Chris Chibnall
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Chris Chibnall is a lifelong Doctor Who fan who later became a writer for both that series and Torchwood. He was credited as a co-producer, and was the effective head writer, for the first two series of Torchwood. This status made him, along with his fellow producer Richard Stokes, two of the most regular interviewees on Torchwood: Declassified. As of 2011, he has also made several appearances on Doctor Who Confidential.
However, of all the people involved with the production of the BBC Wales version of the Doctor Who universe, he is the only one to have appeared on the BBC talking about the 1963 version of the programme, while it was still on the air.
Profile
As a youth
In 1986, Chibnall represented part of the Doctor Who Appreciation Socety on the BBC's public opinion show "Points of View". There he famously criticized the The Trial of a Time Lord season as a specific example of the generally inconsistent quality of the series in the 1980s. The segment was preserved as a special feature on the BBC DVD of The Ultimate Foe.
Early television
Chibnall's first major piece of television was 2002's Born and Bred, a rural medical dramedy for which he was the head writer and co-creator. Originally produced by Phil Collinson, the show swiftly came to be produced by Chris Clough — ironically, the man who had directed half the episodes of Doctor Who that Chibnall had railed against in his teens.
As of 2008, the majority of his work has been well outside the Whoniverse. He was a co-creator of the long-running family drama, Born and Bred. He has also notably contributed to the police procedurals, Spooks: Code 9 and Life on Mars with John Simm and Marshall Lancaster.
Upon the relaunch of the series in 2005, Chibnall wrote 42, but has primarily been involved with Torchwood. While he was a freelance writer for the first series, he was the effective head writer of Series 2. Formally a producer the relationship between he and his co-producer, Richard Stokes, has been likened to that existing between Russell T Davies and Phil Collinson on Doctor Who.
Awards
Chibnall is a three-time nominee for a Writer's Guild of Great Britain award for best series, but, unusually, he only lost once. Nominated, along with other writers, for series 3 and series 5 of Doctor Who, he won for series 3. That same year, 2007, he was also nominated for series 2 of Life on Mars — meaning that he effectively lost . . . to himself.
