Steven Moffat

Steven William Moffat (; born 18 November 1961) 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 (2010–2017), and for co-creating and co-writing the BBC crime drama television series Sherlock (2010–2017). In the 2015 Birthday Honours, Moffat was appointed Officer of the Order of 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, 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 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, 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 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 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.

Early life Moffat was born in Paisley, Scotland, He studied at 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 a musical called Knifer.

Career

Press Gang 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 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 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.

Joking Apart

By 1990, Moffat had written two series of Press Gang, but the programme's high cost along with organisational changes at backers Central Independent Television cast its future in doubt. 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. Moffat wrote two series of Joking Apart, which 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).

Doctor Who short fiction Moffat has been a fan of Doctor Who since childhood. In 1995, he plotted 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.

Chalk Moffat pitched the series Chalk to Andre Ptaszynski at the beginning of the 1990s.

The Curse of Fatal Death In late 1998, Moffat was asked by his wife Sue Vertue, a producer of Comic Relief, to write a comedic sketch based on Doctor Who to be aired across Comic Relief's 1999 telethon in several parts on BBC One. recorded in February, and broadcast in March.

Coupling Moffat's sitcom Coupling, produced by Vertue, was first broadcast on BBC Two in 2000. It 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 the NBC network. Moffat blamed its failure on an unprecedented level of network interference. 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, Moffat won 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, 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 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 May 2008, 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 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. 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 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), 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 January 2016, Moffat announced he was stepping down as Doctor Who lead writer and executive producer after 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 final 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 Whos 14th series. He wrote the Christmas special "Joy to the World", also aired in 2024. On the series 14 episode "Boom" and the special he was credited as both writer and as an executive producer.

Dracula 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 was broadcast over three consecutive days. The three episodes were released on Netflix on 4 January 2020.

The Unfriend 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 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.

Later work (2022–present) 2022 saw the release of two miniseries by Moffat: HBO's romantic drama The Time Traveler's Wife starring Rose Leslie and Theo James, and BBC One's thriller Inside Man with David Tennant and Stanley Tucci. In 2024, the ITV1 comedy-drama Douglas Is Cancelled was broadcast, which reunited Moffat with Doctor Who actors Karen Gillan and Alex Kingston.

In August 2025, Channel 4 announced it had commissioned the comedy drama Number 10, written by Moffat. The show focuses on the staff at 10 Downing Street, and stars Jenna Coleman from Doctor Who and Katherine Kelly from Doctor Who spin-off Class.

Personal life Following his first marriage, Moffat said he "shagged [his] way round television studios like a mechanical digger." 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.

In June 2015, Moffat was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to drama.

