandfather
Ronald Frankau
Ronald Hugh Wyndham Frankau (22 February 1894 – 11 September 1951) was an English comedian who started in cabaret and made his way to radio and films.
Family
Frankau was born in London, the third child of Arthur Frankau, son of Joseph Fra ...
, his grandmother
Renee Roberts
Irene Roberts (24 September 1908 – 6 February 1996) better known by her professional name Renee Roberts was an English actress who is best remembered for her portrayal of Miss Ursula Gatsby in '' Fawlty Towers'' in both series in 1975 and 1 ...
, his great-grandmother
Julia Davis
Julia Charlotte L. Davis (born 25 August 1966) is an English actress, comedian, director and writer. She is known for writing and starring in the BBC Three comedy '' Nighty Night'' (2004–2005) and the comedies '' Hunderby'' (2012–2015) and ...
, 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.
References
External links
*
Sam Bain on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bain, Sam
Living people
British people of German-Jewish descent
British 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