79-597: Mark Gatiss ( / ˈ ɡ eɪ t ɪ s / ; born 17 October 1966) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist. He is best known for his work in television acting in and co-creating shows with Steven Moffat . Gatiss has received several awards including a BAFTA TV Award , a Primetime Emmy Award , a Peabody Award , and two Laurence Olivier Awards . Gatiss co-created, co-wrote and acted in BBC comedy series The League of Gentlemen (1999–2002). He co-created and portrayed Mycroft Holmes in
158-411: A BAFTA Craft Award , and a BAFTA Cymru Award. Between episodes, he wrote and produced the modern-day drama series Jekyll , based on the novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde . In May 2008, it was announced that Moffat would succeed Davies as showrunner, lead writer and executive producer of Doctor Who . Around the same time, he dropped his contract with film director Steven Spielberg for
237-413: A British Academy Television Award , a Royal Television Society Award and the prestigious Golden Rose of Montreux . In 2005, the film The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse was released, to generally positive reviews. Shearsmith and Pemberton reunited in 2009 to create a similarly dark BBC sitcom, Psychoville , which featured an episode guest-starring Gatiss. The three reunited again in 2012 to film
316-584: A Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special for " His Last Vow " (2014), and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie for executive producing " The Abominable Bride " (2016). In June 2015, Moffat was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to drama. In January 2016, Moffat announced he was stepping down as Doctor Who lead writer and executive producer after
395-872: A civil partnership with actor Ian Hallard in 2008 in Middle Temple , in the City of London. Gatiss once built a Victorian era laboratory in his north London home, as the fulfilment of a childhood dream. Gatiss is an atheist . The University of Huddersfield awarded him an honorary doctorate of letters in 2003. The Mezzotint (2021) Count Magnus (2022) Lot No. 249 (2023) Books Doctor Who novels Doctor Who anthology contributions The League of Gentlemen Lucifer Box novels Miscellaneous non-fiction Miscellaneous fiction Audio plays Doctor Who (and related) Steven Moffat Steven William Moffat OBE ( / ˈ m ɒ f ə t / ; born 18 November 1961)
474-629: A BBC One serial by his fellow Doctor Who scriptwriter Steven Moffat . In 2008, he appeared in Clone as Colonel Black. Gatiss also wrote, co-produced and acted in the BBC Four ghost story Crooked House (2008). He appeared in the stage adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar 's All About My Mother at the Old Vic in London from 25 August-24 November 2007. He won much critical acclaim for his portrayal of
553-641: A West End stage. Gatiss appeared as the Prince Regent (later George IV) in the eight-part historical fiction television drama series Taboo (2017) first broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2017 and in the United States on FX on 10 January 2017. In May 2017, Gatiss began a recurring role on The Secret History of Hollywood , a series of podcast biopics on Golden Age-era Hollywood. Its 11-part series, Shadows tells
632-477: A childhood interest in the BBC science-fiction show Doctor Who and devoted much of his early writing to the series, despite its 1989 cancellation. Gatiss's earliest published work as a professional writer was a sequence of novels in Virgin Publishing's New Adventures series of continuation stories and novels. In these works, he tried to correct the problems which had led to the show's decline in
711-663: A column written under the pseudonym "Sam Kisgart," which he was originally credited as in the Doctor Who Unbound audio play Sympathy for the Devil for his role as the Master . "Sam Kisgart" is an anagram of "Mark Gatiss", and is also the name under which he was credited for his cameo in Psychoville . Novels Gatiss has written several non-fiction works, including a biography of the film director James Whale and
790-602: A contemporary update of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 's Sherlock Holmes stories called Sherlock . Vertue advised them to work on the project rather than spend years discussing it. A 60-minute pilot, written by Moffat, was filmed in January 2009. The pilot was not aired but a three-episode series of 90-minute television films produced by Hartswood was commissioned. Production on Moffat's time in charge of Doctor Who began in July 2009. As executive producer and lead writer, he
