Paul abbott actor

Sign In Sign In.

As darkly comic police drama No Offence returns to Channel 4, the scriptwriter talks about former hits, problems with pitching, and State of Play 2. His conversation comes in torrents of half-realised sentences, jokes, profane anecdotes and rat-a-tat laughter. Two days! Abbott is now 56, with a distinguished year career in television, but he retains the enthusiasm — and physique — of a man half his age. Which is no mean achievement, given the life he has led. Every writer is engaged in what John Updike called unpacking his own bag, but some have more baggage to attend to than others.

Paul abbott actor

Paul Abbott born 22 February is an English screenwriter and producer. He became one of the most successful television writers in Britain following his work on popular series such as Cracker — and Coronation Street —present , and would become more widely known for creating some of the most acclaimed television dramas of the s and s, including Reckless , Touching Evil — , Clocking Off — , State of Play , Shameless — , and No Offence — Abbott was born into a dysfunctional family in Burnley on 22 February , [1] the seventh of eight children. His mother had supported the family with three jobs. Abbott and his siblings were left in the care of their pregnant year-old sister. Abbott was raped by a stranger at the age of 11, leading to him jumping from the roof of a multi-story car park in an attempt to take his own life. At the same time, he began attending a local Sixth Form College and started attending meetings of the Burnley Writers' Circle after seeing their advert in the local public library. 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. His work on radio plays for BBC Radio 4 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. He worked on Coronation Street for the next eight years as a story editor and from as a writer. He also worked on other programmes for Granada. In , 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 , then returned briefly to the show in

After writing another serial starring Paul abbott actor, Reckless and a few other productions for Granada, he began in a collaboration with the independent Red Production Company. Abbott in September Read our privacy notice.

Paul Abbott is currently writing a new series entitled No Offence. It's not a phrase you would usually associate with the writer. He has made his name by testing the limits of good taste with Shameless, his Channel 4 series about that family of walking invitations to an Asbo, the Gallaghers. If you don't believe me, here is a selection of vignettes from the forthcoming first episode of the third series. Social services are coming round to the Gallaghers' chaotic, parent-free house on the tough-as-old-boots Chatsworth Estate in Manchester to check up on five-year-old Liam.

Sign In Sign In. New Customer? Create account. He is a writer and producer, known for Shameless , Shameless and State of Play He has been married to Saskia Abbott since

Paul abbott actor

The lives and relationships of a group of siblings and their estranged father Frank Gallagher on a rough Manchester estate. Ian Gallagher : Sometimes we get so wrapped up in getting what we want, that we forget to ask ourselves why we wanted it in the first place. Sign In Sign In. New Customer? Create account. Episode guide. Comedy Crime Drama. Creator Paul Abbott. See production info at IMDbPro.

Ribs vector

He tells me how pitching has changed down the years, and recalls being asked by one executive why he wanted to write about a younger man getting together with an older woman, as he did in his romantic drama Reckless. TV Drama in the s. Call yourself a teenager? In , Abbott acted as executive producer on the film version of State of Play for Universal Pictures. And they get in a complete state about anything to do with sex - remember the furore about Janet Jackson's nipple? The South Bank Show Interview. Coronation Street 5. In the first drafts of the first series they found themselves yo-yoing between comic lines and police procedure, until Abbott realised that comedy had to be implicit in the drama. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in. I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Abbott, Paul He says his colleagues at Corrie were hooked on the money, embittered about their thwarted ambitions, but unwilling to leave.

After 11 seasons of dysfunction and chaos, see what the Gallagher family has been up to since the Showtime series ended in

Toggle limited content width. Cracker : " White Ghost ". State of Play Related news. I don't even know where I live! Abbott was the highest-placed writer on the list, those above him being actors and executives. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments. Shameless is a series quite unlike anything else on TV. See all. In Abbott enrolled at Manchester University to study psychology but he didn't give up hopes of a writing career and, after having a radio play accepted by the BBC in , he decided to leave university to concentrate on writing. In July , it was announced that the University of Salford had appointed Abbott as a visiting professor; the same month, Manchester Metropolitan University awarded him with an honorary doctorate. The cast of Shameless all say they know people like the Gallaghers. English writer and producer.