Stephen Volk (born 3 July 1954) is a Welsh

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

and novelist who specializes in the horror genre."Waffling With Horror Writer Stephen Volk"
''Themoviewaffler.com''. Retrieved 04-03-2017. Stephen Jones,''The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 24''.Hachette UK, 2013. , (pp. 360-1) He wrote the screenplays for numerous horror films, including

Ken Russell Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films were mainly liberal adaptations of ...

's '' Gothic'' (1986), '' The Kiss'' (1988), and

William Friedkin William David Friedkin (; August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023) was an American film, television and opera director, producer, and screenwriter who was closely identified with the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in doc ...

's ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' (1990). In 1992, Volk wrote the teleplay for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

mockumentary A mockumentary (a portmanteau of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a Documentary film, documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on current event ...

'' Ghostwatch''. Other screenwriting credits include ''

Octane Octane is a hydrocarbon and also an alkane with the chemical formula C8H18, and the condensed structural formula CH3(CH2)6CH3. Octane has many structural isomers that differ by the location of branching in the carbon chain. One of these isomers ...

'' (2003) and '' The Awakening'' (2011).

Early life and work

Stephen Volk was born in

Pontypridd Pontypridd ( , ), Colloquialism, colloquially referred to as ''Ponty'', is a town and a Community (Wales), community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales, approximately 10 miles north west of Cardiff city centre. Geography Pontypridd comprises the ...

, Wales on 3 July 1954. Volk has stated his interest in horror was triggered by watching the TV drama ''

The Stone Tape ''The Stone Tape'' is a 1972 British television horror drama film written by Nigel Kneale and directed by Peter Sasdy and starring Michael Bryant, Jane Asher, Michael Bates and Iain Cuthbertson. It was broadcast on BBC Two as a Christmas ...

'' by Nigel Kneale, and the film '' Don't Look Now'' by

Nicolas Roeg Nicolas Jack Roeg ( ; 15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English film director and cinematographer, best known for directing ''Performance (film), Performance'' (1970), ''Walkabout (film), Walkabout'' (1971), ''Don't Look Now'' (1973) ...

. He studied at Lanchester Polytechnic in Coventry, and the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

. Volk then worked as an advertising copywriter before becoming a full-time writer. Volk's first produced work was

's film '' Gothic'' in 1986. Volk also wrote a script, ''Horror Movie'', for Goldcrest Films that was never made due to Goldcrest's collapse.

''Ghostwatch''

His most famous work is '' Ghostwatch'', a controversial drama shown on

BBC1 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 (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

on Halloween 1992.Paul Long, Tim Wall ''Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context''. Routledge, 2014. (pp. 150-1) It is commonly misrepresented as a hoax documentary, but this was never the intention. It was originally planned as a six-part series for the BBC. However, the producer of the series, Ruth Baumgarten, didn't believe it had commercial viability. Stephen reworked the script so that everything would be set "Like episode six" and repitched it as a 90-minute live broadcast drama on behalf of BBC's ''Screen One'' drama segment. Ruth accepted the new format.

Other work

Volk's TV work often involves the supernatural and the paranormal, such as with the

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 ...

thriller series ''

Afterlife The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their ...

'' (2005–06). Volk has written fiction in the horror and

ghost story A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...

genres; some of these stories were collected in the book ''Dark Corners'' (2006). In 1995, Volk wrote two serials of the series ''Ghosts''. Volk's fiction often features real people as characters: the novella ''Whitstable'' (2013) features the actor

Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage and radio roles. He achieved recognition f ...

, while ''Leytonstone'' (2015) deals with a young

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

. In 2018, Volk published ''The Dark Masters Trilogy'', an omnibus featuring ''Whitstable'' and ''Leytonstone'', as well as a new novella, ''Netherwood''. ''Netherwood'' features fictionalised versions of the writer

Dennis Wheatley Dennis Yates Wheatley (8 January 1897 – 10 November 1977) was an English writer whose prolific output of thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling authors from the 1930s through to the 1960s. Early life Wheatley w ...

and the occultist

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

. Volk also wrote a monthly column about horror for '' Black Static'' magazine until the end of 2016. Volk's story "The Chapel of Unrest" was read on stage by actor

Jim Broadbent James Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor. A graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972, he came to prominence as a character actor for his many roles in film and television. He has received various accolades ...

at London's Bush Theatre in 2013.

Bibliography

Novels and novellas

* ''Gothic'' (1987, novelisation of the 1986 film) * ''Vardøger'' (2009) * ''Whitstable'' (2013) * ''Leytonstone'' (2015)

Short story collections

* ''Dark Corners'' (2006) * ''Monsters in the Heart'' (2013) * ''The Parts We Play'' (2016)

Filmography

Personal life

He and his wife Patricia, who is a sculptor, live in

Bradford-on-Avon Bradford-on-Avon (sometimes Bradford on Avon) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in west Wiltshire (district), Wiltshire, England, near the border with Somerset. The town's canal, historic buildings, shops, pubs and restauran ...

, Wiltshire.

References and notes

Sources

External links

*
Filmography

BBC interview

Stephen Volk's Website

Story behind "Monsters in the Heart" - Online Essay by Stephen Volk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Volk, Stephen 1954 births Living people Alumni of the University of Bristol British ghost story writers People from Bradford-on-Avon People from Pontypridd British television show creators Welsh horror writers Welsh male novelists Welsh screenwriters Welsh television writers Writers from Wiltshire