Pete McTighe
Born
Peter McTighe[1]

United Kingdom
OccupationTelevision screenwriter

Pete McTighe is a British screenwriter and executive producer. He is originating writer of Wentworth, a female ensemble prison drama series that won Most Outstanding and Most Popular Drama at the Logie Awards.[2] He is the creator and writer of the BBC1 mystery thriller series The Pact and has written various television productions in the UK and internationally including Doctor Who, The Rising, Glitch, Nowhere Boys and A Discovery of Witches. McTighe has received five Australian Writers Guild Award and one Welsh BAFTA nomination for his work.[3]

Career

Early work

McTighe was born in the United Kingdom.[4] McTighe was invited to join the writing team at Neighbours in 2006.[1] He wrote the show's 6000th episode, which aired as part of the 25th anniversary on 27 August 2010. In 2012, he was nominated for his first Australian Writers Guild Award (AWGIE) in the category of Best Television Serial for Episode 6231.[5]

McTighe later wrote scripts for the ABC drama series Crownies, Tricky Business and the Seven Network drama Winners & Losers.[6][7] In 2011, McTighe started writing for the BBC One drama EastEnders.[8]

Wentworth

In 2012, it was announced McTighe would be writing a reimagining of Prisoner Cell Block H called Wentworth.[9] McTighe was the head writer for the first series, writing six of the ten episodes.[4] His pilot script for Wentworth was unveiled to the media in February 2013 to a positive reception.[10][11] Ben Pobjie from The Age called the production "a no-holds-barred triumph".[12] McTighe's pilot episode became the most watched non-sport program in subscription television history,[13] and the series itself went on to sell extensively internationally and to be remade (using McTighe's scripts) in the Netherlands and Germany.[14] The series has won dozens of awards including Most Outstanding Drama several years in a row.[15] McTighe wrote the opening episode and the series finale of the second season,[16] for which he received an AWGIE Award nomination.[17] In August 2016 he was nominated for an Australian Writers Guild Award for the Wentworth Series 3 finale "Blood And Fire"[18] and a year later he was nominated for a fifth time for the Wentworth Series 4 finale.[19] McTighe wrote 27 key episodes of the Series across the first 8 seasons. He appeared in a cameo role in the final scene of Season 7 which saw the return of popular villain Joan Ferguson.[20]

Doctor Who

In August 2018, McTighe was announced as one of the writers for the eleventh series of Doctor Who; his episode is the seventh in the series, titled "Kerblam!".[21] The BBC press release quoted him as saying, "My entire television career has quite literally been an elaborate plan to get to write Doctor Who – and no one is more shocked than me that it paid off. I've been having the time of my life working with Chris, and writing for Jodie and the new team, and can't wait for everyone to see what we've been up to."[22] In November 2019, McTighe was announced as one of the writers for the twelfth series,[23] co-writing "Praxeus" with Chris Chibnall.[24]

McTighe wrote the sleeve notes for many of the classic Doctor Who DVD releases during the final years of the range.[25] In 2018 he became Content Consultant for the Doctor Who classic Blu-ray range and also wrote the booklets that accompany each box set.[26] He writes and directs regular short films featuring classic Doctors and companions to promote the release of The Collection sets.[27]

In 2023 McTighe wrote the Kerblam! novelisation for the revived Target Books series.,[28] as well as the additional material created for the Tales of the TARDIS re-releases of The Mind Robber and The Curse of Fenric.

The Pact

McTighe created and wrote the BBC1 mystery thriller series The Pact which aired in May 2021, starring Laura Fraser, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Rakie Ayola, Eiry Thomas, Aneurin Barnard and Jason Hughes. The series was filmed in Wales.[29][30] A second series was commissioned by BBC1 and was screened in October 2022 starring Rakie Ayola.

