Ben Richards (born 1964) is a British screenwriter and novelist. He was the lead writer on Spooks and is the writer/creator of Party Animals, Outcasts, COBRA and Showtrial. He also created The Tunnel from the Scandinavian original of “The Bridge” as well as adapting “The Cuckoo’s Calling”, the first in Robert Galbraith’s Strike series for BBC1. ^[1]

Career

Before writing novels and TV dramas, he worked for three years as a housing officer in Newham and Islington, London. As a research student at UCL's Department of Geography^[2] he spent a year investigating public housing in Chile and on his return to Britain began his first novel "to alleviate the boredom of analysing questionnaires" for his PhD thesis.^[3] Richards was a lecturer at the University of Birmingham and at University College London, where he taught development studies, specialising in South America.^[3] He is now a full-time writer.

His novels are Throwing the House out of the Window (1996), Don't Step on the Lines (1997), The Silver River (1999), A Sweetheart Deal (2001), The Mermaid and the Drunks (2004) and Confidence (2006). He also contributed to the New Puritans anthology of 2000.

As a screenwriter, Richards has written for the BBC (Spooks and Party Animals), ITV (The Fixer) and Channel 4 (No Angels). He has also written for the British/French crime drama television series The Tunnel.

Writing credits