869-621: A drama school which he attended after finishing school and having spent a gap year travelling around Europe. The League of Gentlemen began as a stage act in 1995, which won the Perrier Award at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1997. In the same year the show transferred to BBC Radio 4 as On the Town with the League of Gentlemen , and later arrived on television on BBC Two in 1999. The television programme has earned Gatiss and his colleagues
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#1732793168768948-629: A fan of Doctor Who since childhood. In 1995, he contributed a segment to Paul Cornell 's Virgin New Adventures novel Human Nature . His first solo Doctor Who work was a short story, "Continuity Errors", published in the 1996 Virgin Books anthology Decalog 3: Consequences . Between marriages, Moffat claims that he "shagged [his] way round television studios like a mechanical digger." According to an interview with The New York Times , Moffat met television producer Sue Vertue at
1027-495: A film trilogy based on artist Hergé 's character Tintin . Part of the lone script he wrote was used in Spielberg's film The Adventures of Tintin , eventually released in 2011. Moffat's work in the 2010s consisted mainly of his period as the head writer of Doctor Who during the fifth through tenth series , in which he won another Hugo, and Sherlock , which won Moffat a BAFTA Craft Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards . In
1106-583: A homage to 1970s' Hammer Horrors. Gatiss has also made three credited appearances in Doctor Who . In 2007, he played Professor Lazarus in " The Lazarus Experiment ". In 2011, he returned in the Series 6 episode " The Wedding of River Song " as a character known as Gantok, and in the 2017 Christmas special " Twice Upon A Time " as "The Captain". Also in 2007, he appeared as Robert Louis Stevenson in Jekyll ,
1185-440: A learning exercise. His other early contributions to the Doctor Who franchise included four novels , two audio plays for BBV and two audio plays for Big Finish Productions . Gatiss has written nine episodes for the 2005 revival of the show. His first, " The Unquiet Dead ," was the third episode of the revived series in 2005; the second, " The Idiot's Lantern ," aired the following year in the second series . Although he acted in
1264-615: A lifelong fan of Doctor Who , wrote the comedic sketch episode The Curse of Fatal Death for the Comic Relief charity telethon, which aired in early 1999. His early-2000s sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his relationship with television producer Sue Vertue . In March 2004, Moffat was announced as one of the writers for the revived Doctor Who TV series. He wrote six episodes during Russell T Davies ' first era as head writer, which aired from 2005 to 2008. Moffat's scripts during this era won him three Hugo Awards ,
1343-486: A modern-day drama series based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , meaning he nearly missed out on writing for the 2007 series of Doctor Who . Written late in the series' run, he quickly based "Blink" on his previously-written Doctor Who short story from 2005, "What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow", as "a desperate way to keep a toehold" in
1422-528: A musical called Knifer . He is an atheist . Moffat's father Bill was a head teacher at Thorn Primary School in Johnstone , Renfrewshire ; when the school was used for Harry Secombe 's Highway in the late 1980s, Bill mentioned to the producers that he had an idea for a television series about a school newspaper. The producers asked for a sample script, to which Bill agreed on the condition his son Steven write it. Producer Sandra Hastie said that it
1501-662: A new play by Steven Moffat at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester , starring Amanda Abbington , Frances Barber and Reece Shearsmith . The play transferred to London's West End Criterion Theatre in January 2023. In February 2023, Gatiss directed The Way Old Friends Do a new play by Ian Hallard at the Birmingham Rep . This also transferred to the Criterion in August. In April 2022, Gatiss starred as Lawrence in
1580-669: A new production of The Wind in the Willows shown on BBC One on 1 January 2007. He wrote and starred in the BBC Four docudrama The Worst Journey in the World , based on the memoir by polar explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard . Gatiss appears frequently in BBC Radio productions, including the science fiction comedy Nebulous and The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes story The Shameful Betrayal of Miss Emily Smith . In 2009, he
