Moffat Steven: biography and filmography

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

He is loved by many and hated by many. He is criticized and receives the most prestigious awards, and even in 2015 he became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to the development of drama. But mostly Steven Moffat is known to our viewers for his work in such series as Sherlock and Doctor Who.

Study and first successes

It all started with the Scottish city of Paisley. It was here that Moffat was born on November 18, 1961. Stephen (his full name is Stephen William Moffat) spent his childhood in this town and graduated from school, and then entered the University of Glasgow (studied at the Faculty of Philology) and even became a bachelor in English. After graduating from university, he got a job as a school teacher. It was during his time at school that he first sat down to write the play War Zones and the musical Knifer, both of which have successfully outlived school theater productions.

After some time, the school administration received an appeal from TV producers with a request to help create a series about the school newspaper. It so happened thatthe person approached was Stephen's father. Knowing about his son's hobby of writing good texts, he advised him to contact him. The producers were very pleased with what Stephen offered in the script, and Moffat Jr. took his first successful step in a television career.

Stephen Moffat. Films based on his scripts

The series called Press Grand was successfully broadcast on the screens from 1989 to 1993. Moffat became a part of this project. Stephen completed work on this television project in the 90s and, in the wake of his first success, began to think about continuing his television career. TV show producer Bob Spears arranged for Steven to meet with television personality Andre Placzynski, who was about to start a new show. The series Joking Apart turned out to be rather self-ironic, because the script was largely borrowed from his personal life (the fact is that while working on the series, Moffat began to have troubles in this regard). The story of a screenwriter husband, wife and wife's lover was very warmly received by the public and even nominated for an Emmy.

In 1997, the creative tandem Moffat-Plaschinsky released a new project - Chalk. But, unfortunately, the comedy story about high school students was closed by the channel. With the advent of 2000, the first series of the project "Love for Six" appears on the screens. This time the story turned out to be optimistic - it was based on a relationship, or rather their beginning, with Sue Verta (his second wife), who also worked on television. Later, Stephen worked on the American version of the series, but the work did not gain such popularity as herBritish original.

Global recognition

One of the most important years in the screenwriter's career was 2004 - he was offered a job on the reboot of the famous "Doctor Who" (subsequently, the fans especially liked the episode "Forest of the Dead"). Steven Moffat is the only one who could do it with dignity. He, of course, could not miss the chance to participate in the cult project, which he had been a fan of since childhood. Thanks to his talent, the screenwriter breathed a second life into the series, and the show flourished with wild popularity, and Stephen received more than one prestigious award. And it should also be noted that Moffat had a “screenplay hand” on the cartoon “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” (2011), which was directed by Steven Spielberg along with Peter Jackson (director of The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit trilogy).

Once Upon a Train

With the advent of 2010, an event occurred that swept the cinema world like a hurricane and scattered everything in its path, the cause of which was Steven Moffat - "Sherlock". The modern adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes classics is more than a bold experiment that not everyone will dare to do. And it turned out that the efforts were not in vain - the series was loved all over the world, and the actors who played the main roles became one of the most popular and discussed people in the world. However, all this might not have happened if not for one train ride from Cardiff to London…

Sherlock is the product of the painstaking collaboration of two writers: Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. Both became friends while working on onefrom episodes of Doctor Who. While returning from filming to London, sitting on the train, friends suddenly found out that both are big fans of Conan Doyle's detective works. Having talked on this topic, Stephen and Mark came to a mutual desire to transfer the Victorian Sherlock Holmes to the present day. What would he be like then? If the classic Holmes smokes a pipe and wears a hunting hat, then the modern one would most likely wear a nicotine patch and use a laptop and a smartphone. And Watson, who originally wrote adventure stories, would now blog and call the detective not Mr. Holmes, but Sherlock. And so on…

The writers were so carried away by this idea that they were surprised: why hasn't it come to anyone's mind yet? And since no one has done this, then it is they who should do it - Getiss and Moffat. Steven recounted the conversation to his wife, who also embraced the idea and went on to produce the series. Perhaps, it is not necessary to speak once again about his frenzied popularity. We only note that the creators did not count on such success. What was free fantasy has become a general hype from season to season. And besides, Moffat Stephen promised that the fourth season of Sherlock would be the most unexpected and dramatic, which further fueled the public's expectation. Well, wait, these guys know how to surprise…