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Peter Harness

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Peter Harness
Born1976 (age 47–48)
Hornsea, East Yorkshire, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
Occupation(s)Writer, Producer, Actor
Years active2005–present
Known forDoctor Who
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Wallander
Is Anybody There?

Peter Harness (born 1976) is an English playwright, screenwriter and actor.[1] He has contributed to programmes such as McMafia, City of Vice and Case Histories.

Early life

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He grew up in Hornsea, East Yorkshire and attended Oriel College, Oxford where he studied English.[2] He is a former president of the Oxford Revue. He was one of Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow, 2007 and is a recipient of the Dennis Potter Screenwriting Award.[3][4]

Early works

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Mongoose, his first original stage play, was performed at the Southwark Playhouse in 2003 (directed by Thea Sharrock) and later at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh and the Trafalgar Studios, London. The text is published by Nick Hern Books.

In 2005, he adapted the M.R. James short story "A View From A Hill" for BBC4. It was the first in a new annual series of BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas.[5] Harness went on to write several other single films for BBC4, including a biopic of Frankie Howerd, Rather You Than Me, starring David Walliams and Rafe Spall, which was part of the Curse of Comedy season, as well as the Spanish flu drama, The Forgotten Fallen, starring Bill Paterson, Mark Gatiss and Charlotte Riley, which dealt with the efforts of a medical team in Manchester to combat the disease in 1918.[6]

Career

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Harness was the lead writer of the third and fourth seasons of the BBC's Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh.[4] He wrote all of season three, comprising three films: The Dogs of Riga, Before the Frost, and a new story developed by Henning Mankell and Harness called An Event in Autumn.[7] He wrote two out of three films for season four, A Lesson in Love and The Troubled Man, and was executive producer for the series as a whole.[8]

Aside from Wallander, Harness has worked on several other successful series. City of Vice, starring Ian McDiarmid and Iain Glen, was shown on Channel Four to critical acclaim.[9] Harness (along with co-writer Clive Bradley) was nominated for a Writers Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Series.[citation needed] In 2011, he adapted Kate Atkinson's novel When Will There Be Good News? as part of the BBC1 series Case Histories, starring Jason Isaacs as private detective Jackson Brodie.[10] Harness's episodes of the series won a Scottish BAFTA for Best Television Drama, 2011.[11] Harness also adapted the fourth Jackson Brodie book, Started Early, Took My Dog for the second series of Case Histories, which filmed in Summer 2012.[12]

His first original screenplay, Is Anybody There? was filmed by award-winning Irish director John Crowley in 2007. The movie, set in an old people's home, starred Michael Caine, David Morrissey, Anne-Marie Duff and Bill Milner. It was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, 2008, and released theatrically across Europe and the US in 2009.[citation needed] Harness was nominated for a Writers Guild Award for the film.[13]

He adapted Susanna Clarke's novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell into a 2015 television series of the same name.[14]

In 2014 he wrote the seventh episode for the eighth series of Doctor Who, "Kill the Moon", starring Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor.[15][16] In 2015, wrote a 2-part story titled "The Zygon Invasion" and "The Zygon Inversion" (the latter co-written with Steven Moffat) for the ninth series of Doctor Who. Harness novelised these episodes as part of the Target Collection.[17] He also co-wrote the seventh episode of the tenth series with Moffat, titled "The Pyramid at the End of the World".

In 2018, Harness wrote for the crime drama series McMafia, about the Russian Mafia. In 2019, he wrote a new miniseries adaptation of The War of the Worlds for BBC One, produced by Mammoth Screen.[18] On April 6, 2022, it was announced Apple TV+ had greenlit Harness' conspiracy thriller series Constellation.[19]

Other projects

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He has also been active in the Malmö theatre community as part of the theatre group Teater Insite both as an actor and a writer.[20][21]

References

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  1. ^ "Peter Harness". Internet Movie Data base. IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  2. ^ "Matters of life and death inspire film debut – Features". Yorkshire Post. 16 February 2009. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  3. ^ Dobson, Patricia (11 July 2007). "UK Stars of Tomorrow 2007 | News | Screen". Screendaily.com. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  4. ^ a b "Peter Harness". Curtisbrown.co.uk. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  5. ^ "Four – Best Of". BBC. 1 January 1970. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  6. ^ "Drama – Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me". BBC. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  7. ^ "Klart för mer brittisk Wallander – Nyheter P4 Malmöhus". Sveriges Radio. Sverigesradio.se. 4 August 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  8. ^ "Principal photography begins on the final series of BBC One's BAFTA winning Wallander".
  9. ^ Nancy Banks-Smith (15 January 2008). "Last night's TV: The Palace | Media". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  10. ^ "Case Histories (BBC1 2011 with Jason Isaacs, Amanda Abbington, Millie Innes)". Memorable TV. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  11. ^ "British Academy Scotland Awards Winners in 2011 – Awards – Scotland – The BAFTA site". Bafta.org. 13 November 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  12. ^ Dowell, Ben (12 October 2011). "BBC1's Case Histories to return | News | Broadcast". Broadcastnow.co.uk. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  13. ^ "Six up for Writers Guild Awards 2009". Curtisbrown.co.uk. 4 November 2009. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  14. ^ "BBC - Media Centre - BBC One Controller, Danny Cohen, looks ahead at the five key themes that will define the channel in 2013". www.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 3 December 2012.
  15. ^ "Two New Writers for Series 8". Doctor Who TV. 30 April 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
  16. ^ "New Series: All the Episode Titles and More". BBC. 18 August 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  17. ^ Doctor Who: The Zygon Invasion (Target Collection). 13 July 2023.
  18. ^ "First Look at the BBC's Adaptation of H.G. Wells' 'The War of the Worlds'". 5 April 2018.
  19. ^ "Noomi Rapace & Jonathan Banks to Star in 'Constellation' Apple TV+ Space-Themed Drama Series". 6 April 2022.
  20. ^ "Nedstigning i Pinterland – Kultur & Nöjen – Sydsvenskan-Nyheter Dygnet Runt". Sydsvenskan.se. 14 June 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  21. ^ Tweet Theresa Benér kultur@svd.se (11 June 2012). "Recension: Ett långt stycke liv – Teater Insite, Malmö (Teater) | Scen | SvD". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). Svd.se. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
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