1659-496: A result of the break-up of his first marriage. The producer was secretly phoning his friends at home to check on his state. His wife's new lover was represented in the episode "The Big Finish?" by the character Brian Magboy ( Simon Schatzberger ), a name inspired by Brian: Maggie's boy. Moffat brought in the character so that all sorts of unfortunate things would happen to him, such as having a typewriter dropped on his foot. By 1990, Moffat had written two series of Press Gang , but
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#17327931687681738-496: A script for the first film. Moffat told The Guardian in 2012 that Spielberg was "lovely" about his decision to walk away from his three-film Tintin contract to return to Doctor Who . The script for the first film in the trilogy, The Adventures of Tintin (released in 2011), was completed by Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish , with a part of Moffat's script used in the film. During their journeys from London to Cardiff for Doctor Who , Moffat and writer Mark Gatiss conceived
1817-504: A series of sketches for the fourth series of CBBC show Horrible Histories . Outside The League , Gatiss' television work has included writing for the 2001 revival of Randall & Hopkirk and script editing the popular sketch show Little Britain in 2003, making guest appearances in both. In 2001 he guested in Spaced as a villainous government employee modelled on the character of Agent Smith from The Matrix film series. In
1896-422: A sitcom, he decided to base it around the evolution of their own relationship. Coupling , produced by Vertue, was first broadcast on BBC Two in 2000. Coupling ran for four series totalling 28 episodes until 2004, all written by Moffat. He also wrote the original, unbroadcast pilot episode for the U.S. version, also titled Coupling , although this was less successful and was cancelled after four episodes on
1975-618: A tour de force. This is a viscerally repulsive depiction of the gap between public and private life." That same year he played a supporting role as John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough in the Yorgos Lanthimos directed black comedy The Favourite (2018) starring Olivia Colman , Emma Stone , and Rachel Weisz . Also in 2018 he acted in the children's film Christopher Robin starring Ewan McGregor and The Mercy with Colin Firth . In 2020 he acted opposite Anthony Hopkins in
2054-424: Is a Church of England primary school with academy status located in the village of Heighington , near Newton Aycliffe , County Durham. As of 2016 it educated 279 pupils aged 4–11. At its Ofsted inspection in 2019, it was classed as a ‘good’ school. The headmaster since 1995 has been Neil Parker. The premises were extended between 2000 and 2004 with new classrooms and additional administrative space. There
2133-503: Is a Scottish television writer, television producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work as the second showrunner and head writer of the 2005 revival of the BBC sci-fi television series Doctor Who (2010–17), and for co-creating and co-writing the BBC crime drama television series Sherlock (2010–17). In the 2015 Birthday Honours , Moffat was appointed Officer of the Order of
2212-604: The 2017 series , his sixth series as showrunner, with Chris Chibnall succeeding him at the start of the eleventh series for broadcast in 2018. The fourth and most recent series of Sherlock finished production around August 2016, and aired in January 2017. " Twice Upon a Time "—the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas special , and Moffat's last episode as lead writer and showrunner—finished production in July 2017 and broadcast on Christmas that year. In March 2024, Moffat confirmed his return to writing for Doctor Who in Series 14 . On
2291-740: The Edinburgh Television Festival in 1996. Vertue had been working for Tiger Aspect , a production company run by Peter Bennett-Jones . Bennett-Jones and his friend and former colleague Andre Ptaszynski , who had worked with Moffat on Joking Apart , told Moffat and Vertue that each fancied the other. A relationship blossomed and they left their respective production companies to join Hartswood Films , run by Beryl Vertue , Sue's mother. The couple have two children together: Joshua and Louis Oliver. Before Moffat left Pola Jones for Hartswood, Ptaszynski produced Chalk ,
2370-596: The Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form for the two-part story " The Empty Child " and " The Doctor Dances " (both 2005), as well as the episodes " The Girl in the Fireplace " (2006) and " Blink " (2007). "Blink" also gained him the BAFTA Craft Award for Best Writer, and a BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Screenwriter. Between Doctor Who episodes, Moffat wrote and produced Jekyll ,
