Paul Abbott (born February 22, 1960 in Burnley, Lancashire) is an English television scriptwriter, who has worked on many popular series, including Coronation Street, Cracker and Shameless, the latter of which he created. Before you can upload images you will need to register an account Only use this if you hold the copyright on the image. ... Before you can upload images you will need to register an account Only use this if you hold the copyright on the image. ... is the 53rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... , Burnley is a large market town in the north-east of Lancashire in north-west England with a population of 73,021[1] (2001 census). ... Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is God Save the Queen. See also Proposed English National Anthems. ... This list is poorly defined, permanently incomplete, or has become unverifiable or an indiscriminate list or repository of loosely associated topics. ... Coronation Street is an award winning British soap opera. ... Cracker is the title of a television crime series in the United Kingdom, made by Granada Television for ITV and created and principally written by Jimmy McGovern. ... Shameless is an offbeat British comedy drama television series set in the fictional Chatsworth Estate in Manchester, England. ...

Background

Paul Abbott is the ninth of ten children. When he was nine his mother left home to pursue a relationship with another man (with a child around Abbott’s own age); his father, who Abbott describes as having been "bone idle", departed two years later. His mother had supported the family from three jobs. Abbott and his siblings were in the care of their pregnant sixteen year-old sister, quite illicitly; had the arrangement come to the attention of social services they would have been placed in care.

At the age of thirteen, Abbott was attacked and raped on the way home from school, only revealing the incident to his current wife many years later. At this time he was playing truant, though by then his English teacher at Barden High School in Burnley had recognised his talent and had appointed him as editor of the school newspaper. Truancy is a term used to describe any intentional unauthorized absence from compulsory schooling. ...

Two years later he failed in an attempt to commit suicide and was sectioned into an adult mental hospital for a short while, later becoming a voluntary patient. On his release, he was taken into foster care and placed with a much more settled working class family than his own, where having both adults in steady employment was a new experience for Abbott, as was their television and car. At the same time he began attending a local Sixth Form College and started attended meetings of the Burnley Writers' Circle after seeing their advert in the local public library. The British Mental Health Act 1983 has a number of sections that provide powers for involuntary detention, hospitalization or other medical treatment for people affected by mental illness. ... England, Wales, Northern Ireland The sixth form, in the English, Welsh and Northern Irish education systems, is the term used to refer to the final two years of secondary schooling (when students are about sixteen to eighteen years of age), during which students normally prepare for their GCE A-level...

He subsequently studied at the University of Manchester and earned a degree in Psychology. The Victoria University of Manchester (VUM) was a large university in Manchester in England. ...

Career

Shortly after graduating he began to find opportunities to write professionally writing radio plays for BBC Radio 4. Abbott entered the Radio Times drama competition at the age of 22 which had the requirement to find a professional sponsor. A contact knew the address of the leading British dramatist Alan Bennett, who after seeing his script, was of the opinion that Abbott had written a perfectly acceptable piece of work which he would be happy to endorse. Radio drama is a form of audio storytelling broadcast on radio. ... BBC Radio 4 is a UK domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. ... Current Radio Times logo Radio Times is the BBCs weekly television and radio programme listings magazine. ... Published by Faber/Profile Books in 2005 Alan Bennett (born May 9, 1934) is an English author and actor noted for his work, his boyish appearance and his sonorous Yorkshire accent. ...

His radio work attracted the attention of producers at Granada Television who hired him, at age twenty-four, to be a script editor on their long-running soap opera Coronation Street. This made him at the time the youngest-ever person to occupy such a role on the programme. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Script Editor is a program included with Mac OS that allows AppleScripts to be written, debugged, and ran. ... Coronation Street is an award winning British soap opera. ...

He worked on Coronation Street for the next eight years as a story editor and from 1989 as a writer. He also worked on other programmes for Granada. In 1988, he co-wrote his first televised drama script, a one-off play for the Dramarama anthology, with fellow Coronation Street writer Kay Mellor. The same year, he and Mellor co-created the children's medical drama Children's Ward, which ran for many years—Abbott regularly contributed scripts until 1992, then returned briefly to the show in 1995. Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Kay Mellor (born 1950 in Leeds, Yorkshire, UK) is a British actress and scriptwriter, best known for her work on several successful television drama series. ... Childrens Ward (briefly retitled The Ward in 1995) was a British childrens television drama series produced by Granada Television and broadcast on the ITV network as part of its Childrens ITV strand on weekday afternoons. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ...