Production credits

Television

"Dying Live" (1996) "Elvis, Jesus and Zack" (1999)Chalk12 episodes (1997)BBC OneDoctor Who Coupling28 episodes (2000–2004)BBC TwoBBC ThreeJekyll6 episodes (2007)BBC OneSherlock DraculaMiniseries (co-written with Mark Gatiss, 2020)The Time Traveler's WifeMiniseries (2022)HBOInside Man Miniseries (2022)BBC One/NetflixDouglas Is CancelledMiniseries (2024)ITVX Series 5 "The Eleventh Hour"1 "The Beast Below"2 "The Time of Angels" / "Flesh and Stone"4–5 "The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang"12–13 "Meanwhile in the TARDIS" Two-part mini-episode created for the fifth series' DVD and Blu-ray Series 6 "A Christmas Carol" Christmas special 2011 "Dermot and the Doctor" Mini-episode, also titled "The Doctor Saves Day" and "The Doctor and a galaxy of stars". Part of the 12th National Television Awards. "Space" / "Time" Mini-episode. Part of Red Nose Day 2011. Series 6 "The Impossible Astronaut" / "Day of the Moon"1–2 Also had a prequel mini-episode on the BBC Doctor Who website "A Good Man Goes to War"7 "Let's Kill Hitler"8 "The Wedding of River Song"13 "The Naked Truth" Mini-episode. Part of Children in Need 2011. Series 6 Night and the Doctor Series of five mini-episodes called "Bad Night", "Good Night", "First Night", "Last Night", and "Up All Night". Created for the sixth series' DVD and Blu-ray. Series 7 "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" Christmas special. Also had a prequel mini-episode on the BBC Doctor Who website. 2012 "Asylum of the Daleks"1 Also had a prequel mini-episode initially released on iTunes "The Angels Take Manhattan"5 "The Great Detective" Prequel mini-episode to "The Snowmen". Part of Children in Need 2012. "The Snowmen" Christmas special. Also had two online prequel mini-episodes, one on iTunes in 2013 and one on the BBC website in 2012. Sometimes known as series 7, episode 6. 2013 "The Bells of Saint John"6 Also had a prequel mini-episode on the BBC website. Sometimes known as series 7, episode 7. "The Name of the Doctor"13 Also had a prequel mini-episode available on BBC Red Button. Sometimes known as series 7, episode 14. "Clarence and the Whispermen" Mini-episode produced for the Series 7 Part Two DVD and Blu-ray "Body Swap" Mini-episode. Part of the 2013 Doctor Who Prom. Series 7 "Clara and the TARDIS" Mini-episode created for the complete seventh series DVD and Blu-ray "The Inforarium" "The Night of the Doctor" BBC iPlayer/YouTube mini-episode "The Last Day" Online mini-episode "The Day of the Doctor" 50th anniversary special. Also wrote a special introduction for cinema screenings of the episode. "The Time of the Doctor" Christmas special 2014 Series 8 "Deep Breath"1 Also wrote a special introduction for cinema screenings of the episode "Into the Dalek"2 With Phil Ford "Listen"4 "Time Heist"5 With Steve Thompson "The Caretaker"6 With Gareth Roberts "Dark Water" / "Death in Heaven"11–12 Series 9 "Last Christmas" Christmas special 2015 "The Doctor's Meditation" Mini-episode and prequel to "The Magician's Apprentice". Shown during cinema screenings of "Dark Water" / "Death in Heaven". "The Magician's Apprentice" / "The Witch's Familiar"1–2 Also had an online prologue "The Girl Who Died"5 With Jamie Mathieson "The Zygon Inversion"8 With Peter Harness "Heaven Sent"11 "Hell Bent"12 "The Husbands of River Song" Christmas special 2016 Series 10 "Friend from the Future" Mini-episode, also titled "Introducing the New Companion..." Repurposed into part of "The Pilot" "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" Christmas special 2017 "The Pilot"1 "Extremis"6 "The Pyramid at the End of the World"7 With Peter Harness "World Enough and Time" / "The Doctor Falls"11–12 "Twice Upon a Time" Christmas special2024 Series 14 "Boom"3 Series 15 "Joy to the World" Christmas special

Sherlock episodes written +Sherlock television creditsYearSeason/SeriesEpisodeEpisode Notes 2009 "A Study in Pink" Unaired pilot 2010 Series 1 "A Study in Pink"1 2012 Series 2 "A Scandal in Belgravia"1 2013 Series 3 "Many Happy Returns" Online mini-episode and a prequel to series 3. With Mark Gatiss. 2014 "The Sign of Three"2 With Steve Thompson and Mark Gatiss "His Last Vow"3 2016 "The Abominable Bride" New Year's Day special. With Mark Gatiss. 2017 Series 4 "The Lying Detective"2 "The Final Problem"3 With Mark Gatiss

Film Production Notes DistributorThe Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the UnicornFeature film (co-written with Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, 2011)Paramount Pictures (North America/UK/Australia) Sony Pictures Releasing (International)

Stage Production Notes TheatreThe UnfriendWorld premiere (2022) First West End run (2023)

Novels