2449-681: The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor . Filming got underway in Belgium in April 2024 on Bookish , which Gatiss co-wrote and stars. He will also be appearing in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning , set for debut in 2025. At the age of eleven, Gatiss won a school literary competition with a short science fiction story "The Anti-Noise Machine", published in a booklet by Darlington Borough Council. Gatiss had
Mark Gatiss - Misplaced Pages Continue
2528-643: The NBC network. Moffat blamed its failure on an unprecedented level of network interference. In December 2003, Moffat received an email offering him to write for Doctor Who , following the announcement of the revival of the series in September. His involvement with the series was announced in March 2004. He wrote six episodes under executive producer Russell T Davies for the 2005 through 2008 series , which were produced from December 2004 to March 2008. Moffat won
2607-610: The University of Glasgow , where he was involved with the student television station Glasgow University Student Television. After gaining a Master of Arts degree in English from Glasgow, he worked as a teacher for three and a half years at Cowdenknowes High School, Greenock . In the 1980s he wrote a play entitled War Zones (performed at the 1985 Glasgow Mayfest and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe ) and
2686-628: The third series and proposed an ultimately unproduced episode for the fourth , involving Nazis and the British Museum, it took until 2010 for Gatiss to return as writer. He wrote " Victory of the Daleks " for that year's fifth series and went on to contribute " Night Terrors " for series 6 , " Cold War " and " The Crimson Horror " for series 7 and " Robot of Sherwood " for series 8 . He also wrote " Sleep No More " for series 9 and " Empress of Mars " for series 10 . He has also contributed to
2765-402: The 2007 series. Jekyll aired on BBC One from June 2007. In March 2008, Davies said that he often rewrote scripts from other writers, but did not "touch a word" of Moffat's episodes. In October 2007, Reuters reported that Moffat would be scripting a trilogy of films based on Belgian artist Hergé 's character Tintin for directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson . In May 2008,
2844-592: The 2020s, he wrote the BBC and Netflix drama co-productions Dracula (2020) and Inside Man (2022), the HBO sci-fi romance mini-series The Time Traveler's Wife (2022), and the ITV comedy-drama Douglas Is Cancelled (2024). In 2024, he returned to Doctor Who to write two episodes for Davies' second tenure as showrunner. Moffat was born in Paisley, Scotland , where he attended Camphill High School . He studied at
2923-526: The BBC announced that Moffat would be succeeding Davies as lead writer and executive producer of Doctor Who for the show's fifth series , to be broadcast in 2010, although Davies had initiated discussions with Moffat regarding this as far back as July 2007. He had intended to complete work on the Tintin trilogy before resuming work on Doctor Who , but delays caused by the intervening 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike meant he could only submit part of
3002-890: The BBC series Sherlock (2010–2017) and Frank Renfield in BBC / Netflix miniseries Dracula (2020). He also wrote several episodes of Doctor Who during Moffat's tenure as showrunner, as well as two episodes during Russell T Davies ' earlier tenure. His other TV roles include Tycho Nestoris in Game of Thrones (2014–2017), Stephen Gardiner in Wolf Hall (2015), and Peter Mandelson in Coalition (2015). He has acted in films such as Victor Frankenstein (2015), Denial (2016), Christopher Robin (2018), The Favourite (2018), The Father (2020), Operation Mincemeat (2021), and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023). On stage, Gatiss played Menenius in
3081-615: The BBC's 2015 series Wolf Hall , Gatiss played King Henry VIII 's secretary Stephen Gardiner . He also appeared in Channel 4's Coalition in 2015. In 2016, he played Harold in the groundbreaking American play The Boys in the Band, play at Park Theatre (London) opposite his husband Ian Hallard . They made history when the play transferred to the Vaudeville Theatre in 2017 as the first married gay couple to appear together on