In 1994, he worked as the producer on the second season of Granada’s drama series Cracker, about the work of a criminal psychologist played by Robbie Coltrane. The following year he switched to writing scripts for the programme and wrote several episodes. He made his first breakthrough with a programme of his own creation, the police drama serial Touching Evil in 1997. The series, starring popular actor Robson Green, was a success, and two sequel serials—although not written by Abbott—followed. Most recently, in 2004, the series was re-made for American television by the USA Network. Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar). ... Cracker is the title of a television crime series in the United Kingdom, made by Granada Television for ITV and created by Jimmy McGovern. ... Robbie Coltrane, OBE (born Anthony Robert McMillan on March 30, 1950) is a Scottish Television and Film actor. ... Touching Evil was a 1997 British television drama serial, produced by Granada Television and screened on the ITV network. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... Robson Green with Francesca Annis as pictured on the DVD release of Reckless Robson Green (born December 18, 1964) is a British actor who first came to prominence in the BBC series Casualty, but made his name as Fusilier Dave Tucker of the Kings Fusiliers in Soldier Soldier. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... USA Network is a popular American cable television network with about 89 million household subscribers as of 2005. ...

After writing another serial starring Green, Reckless and a few other productions for Granada, he began in 1999 a collaboration with the independent Red Production Company. He contributed an episode to their anthology series Love in the 21st Century, screened on Channel 4, and in 2000 created and wrote the series Clocking Off for them, which was screened on BBC One. Set in one factory in Lancashire, the series focused on a different member of factory staff each episode. The first season won the BAFTA award for Best Drama Series, and the equivalent at the Royal Television Society awards; Abbott personally was recognised with the RTS Best Writer award. Clocking Off ran for four seasons, although Abbott’s contributions to the final two runs were minimal as he was by this time busy working on other projects. This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... This article is about the year. ... Red Production Company is a British independent television production company, formed in 1998 by Nicola Shindler, an experienced television producer who had worked on such prestige dramas as Our Friends in the North and Cracker. ... Channel 4 is a public-service British television station, broadcast to all areas of the United Kingdom (and also the Republic of Ireland), which began transmissions in 1982. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... Clocking Off is a British television drama series which ran on the BBC One network for four seasons from 2000 to 2003. ... BBC One is the primary television channel of the BBC, and the first in the United Kingdom. ... Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea. ... BAFTA Award The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), is a British organisation that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, childrens film and television, and interactive media. ... The British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series is one of the major categories of the British Academy Television Awards (BAFTAs), the primary awards ceremony of the British television industry. ... The Royal Television Society is a British-based society for the discussion, analysis and preservation of television in all its forms, past, present and future. ... The Royal Television Society is a British-based society for the discussion, analysis and preservation of television in all its forms, past, present and future. ... Clocking Off is a British television drama series which ran on the BBC One network for four seasons from 2000 to 2003. ...

In 2001, he created another Red series screened on BBC One, the comedy-drama Linda Green; although this was somewhat less successful and ran for only two seasons before cancellation. In 2001, he was due to adapt the D.H. Lawrence novel Sons and Lovers as a four-part television serial but pulled out due to work commitments. Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... BBC One is the primary television channel of the BBC, and the first in the United Kingdom. ... Linda Green was a British television comedy-drama series that lasted for two seasons, screened in 2001 and 2002. ... D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 - 2 March 1930) was one of the most important, certainly one of the most controversial, English writers of the 20th century, who wrote novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, and letters. ... Sons and Lovers is a novel written by D.H. Lawrence. ...

2003 saw Abbott experimenting with a new genre when he wrote the political thriller State of Play, which was directed by David Yates and produced for the BBC by Hilary Bevan-Jones. In late 2003, Abbott and Bevan-Jones founded their own independent production company, Tightrope Pictures, based in Soho, London. Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... State of Play is a British television drama serial, first broadcast on BBC One in 2003. ... David Yates (born 1963 in St Helens, Merseyside) is an English film and television director. ... Hilary Bevan Jones (born 1952; sometimes credited as Hilary Bevan-Jones) is a British television producer, who has worked on several acclaimed drama programmes, including the multi-award-winning State of Play (2003). ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Hilary Bevan Jones (born 1952; sometimes credited as Hilary Bevan-Jones) is a British television producer, who has worked on several acclaimed drama programmes, including the multi-award-winning State of Play (2003). ... Production company refers to a company responsible for the development and physical production of performing arts, film, radio or a television program. ... Tightrope Pictures is a British television production company, founded in late 2003 by writer Paul Abbott and producer Hilary Bevan-Jones, who had worked together that year on the successful BBC drama serial State of Play. ... Cast-iron architecture in Greene Street SoHo is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

