Mike Bartlett
He was Associate Playwright at Paines Plough, Writer-In-Residence at the National Theatre, and Pearson Playwright in Residence at The Royal Court Theatre.
His play KING CHARLES III won Critic’s Circle Award for Best New Play, Olivier Award for Best New Play and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best New Play. LOVE LOVE LOVE won Best New Play in the 2011 Theatre Awards UK, COCK won an Olivier Award in 2010 for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, he won the Writer’s Guild Tinniswood and Imison prizes for NOT TALKING, and the Old Vic New Voices Award for ARTEFACTS.
His television series THE TOWN was nominated for a BAFTA for Breakthrough Talent. DOCTOR FOSTER also earned BAFTA nominations (Radio Times Audience Award, Best Mini Series, Best Leading Actress – Suranne Jones (win). Bartlett won Outstanding Newcomer for British Television Writing at the British Screenwriters’Awards 2016 for DOCTOR FOSTER.
Johnny English Strikes Back and Paddington 2 star Ben Miller has joined the cast of ITV psychological drama The Man.
Miller will star alongside Christopher Robin and Killing Eve star Ken Nwosu in the three-part bullying drama, which was created by Doctor Foster and Press creator Mike Bartlett.
Also joining the cast are Sean Sagar (Top Boy), Susannah Fielding (Black Mirror), Gwilym Lee (Bohemian Rhapsody), Phoebe Nicholls (Downton Abbey), Ritu Ayra (Humans), Alexandra Roach (Black Mirror), Michael Cochrane (The Archers) and Debbie Chazen (Doctor Who).
This contemporary drama will be directed by Julia Ford (Safe) and produced by Colin Wratten (Killing Eve). It is produced by ITV Studios’ Tall Story Pictures, the production company that recently produced Barlett’s Adrian Lester and John Simm-fronted Trauma.
The Man is a workplace psychological drama centered around middle management. Nwosu plays Thomas Benson, a hard-working father and husband who works in a business park outside of London.
Catherine Oldfield (Trauma) will executive produce the new series alongside Bartlett. The Man was commissioned by ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill. ITV Studios Global Entertainment is handling international distribution. The series begins filming in September 2018.
I am not a proper journalist; I have never done a death knock. This cub reporter from the Post is doing his first here in Mike Bartlett’s drama (BBC One), ringing the doorbell of the family of a footballer who has killed himself. A gay footballer, it turns out. It does not go well. The dad slams the door in the journalist’s face. He tries again, though, this time telling the dad it will be a tribute, an opportunity for his son’s story to be heard. Even though this will turn out not to be true, this time he is in.
The Post is a sensationalist tabloid – the Sun, basically. The editor, Duncan Allen (Ben Chaplin), is a smooth, bull(y)ish man, maybe a decent journalist once, but now tarnished by his profession and his high opinion of himself. I would be surprised if Piers Morgan and Andy Coulson were not in Bartlett’s peripheral vision when he gave birth to Allen.
Then there is the deep-pocketed owner, George Emmerson (David Suchet), interfering from the back of his Rolls-Royce. Is that you, Rupert? Well, maybe not, because George is not happy about some of the trashy stuff; he is not worried about losing money, but he would like some more serious journalism. More of a Jeff Bezos figure, perhaps?
It is impossible, watching Press from inside (even if not properly inside) the industry, not to wonder about the inspiration. The other paper I am struggling with. The Herald – formerly the Yorkshire Herald, where Holly Evans (Charlotte Riley) is deputy news editor – is a prize-winning, liberal, left-leaning paper that exposes hypocrisy and corruption and holds power to account. Or, to its enemies and detractors, boring, smug, all principle and no trousers. Bartlett must have got this one from his imagination, as it is not ringing any real-world bells in my head. Looks like a brilliant place to work, though.
It is also hard, watching from the inside, not to get a bit defensive, to feel under attack, to be on the lookout for mistakes. We do see journalists behaving badly here, but also journalists doing some important things (mainly at the Herald, obviously). In both, there are people who are passionate about journalism and news, from wherever they are coming. So that is good.
It also engages with some real stuff. Declining sales, desperate attempts to halt them, press regulation, the difference between public interest and of interest to the public, journalistic integrity, whether something becomes fair game just because it is in the public domain. Bartlett clearly spoke to a lot of people in his research; it is more like reconnaissance than assault.
I wonder about the vintage of the people to whom he spoke, though. Perhaps it was mostly retired hacks, because – although Press is set in the present and deals with a lot of issues affecting the industry today – the general mood of it, the colour, feels more like newspaper journalism 20 years ago. I am thinking about the heavy drinking after work. (A sub adds: that still happens, Sam – it is just that you are not invited.) I am thinking about the institutional misogyny and the macho rivalry of two papers operating out of buildings so close that they share the same coffee van. I am looking at the size of those newsrooms, staff levels and expense accounts.
Also it is mostly about print, actual papers, like the internet never really happened. Even some of the stories ring bells. The footballer one – the Justin Fashanu tragedy, no? (It is impossible not to try to match up stories, fiction with fact, as well.) Perhaps it should have just been set 20 years ago, when newspapers were more outrageous places.
None of this will matter to most people, that the colour may not match the age. What will is that there is plenty of it – colour – as you would expect from the man behind Doctor Foster. And pace. There is a lot going on here. As well as the footballer, here is an old photo of the work and pensions secretary, naked; another of her snorting coke back in the day. Meanwhile, the Herald is trying to investigate an MI5 leak, but it is hard, as there is very little actually leaking out. And Holly finally gets round to looking into her flatmate’s hit-and-run death, by a police car. A busy news day, in both newsrooms.
Press comes from somewhere between the two buildings, around about the coffee van. It is serious and interested in my industry. And if it does not always ring 100% true, hey, it is entertaining. Never let the truth etc, as we say. As they say, I mean.