3160-406: The British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama. Born in Paisley, Scotland , Moffat, the son of a teacher, was formerly a teacher himself. His first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang . His first sitcom, Joking Apart , was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage. Later in the 1990s, he wrote Chalk , inspired by his own experience as an English teacher. Moffat,
3239-450: The Moon into a television film of the same name for the BBC, also playing Professor Cavor. He also made a three-part BBC documentary series entitled A History of Horror , a personal exploration of the history of horror cinema. This was followed on 30 October 2012 with a look at European horror with the documentary Horror Europa . In March 2010, he was a guest on Private Passions ,
Mark Gatiss - Misplaced Pages Continue
3318-748: The Potato Men (2004) and had minor roles in Birthday Girl (2001), Bright Young Things (2003), Match Point (2005) and Starter for 10 (2006). The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse , a film based on the television series, co-written by and starring Gatiss, was released in June 2005. He also plays the recurring character of Gold in the audio revival of Sapphire and Steel produced by Big Finish Productions . Gatiss also appeared in Edgar Wright 's fake trailer for Grindhouse , Don't ,
3397-644: The biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3 . From December 2010 to March 2011, Gatiss was playing the role of Bernard in Alan Ayckbourn 's Season's Greetings at the Royal National Theatre in London alongside Catherine Tate . In December 2011, he appeared in an episode of The Infinite Monkey Cage in an episode entitled The Science of Christmas , alongside Brian Cox , Robin Ince and Richard Dawkins . In January 2012, he took
3476-494: The cast of the Donmar Warehouse production of Coriolanus as Senator of Rome, Menenius . The play went from 6 December 2013 through 13 February 2014. For his performance, Gatiss received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role . On 25 December 2013, a version of the ghost story " The Tractate Middoth " by M. R. James and adapted by Gatiss was broadcast on BBC Two as part of
3555-548: The cast that he was marrying Vertue. In late 1998, Moffat was approached by Vertue, a producer of Comic Relief , to write a comedic sketch based on the Doctor Who TV series to be aired across Comic Relief's 1999 telethon in several parts on BBC One . The sketch, The Curse of Fatal Death , was written from December 1998 to February 1999, recorded in February, and broadcast in March. When Vertue asked Moffat for
3634-541: The classic science fiction serial The Quatermass Experiment . A second series of Nighty Night and the new comedy-drama Funland , the latter co-written by his League cohort Jeremy Dyson , both featured Gatiss and aired on BBC Three in the autumn of 2005. He appeared as Johnnie Cradock , alongside Nighty Night star Julia Davis as Fanny Cradock , in Fear of Fanny on BBC Four in October 2006, and featured as Ratty in
3713-512: The documentary M.R. James: Ghost Writer , which Gatiss also presented. The documentary followed Gatiss's directorial debut with an adaption of one of James's stories, "The Tractate Middoth", for BBC Two, which was broadcast on Christmas Day 2013. His first non- Doctor Who novel, The Vesuvius Club , was published in 2004, for which he was nominated in the category of Best Newcomer in the 2006 British Book Awards . A follow-up, The Devil in Amber ,
3792-400: The episode “ Boom ” he was credited as both writer and as an Executive Producer. In October 2018, BBC One and Netflix officially commissioned Dracula , a TV series written and created by Moffat and Gatiss based on Bram Stoker 's 1897 novel Dracula . In March 2019, Moffat revealed that the first night of production was about to start. The series began airing New Year's Day 2020, and
3871-497: The film The Father based on the Florian Zeller play Le Père . In October 2021, Gatiss wrote and played Jacob Marley in a new adaptation of A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story by Charles Dickens playing at both Nottingham Playhouse and Alexandra Palace in 2021. He appeared as a modern-day incarnation/descendant of Count Dracula's servile companion Renfield in the series of his own co-creation, Dracula in
3950-423: The first had aired. However, it was met less enthusiastically by critics upon transmission in February 1997, who had taken exception to the BBC's publicity department comparing the show to the highly respected Fawlty Towers . In an interview in the early 2000s, Moffat refuses to even name the series, joking that he might get attacked in the street. After production wrapped on Chalk in 1997, Moffat announced to