In early 2004, Channel 4 screened Shameless, a new Abbott series (written with Danny Brocklehurst and Carmel Morgan) based on his experiences and family life growing up in Burnley, although the action of the programme itself was changed to Manchester in the present day. At the 2004 British Academy Television Awards, he was given the honorary Dennis Potter Award for Outstanding Writing in Television, and in July of the same year Radio Times magazine placed him at No. 5 in a poll of industry professionals to find The Most Powerful People in Television Drama. Abbott was the highest-placed writer on the list, those above him being actors and executives. Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Channel 4 is a public-service British television station, broadcast to all areas of the United Kingdom (and also the Republic of Ireland), which began transmissions in 1982. ... Shameless is an offbeat British comedy drama television series set in the fictional Chatsworth Estate in Manchester, England. ... Danny Brocklehurst is a British screenwriter, born in 1971. ... , Burnley is a large market town in the north-east of Lancashire in north-west England with a population of 73,021[1] (2001 census). ... This article is about the City of Manchester in England. ... The British Academy Television Awards, also known as the BAFTAs or, to differentiate them from the BAFTA Film Awards, the BAFTA Television Awards, are the most prestigious awards given in the British television industry, analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States. ... Liber Amoris Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935—7 June 1994) was a controversial British dramatist who is best known for several widely acclaimed television dramas which mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. ... Current Radio Times logo Radio Times is the BBCs weekly television and radio programme listings magazine. ...

Tightrope Pictures have produced several high-profile dramas for the BBC, including Richard Curtis's The Girl in the Café (BBC One, 2005) and an adaptation of William Golding's novel To the Ends of the Earth (BBC Two, 2005). Tightrope Pictures is a British television production company, founded in late 2003 by writer Paul Abbott and producer Hilary Bevan-Jones, who had worked together that year on the successful BBC drama serial State of Play. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ... Richard Curtis in London, 1999 Richard Curtis CBE, (born 8 November 1956), is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, best known for the TV programmes Blackadder and The Vicar of Dibley as well as movies such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually. ... The Girl in the Café is a British one-off television drama, produced by independent production company Tightrope Pictures for BBC Wales, and originally screened on BBC One in the UK on Saturday June 25, 2005. ... BBC One is the primary television channel of the BBC, and the first in the United Kingdom. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, poet and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1983), best known for his novel Lord of the Flies. ... To the Ends of the Earth is a trilogy of novels by William Golding, consisting of Rites of Passage (1980), Close Quarters (1987), and Fire Down Below (1989). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In July 2006, it was announced that the University of Salford had appointed Abbott as a visiting professor, and in the same month Manchester Metropolitan University awarded him with an honorary doctorate. Abbott's November 2006 lecture at Salford entitled "The 21st Century Box" explored how media is changing and provided 'first aid for British television makers'. Attendees included the Mayor and Mayoress of Salford. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The University of Salford is a large University situated in the city of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. ... Manchester Metropolitan University is based in Manchester, England. ... An honorary degree (Latin: honoris causa ad gradum, not to be confused with an honors degree) is an academic degree awarded to an individual as a decoration, rather than as the result of matriculating and studying for several years. ... For other uses, see Salford (disambiguation). ...

Paul now lives in Cheshire with his third wife Saskia and their two children, Tom (born 1992) and Annie (born 1994). Depression remains a problem for Abbott. Cheshire (or, archaically, the County of Chester)[1] is a county in North West England. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar). ...

References

Newspapers:

• Stuart Jeffries. Why I Write. "The Guardian". Monday February 7, 2005.
• Lisa O'Carroll. Abbott turns his 'sub-working class' life into drama. "The Guardian". Friday May 16, 2003.
• Wylie, Ian. "Abbott blasts today's TV", Manchester Evening News, April 24 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-26. 

Television: The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 16 is the 136th day of the year (137th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 116th day of the year (117th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

• The South Bank Show — Paul Abbott. ITV. Sunday May 15, 2005. paul abbott was the eighth of nine children not nineth of ten i know that because he is my uncle

The South Bank Show is a British television arts magazine show, presented by Melvyn Bragg and seen in over 60 countries — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the USA. Its stated aim is to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience. ... Independent Television (generally known as ITV, but also as ITV Network) is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority (ITA) to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK. Since 1990 and the Broadcasting... is the 135th day of the year (136th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• "Writers Room", Question and Answer with Paul Abbott, BBC website
• Paul Abbott at the Internet Movie Database
• Paul Abbott entry at the British Film Institute's screenonline
• Paul Abbott to work with MA Students at Salford University
• Abbott Receives Honorary Doctorate from Manchester Metropolitan University
• Royal Television Society Past Award Winners (Downloadable PDF)
• Desert Island Discs