Mike Bullen

Michael J. Bullen (born 13 January 1960) is an English screenwriter best known for creating the Granada Television series Cold Feet, which won him the Writer of the Year award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards. He wrote two more series for Granada; Life Begins, which ran for three series, and All About George, which ran for one series. His works have been described as being "about the intricacies of interpersonal relationships and what happens when they break down". Bullen's father, Alex, was a chemical engineer, and his mother, Joan, was a housewife.

Following his graduation, Bullen began a career as a media planner buyer for an advertising company. The job did not excite him and he has described it as "pretty pointless". He quit the job to go backpacking in south-east Asia. On his return he applied for a position as a radio producer at Radio Netherlands Worldwide, having previously worked for a hospital radio. He eventually began freelance work for the BBC World Service, where he was a presenter and producer for the magazine programmes On Screen and Outlook.

Career

1994–1997 In 1994, aged 34, Bullen began thinking about writing a television script, based on the idea that he could "write crap" on television. ) and Thirtysomething. He began work on scripts for Pie in the Sky and Soldier Soldier but did not complete either. To improve his writing skills, he took a writing course at the National Film and Television School, a comedy course by Anji Loman Field, and attended Robert McKee's STORY seminar. and commissioned it as part of his drive to move away from making traditional-style sitcoms.

Harries was pleased enough with Bullen's work to ask him to pitch some more ideas to The Perfect Match assistant producer Christine Langan, who shared Bullen's desire to see more television directed at their age bracket. Bullen pitched the idea of a traditional "boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-wins-girl-back" story told from both sides of the relationship but using elements of fantasy and flashback to distort events to fit a character's point of view. Harries accepted the pitch and Bullen began work on Cold Feet. Initially commissioned as a pilot for ITV's Comedy Premieres programming strand, Bullen continued his method of developing storylines based on his life; he and his wife had their first child in the latter half of 1997 and he integrated their experiences into the storyline of characters Pete and Jenny, who have their first child in Cold Feets first episode. Throughout 1998, he retained his job at the BBC, working on three radio shows per week at the same time as writing Cold Feet. During the second series he cut back to one show per week. By the time of the third series in 2000, he felt confident enough that he would have a future in television that he was able to give up radio presenting. He moved from his home in London to Cambridge, where he was able to write for two full days a week, at evenings and weekends.

He worked on other projects at the same time as Cold Feet: After watching the 1997 docusoap Holiday Reps, he became interested in what happens in the personal lives of holiday representatives while in foreign countries. Out of this idea he developed Sunburn for BBC One. Sunburn starred Michelle Collins and was broadcast for two series from 1999 to 2000. Bullen shared writing duties with Lizzie Mickery and Sally Wainwright. His inspiration from American television continued; following the premiere of The West Wing in 1999, he began outlining a British version, The Firm, that would be set in Buckingham Palace. The project never moved beyond planning stages because Bullen believed that British political issues such as "cod wars with Spain" are not as "sexy" as the issues covered in The West Wing.

In 1999, Cold Feet was adapted into a series of the same name for American network NBC. He wrote the screenplay for one of the pilot episodes. At the same time, NBC and Granada Entertainment USA commissioned a pilot script from Bullen entitled Small Beer, which centred on a group of people who take over a microbrewery in the north-western United States.

The third series of Cold Feet (2000) was extended from six to eight episodes by ITV. Bullen believed that the production team had covered all potential storylines in the first two series, so declined to write any more episodes. A team of five writers was hired by Granada Television, overseen by Bullen as a co-executive producer. Four out of the five writers left the team due to their scripts not being appropriate for the series, leaving only David Nicholls on the staff. Writing had made Bullen think twice about not writing and he began thinking about further storylines, such as mid-life crises and IVF. The popularity of the fourth series persuaded Bullen to write four more episodes that formed the fifth series in 2003. He moved to Australia in 2002 but continued to work on UK-based series. Two months after the series was announced, Lancashire left Life Begins, feeling unable to commit to a potentially long-running series. ITV replaced Lancashire with Caroline Quentin. Life Begins concerns Maggie Mee, who believes she is in a loving relationship with her husband Phil (Alexander Armstrong). When Phil announces on a family holiday that he is leaving her, she realises that she must begin her life again.