4029-472: The fourth. He also co-wrote "Many Happy Returns," a mini-episode released in late December 2013 which acts as a prelude to the third series, with Steven Moffat ; the episode " The Sign of Three " with Moffat and Steve Thompson ; and " The Abominable Bride ", a special episode released in early January 2016, with Moffat. Finally, he co-wrote the final episode of Sherlock, " The Final Problem ", with Moffat, released in January 2017. In December 2013, Gatiss joined
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#17327931687684108-470: The franchise outside the main show. His early work (see above) was primarily Doctor Who expanded media. Gatiss wrote and performed in the comedy spoof sketches The Web of Caves , The Kidnappers and The Pitch of Fear for the BBC's " Doctor Who Night " in 1999 with David Walliams . He penned the 2013 docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time , a drama depicting the origins of the series, to celebrate
4187-561: The late 1980s. The first television scripts Gatiss wrote were for a BBV direct-to-video series called " P.R.O.B.E. " Gatiss's four scripts each featured a different actor who had played Doctor Who ' s titular character of the Doctor : Jon Pertwee , Peter Davison , Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy . The videos have since been released on DVD despite Gatiss once commenting that he would not authorise their re-release, as he regarded them as
4266-463: The latter, he was two years ahead of Paul Magrs , who also went on to write Doctor Who fiction. Gatiss then studied Theatre Arts at Bretton Hall College , an arts college affiliated to the University of Leeds . Gatiss is a member of the sketch comedy team The League of Gentlemen (along with fellow performers Reece Shearsmith , Steve Pemberton and co-writer Jeremy Dyson ). He first met his co-writers and performers at Bretton Hall , Yorkshire,
4345-591: The long-running A Ghost Story for Christmas series. It starred Sacha Dhawan , John Castle , Louise Jameson , Una Stubbs , David Ryall , Eleanor Bron , Nick Burns and Roy Barraclough . It was followed on 25 December 2013 by a screening on BBC2 of a new documentary by Gatiss titled M. R. James: Ghost Writer . The programme saw Gatiss explore the work of James and look at how his work still inspires contemporary horror today. He appeared in season four of Game of Thrones in 2014 playing Tycho Nestoris and reprised this role in season five and season seven . In
4424-420: The programme's high cost along with organisational changes at backers Central Independent Television cast its future in doubt. As Moffat wondered what to do next and worried about his future employment, Bob Spiers , Press Gang ' s primary director, suggested that he meet with producer Andre Ptaszynski to discuss writing a sitcom. Inspired by his experience working in education, Moffat's initial proposal
4503-821: The revival of William Shakespeare 's Coriolanus (2013) for which he earned a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination. He took on the role of King George III in a revival of the Alan Bennett play The Madness of George III (2018). He portrayed Sir John Gielgud in the Jack Thorne play The Motive and the Cue (2023) for which he earned the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor . His other theatre roles include in The Recruiting Officer (2012), The Vote (2015), and A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story (2021). Gatiss
4582-725: The role of Brazen in The Recruiting Officer at the Donmar Theatre , London. From 18 October – 24 November that year he was Charles I in the Hampstead Theatre production of 55 Days by Howard Brenton , a play dramatising the military coup that killed a King and forged a Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell . With Steven Moffat , with whom Gatiss worked on Doctor Who and Jekyll , he also co-created and co-produced Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman . He also portrayed Mycroft Holmes in
4661-553: The same year he appeared in several editions of the documentary series SF:UK . Other acting appearances include the comedy-drama In the Red ( BBC Two , 1998), the macabre sitcom Nighty Night ( BBC Three , 2003), Agatha Christie's Marple as Ronald Hawes in "The Murder at the Vicarage", a guest appearance in the Vic & Bob series Catterick in 2004 and the live 2005 remake of
4740-404: The series that the writer had pitched to him at the beginning of the decade. Set in a comprehensive school and starring David Bamber as manic deputy head Eric Slatt and Nicola Walker as Suzy Travis, the show was based on Moffat's three years as an English teacher. The studio audience responded so positively to the first series when it was taped that the BBC commissioned a second series before