Other work

McTighe wrote episodes for the second series of The Doctor Blake Mysteries[31] In 2014 he wrote for the BBC America supernatural/mystery series Tatau,[32] and the comedy-drama Cara Fi.[33] In 2015, McTighe received an AWGIE Award nomination for his work on the teen supernatural series Nowhere Boys.[17] He also wrote scripts for the 2017 Netflix/ABC drama series Glitch.[34]

In June 2019, McTighe joined the second season of Sky/BBC America supernatural series A Discovery of Witches as a writer and executive producer.[35] He also wrote an episode of the Netflix series Clickbait.

In 2021, Sky Max broadcast his supernatural thriller series The Rising.[36]

In 2023, it was announced Bronte Pictures will produce McTighe's 1978, a period musical film about Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.[37]

References

  1. ^ a b "Performance Perspectives". The Rehearsal Room. Archived from the original on 24 June 2008. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  2. ^ "Foxtel's Gritty Drama Wins Big Time". News Corp. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  3. ^ "BAFTA Cymru nominations". 7 September 2022. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Pete McTighe". Berlin Associates. Archived from the original on 30 April 2012. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  5. ^ "2012 AWGIE Nominees". Australian Writers Guild Awards. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  6. ^ "Tricky Business". ScreenNSW. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  7. ^ Richey, Anne (19 January 2011). "Crownies – ABC long running drama series is about um.. lawyers". Screen Hub. Retrieved 19 March 2011.[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ "Catch-up: Friday 8th April". BBC. 8 April 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  9. ^ Knox, David (5 March 2012). "Val Lehman wants to return to Wentworth". TV Tonight. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  10. ^ "Foxtel unveils Prisoner revamp". The Music. 28 February 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  11. ^ Byrnes, Holly (28 February 2013). "Prisoner Remake Makes Underbelly Look Tame". Herald Sun. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  12. ^ Pobjie, Ben (28 February 2013). "Prisoner Reboot A No Holds Barred Triumph". The Age. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  13. ^ Knox, David (21 May 2013). "Record Ratings For Wentworth". TV Tonight. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  14. ^ "Wentworth Adapted". 4 February 2014. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  15. ^ "Wentworth scoops best Australian drama". The Sydney Morning Herald. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  16. ^ "Foxtel Episode Guide". 20 April 2014. Archived from the original on 30 April 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  17. ^ a b "AWGIE nominations". Australian Writers Guild. 23 July 2015. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  18. ^ "AWGIE nominations". Australian Writers Guild. 1 August 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  19. ^ "AWGIE nominations". Australian Writers Guild. 1 July 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  20. ^ "Wentworth finale". TV Tonight. 2 August 2019. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
  21. ^ Marcus. "Doctor Who Episodes Seven and Eight". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
  22. ^ "Doctor Who announces Writers and Directors for all new series". BBC Online. 20 August 2018. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  23. ^ "Series 12 writers and directors announced!". BBC. 13 November 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  24. ^ Laford, Andrea (9 January 2020). "Doctor Who Series 12: new episode titles, writers and descriptions". Cult Box. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  25. ^ "List of Hartnell DVD releases". Archived from the original on 4 May 2014. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  26. ^ "Doctor Who The Collection Season 12". Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  27. ^ "Doctor Who Interview". 21 May 2022. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
  28. ^ Cormack, Morgan. "Doctor Who Target books add 5 new novelisations for 2023". Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  29. ^ "The Pact release date: Cast, plot and latest news for the BBC drama". Radio Times. 5 May 2021. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  30. ^ Nicholson, Rebecca (5 May 2021). "The Pact review – Wales's Big Little Lies will have you on tenterhooks". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  31. ^ Knox, David (16 June 2013). "Cast Returns To Doctor Blake". TV Tonight. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  32. ^ "Berlin Associates". Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  33. ^ "Cara Fi Homepage". Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  34. ^ "Drama Lovers". Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  35. ^ Groves, Don (11 June 2019). "'Doctor Who' writer Pete McTighe discovers witches". If. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  36. ^ "Clara Rugaard to Lead Sky's Supernatural Crime Thriller 'The Rising' Based on Belgian Series 'Hotel Beau Séjour'". 27 April 2021.
  37. ^ "Bronte Pictures to produce musical feature '1978' from Pete McTighe". 23 February 2023.

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