Come and meet award-winning writer and producer, and founder of Red Planet productions, TONY JORDAN has produced some of the UK’s and internationally most popular drama content of recent years, including Looe’s much loved BEYOND PARADISE.
From Eastenders to Life on Mars, from Where the Heart Is to Hustle, from Babs to The Nativity, and more, Tony has created some of the most memorable characters, dialogue, and iconic moments on British TV. Discover how he started, his highs and lows, and what drives him as a writer. And there’ll be plenty of time to ask your own questions about scriptwriting, Beyond Paradise, and his other shows.
MAXIMUM NUMBERS: 70
VENUE: Riverside Church
DAY/DATE/TIMES: Wed 30th September 7.00-8.30pm
EVENT LEADER: Tony Jordan (in conversation with Sharon Johnson/Liz Manning)
EVENT LEADER BIO: Founder of Red Planet Pictures, a dynamic and truly independent TV production company, award-winning writer and producer Tony Jordan has produced some of the UK’s and internationally most popular drama content of recent years.
Jordan started his writing career at the age of 32 when he submitted his first unsolicited script to the BBC. He has since become one of the UK’s most acclaimed, successful and respected drama writers and show runners. His early career began at the UK’s premier continuing drama EastEnders, where he was responsible for some of the show’s most iconic moments.
He also created some of the shows biggest and enduring characters, including the Slater family and Alfie Moon. His memorable episodes include the famous “You’re Not My Mother” revelation and the episode widely known as “Dot’s monologue”, the first and only “single-hander” episode in UK soap opera history, in which Juned Brown portrayed Dot Cotton recording an emotional audio tape for her husband. His EastEnders episodes regularly achieved overnight audiences in excess of 25 million viewers.
Moving on from EastEnders, Tony then went on to write for some of the UK’s biggest television series including Minder, Thieftakers, Boon, The Vanishing Man, Eldorado, Where The Heart Is, and many others.
When it came time for Tony to start creating shows of his own, he went on to create some of the most popular dramas of recent years, including City Central, Life on Mars, Hustle, The Nativity, Holby Blue, Crash, Moving Wallpaper & Echo Beach, The Passing Bells, Dickensian, Hooten & The Lady, The Ark, Babs – a biopic of the legendary Barbara Windsor and most recently the hit BBC1 Drama Beyond Paradise.
He has also penned single TV films, such as Can’t Buy Me Love starring Martin Kemp and Michelle Collins, April Fools Day starring comedy duo Hale & Pace, The Ark starring David Threlfall and Joanne Whalley, and of course Babs, starring Samantha Spiro and Jamie Winstone.
Since its creation in 2005, Red Planet Pictures, the production company founded by Tony has become synonymous with producing groundbreaking and ratings-winning dramas, including smash-hit BBC drama Death in Paradise. Currently in pre-production on its fifteenth series, Death in Paradise has become a huge global success selling to over 260 territories and pulling in audiences of over 8 million each week in the UK. Red Planet Pictures also released the 8 x 60 drama adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished final novel, Sanditon, starring Rose Williams and Theo James, for ITV and Masterpiece (currently the highest rated new UK drama of the last 12 months, doubling the PBS primetime average). Other Red Planet titles include Our House for ITV and the recently commissioned Death at the White Hart, based on the bestselling novel by Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall.
Tony is also acclaimed for his international work, creating the smash hit, award winning Saudia Arabian drama Rashash, which aired on middle eastern streamer Shahid. He also created the hugely successful Al Mirath for MBC in the middle east, a show that broke new ground in the region and was awarded the prestigious Best TV Production in its first year.
In Serbia, Tony created Besa, a dark Serbian language thriller, an international co-production between Antenna Group Studios and Adrenalin Production, in association with Red Planet Pictures. The series told the story of a man forced to become an assassin for the Albanian mafia to protect his family.
With over 300 hours of commissioned television as a writer, Jordan recently stepped down from the helm at Red Planet Pictures and has returned to writing full time. He is currently working on three new shows, all in their very early stages.
Jordan was recently described in the Guardian newspaper by TV critic Mark Lawson as “one of TV’s most inventive and influential writers in modern British television”.
COST: All our events are FREE. However, on the day, if you are able to make a donation, that will help fund the Festival for future years. Thank you.
Tickets for this event can be booked HERE