4819-436: The series. Premiering in 2010, the series is a modernised adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories, in which Gatiss plays the role of Sherlock's brother Mycroft . Gatiss has influence on all episodes as producer and he has written four episodes, one for each series: the finale, " The Great Game ," for the first series, " The Hounds of Baskerville " for the second, " The Empty Hearse " for the third and " The Six Thatchers " for
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#17327931687684898-402: The seventh series opener of Inside No. 9 . In April 2023, Gatiss played as Sir John Gielgud in The Motive and the Cue , a new play written by Jack Thorne and directed by Sam Mendes at London's National Theatre . The story of how Richard Burton (played by Johnny Flynn ) and Gielgud clashed as they staged Hamlet on Broadway in 1964 , the play has received good reviews, particularly
4977-410: The show's fiftieth anniversary. It ended with a cameo by Gatiss's League of Gentleman castmate Reece Shearsmith , portraying Patrick Troughton , who played the Second Doctor . A "Making Of" feature about this programme, narrated by Gatiss, was made available on the BBC Red Button service, and also posted on the BBC 's official YouTube channel. He has written for Doctor Who Magazine , including
5056-491: The story of Val Lewton 's life and career, with Gatiss providing the introductions for each episode. In November 2018, Gatiss portrayed the lead, King George III in a revival of the Alan Bennet play The Madness of George III at Nottingham Playhouse . The production was broadcast live to cinemas as part of National Theatre Live . Kate Maltby of The Guardian wrote of his performance, "Productions of The Madness of George III live or die by their star, and Gatiss delivers
5135-431: The third and final episode, "The Dark Compass". In 2017, Gatiss and Steven Moffat re-teamed to write three episodes for TV miniseries Dracula . The series premiered on BBC One on 1 January 2020, and was broadcast over three consecutive days. The three episodes were then released on Netflix on 4 January 2020. In June 2021, a new adaptation of The Ghosts by Antonia Barber, written and directed by Gatiss for Sky One ,
5214-526: The transgender character Agrado. In the 2008 English language re-release of the cult 2006 Norwegian animated film Free Jimmy , Gatiss voiced the character of "Jakki," a heavy-set, bizarrely dressed biker member of the "Lappish Mafia." In this his voice is used along with the other actors of League of Gentlemen such as Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. The dialogue was written by Simon Pegg and other actors included Pegg himself, Woody Harrelson and David Tennant , who worked with Gatiss on Doctor Who . He
5293-446: The two leads. Leonie Cooper of Time Out wrote of his performance, "Mark Gatiss launches himself into a condescending but sensitive Gielgud...[who] is just as impressive, his uncanny Gielgud manifesting a man in flux, as a new era of performance threatens to subsume his traditional take on stagecraft. Gatiss's Gielgud is lonely and lost, but still more than capable of getting one over on the wayward Burton." For his performance Gatiss won
5372-413: Was The Man in Black when BBC Radio 7 revived the character (originally played by Valentine Dyall and Edward de Souza ) to introduce a series of five creepy audio dramas. He is also involved with theatre, having penned the play The Teen People in the early 1990s, and appeared in a successful run of the play 'Art' in 2003 at the Whitehall Theatre in London. In film, he has starred in Sex Lives of
5451-420: Was "the best ever first script" that she had read. The resulting series was titled Press Gang , starring Julia Sawalha and Dexter Fletcher , and it ran for five series on ITV between 1989 and 1993, with Moffat writing all forty-three episodes. The programme won a BAFTA award in its second series. During production of the second series of Press Gang , Moffat was experiencing an unhappy personal life as
5530-456: Was a programme similar to what became Chalk , a sitcom set in a school that eventually aired in 1997. During the pitch meeting at the Groucho Club , Ptaszynski realised that Moffat was talking passionately about his impending divorce and suggested that he write about that instead of a school sitcom. Taking Ptaszynski's advice, Moffat's new idea was about "a sitcom writer whose wife leaves him". Moffat wrote two series of Joking Apart , which