In 2003 Bullen made a journey to Perth's Small Screen Big Picture. On the return leg, after 12 hours of seeing nothing but the Nullarbor Plain through the train window, he began developing a short subject on infidelity at television conferences. The short, entitled Amorality Tale, which marked Bullen's directorial debut, was screened at various film festivals in 2005, and was a finalist for the first Rosemount Diamond at the Jackson Hole Film Festival. On the themes of the film, Bullen said, "What has always interested me is the notion of ordinary people and how they react in ordinary situations [...] what fascinated me is the way we arrive at the choices we make. The idea of this film is to say that the choices we make might not lead to the outcomes we expect." The short was produced by Pommie Granite Productions, a company set up by Bullen after his exclusive contract with Granada ended in September 2004. At the end of 2004, he became the seventh person to rewrite the script of the DreamWorks/Aardman Animations film Tortoise vs. Hare. He made at least three drafts. until eventually settling on All About George in time for filming in 2005. All About George starred Rik Mayall as George Kinsey, a builder whose life is changed when six generations of his family move into his home. Initially excited about the series when he attended the cast read-throughs, Bullen's optimism waned by the time it was broadcast as he felt there were too many characters and the series' premise unclear. The same year, filming commenced on Tripping Over, a series about intercontinental backpackers in 1976 and 2006. SeaChange writers Andrew Knight and Andrea Denholm conceived the idea in 2003 and asked Bullen, a friend of Knight's, to develop it with them. A co-production between Australia's Channel Ten and Britain's Five, Tripping Over was broadcast in both countries at the end of 2006.

2007–2012 In 2007, Bullen was approached by David Maher, a Fox World producer, who commissioned him to write a television pilot for UKTV. Bullen agreed and spent a "torturous" time trying to come up with an idea for the script. Continuing his trend for taking ideas from real life, he decided to write about a family moving from the UK to Australia. The pilot, entitled Make or Break, was also Bullen's television directoral debut. British actor Robson Green had recently completed work on "Prayer of the Bone", a one-off special episode of Wire in the Blood set in the United States. Green and Wire producer Sandra Jobling considered another special episode set in Australia. Green suggested asking Bullen to write the episode and Bullen responded by asking Green if he would like to play the lead in Make or Break. Fox World sent the script to Green and he signed on. As the pilot was Bullen's first attempt at directing television, he sought advice from the experienced production crew, in particular the director of photography. Bullen and Fox World sought financial investment from a UK production company to develop a full-length series. The pilot received only 3.3 million viewers when it was broadcast, and a series was not commissioned. Bullen has since discussed other projects with Ed Byrne, one of the actors in the pilot. As of 2012, Bullen has three television series in development with British television networks.

Personal life Bullen is married to Lisa Bullen, whom he met while working at the BBC. They have two children: Maggie (born 1997) and Rachel (born 1999). In 2002 the family moved to Avalon, New South Wales. They later moved to Newport, New South Wales and became Australian citizens in 2005. The family returned to the UK in 2011.

List of works

Screenplays The Perfect Match (1995) Comedy Premieres: Cold Feet (1997, pilot) Cold Feet (1998–2003) Sunburn (1999–2000) Life Begins (2004–2006) All About George (2005) Amorality Tale (2005) Make or Break (2008, pilot) Reunited (2010, pilot)

Unmade scripts Cold Feet (1998, American pilot) Small Beer (1999, American pilot) Tortoise vs. Hare (2004, feature film rewrite)

Director credits Amorality Tale (2005) Make or Break (2008)

Acting appearances Comedy Premieres: Cold Feet (1997) as Actor Cold Feet Series 1, Episode 1 (1998) as Man on Phone Series 1, Episode 2 (1998) as Neighbour Series 1, Episode 3 (1998) as Man in shower (scene deleted) Series 1, Episode 4 (1998) as Japanese Woman's Husband Series 3, Episode 8 (2000) as Workman Series 4, Episode 6 (2001) as Charles (uncredited) Joanne Lees: Murder in the Outback (2007) as TV Producer