Tony Marchant

Tony Marchant (born 11 July 1959) is a British playwright and television dramatist. In 1982 he won the London Critics' Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright for The Lucky Ones and Raspberry. In 1999 he won the British Academy Television Awards Dennis Potter Award for services to television. His television work includes the acclaimed Holding On, Never Never, starring John Simm, and Take Me Home.

Early life Marchant, whose father was a printer and mother a school dinner lady, was born and raised on a council estate in Wapping in the East End of London, which he has described as "a very hard, heavy place to live sometimes". He has stated that, while estates have changed since he grew up on one, the poverty hasn't gone away. He was educated at St Joseph's Academy, Blackheath, and went on to become a London boxing champion and a member of the England boxing squad.

Life and career 1980s His big break came in 1980, when his first play Remember Me?, which he had submitted to 20 theatres, was accepted and staged by the Theatre Royal Stratford East in London, an experience which he likens to winning the lottery. It was later re-staged at The Old Red Lion in 1989.

BBC Television's production of Raspberry in 1984 gave Marchant his break in television. He credits the smooth transition that he and his generation had into screenwriting to the vogue for televised plays during these decades.

Straddling theatre and television with Lazydays Ltd., produced at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in 1986, followed by London Weekend Television's broadcast of The Moneymen in 1987, he has stated a preference for the theatre due to the feedback from a live audience,

He was resident writer at the Royal National Theatre.

Film and television credits Film/SeriesProduction CompanyYearsFunctioned asNotesWriterProducer DetailsRaspberry BBC One 1984 TV filmSummer Season BBC Television 1985 One Episode - ReservationsThe Moneymen LWT 1987 TV filmScreen Two: Death of a Son BBC Two 1989 TV film Take Me Home BBC One 1989 Three-part mini-seriesScreenPlay: The Attractions BBC Two 1989 TV film Goodbye Cruel World BBC Two 1992 Three-part mini-seriesLovejoy BBC One 1993 One Episode - God Helps ThoseStages: Speaking in Tongues BBC Two 1994 TV filmDifferent for Girls BBC Films 1996 Theatrical film Into the Fire BBC Television 1996 Three-part mini-series Holding On BBC Two 1997 Eight-part mini-seriesBad Blood ITV 1999 TV filmGreat Expectations BBC One 1999 TV film Kid in the Corner Channel 4 1999 Three-part mini-seriesNever Never Channel 4 2000 TV film Swallow Channel 4 2001 Three-part mini-seriesCrime and Punishment BBC Two 2002 TV filmThe Canterbury Tales BBC One 2003 One episode - The Knight's TalePasser By BBC One 2004 TV filmThe Family Man BBC One 2006 TV filmThe Mark of Cain Channel 4 2007 TV filmRecovery BBC One 2007 TV filmThe Whistleblowers ITV 2007 Creator & executive producer Various episodesDiverted CBC Television 2009 TV film Garrow's Law BBC One 2009-2011 Co-creator & associate producer Various episodes Postcode CBBC 2011 Three-part mini-series Public Enemies BBC One 2012 Three-part mini-series Leaving ITV 2012 Three-part mini-series The Secret Agent BBC One 2016 Executive producer Three-part mini-series Butterfly ITV2018 Three-part mini-seriesGrace ITV 2024 One Episode