5609-426: Was announced. It broadcast on 24 December. In 2021 he acted in the British war film Operation Mincemeat portraying Ivor Montagu . That same year he acted in Locked Down , The Road Dance , and The Sparks Brothers . He joined the Mission Impossible franchise acting in action film Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) starring Tom Cruise . In May 2022, Gatiss directed The Unfriend ,
5688-941: Was born in Sedgefield , County Durham, England, to Winifred Rose (née O'Kane, 1931–2003) and Maurice Gatiss (1931–2021). He grew up opposite the Victorian psychiatric hospital Winterton, and later in Trimdon , before his father, a colliery engineer, took a job as engineer at the School Aycliffe Mental Hospital in Heighington . His family background is working class. His passions included watching Doctor Who and Hammer Horror films on television, reading Sherlock Holmes and H. G. Wells , and collecting fossils. All those interests have influenced his creative work. One of his early forays into theatre
5767-487: Was broadcast over three consecutive days. The three episodes were released on Netflix on 4 January 2020. On 13 February 2020, Chichester Festival Theatre announced that the play The Unfriend , written by Moffat, was intended to have its world premiere as part of the 2020 Festival Theatre season in the Minerva Theatre . However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the play's opening night was postponed until 26 May 2022. It
5846-1115: Was directed by Mark Gatiss and featured Amanda Abbington , Frances Barber , Reece Shearsmith , and Michael Simkins. Following a successful run in Chichester, the play transferred to the Criterion Theatre , London, in January 2023, and thence, with Sarah Alexander as Debbie, and Lee Mack as Peter, to Wyndham's Theatre in January 2024. 43 episodes (1989–1993) "The Devil Wept in Leeds" (1990) 13 episodes (1991–1995) 12 episodes (1997) Comic Relief special (1999) 28 episodes (2000–2004) 50 episodes, 4 mini-episodes (2005–2017, 2024): 6 episodes (2007) Miniseries (co-written with Mark Gatiss , 2020) Miniseries (2022) Miniseries (2022) Feature film (co-written with Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish , 2011) Heighington Church of England Primary School 54°35′49″N 1°37′16″W / 54.597°N 1.621°W / 54.597; -1.621 Heighington CE Primary School
5925-607: Was directed by Spiers and starred Robert Bathurst and Fiona Gillies . The show won the Bronze Rose of Montreux and was entered for the Emmys . He wrote three episodes of Murder Most Horrid , an anthology series of comedic tales starring Dawn French . The first ("Overkill", directed by Spiers) was identified by the BBC as a "highlight" of the series. His other two episodes were "Dying Live" (dir. Dewi Humphreys) and "Elvis, Jesus and Zack" (dir. Tony Dow ). Moffat has been
6004-725: Was in Darlington in March 1983, playing Dad, in The Waiting Room by Tony Stowers, a macabre and surreal Pinteresque comedy, which explores a disintegrating family unit. In July of the same year, he would have acted in Stowers' follow-up, A Sense of Insecurity , but was unable to take the role because his father insisted he take his exams instead. Gatiss attended Heighington Church of England Primary School , and Woodham Comprehensive School in Newton Aycliffe . At
6083-531: Was released on 6 November 2006. It transports the main character, Lucifer Box , from the Edwardian era in the first book to the roaring Twenties/Thirties. A third and final Lucifer Box novel, Black Butterfly , was published on 3 November 2008 by Simon & Schuster . Gatiss was featured on The Independent on Sunday ' s Pink List of influential gay people in the UK in 2010, 2011 and 2014. He entered into
6162-539: Was scheduled to perform in Darker Shores by Michael Punter, a ghost story for all the family, at Hampstead Theatre 3 December 2009 – 16 January 2010 but had to withdraw after a serious family illness. Tom Goodman-Hill took over his role. In 2010, he portrayed Malcolm McLaren in the BBC drama Worried About the Boy which focused on the life and career of Boy George . He adapted H. G. Wells ' The First Men in
6241-614: Was significantly involved in casting both Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor . As Doctor Who showrunner, Moffat won another Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form for writing the two-part story " The Pandorica Opens " and " The Big Bang " (both 2010). As showrunner for Sherlock , he won a BAFTA Craft Award for Best Writer for " A Scandal in Belgravia " (2012),
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