Andrew Davies - Details

Biography

Andrew Davies has been writing professionally since 1960. He began his career by writing radio plays, and then moved into writing for television, films, theatre, novels and children's books. He is the recipient of many awards for his prolific work.

Perhaps best known for his acclaimed screenplay of "Pride and Prejudice" for the BBC in 1995, the adaptation received both the highest viewing figures of any BBC Classic Serial and the highest audience for any drama shown on the Arts & Entertainment Channel in the US. Davies' screenplay of Maeve Binchy's novel "Circle of Friends", starring Chris O Donnell and Minnie Driver, and directed by Pat O'Connor, was also released in 1995. The film of his novel, 'B Monkey', published in 1992, was directed by Michael Radford and screened at the 1998 London Film Festival.

More recently, Davies' work has included television adaptations of "Moll Flanders" starring Alex Kingston in December 1999; Elizabeth Gaskell's "Wives and Daughters", also in December 1999; "A Rather English Marriage", based on the novel by Angela Lambert, which was selected for the 1998 London Film Festival and screened by the BBC in December 1998; "Vanity Fair" and "Getting Hurt" from his own novel, both in 1998; "Emma" in 1997; and "Wilderness" in 1996. Other television work includes the highly acclaimed dramatisation for the BBC of George Eliot's "Middlemarch" in 1994 which received rave reviews in both the UK and the US. Davies gained much attention for his widely praised trilogy "House of Cards", "To Play The King" and "The Final Cut". Davies also co-wrote the popular British sitcom "Game On" which was first transmitted on the BBC in 1995.

His stage play "Prin" enjoyed a very successful run at London's Lyric Theatre in 1989 and was also produced in New York, Australia and in rep. His earlier play, "Rose", starring Glenda Jackson, played to full houses in London's West End and was subsequently produced on Broadway and in many other countries.

Davies' current work awaiting production includes "Daniel Deronda", a screenplay of George Eliot's novel; "The Child In Time", a screenplay based on Ian McEwan's novel and to star Ralph Fiennes, "The Taylor of Panama", based on John Le Carre's screenplay, and "The Count of Monte Cristo" to be directed by Roman Polanski. Davies is currently writing "Take A Girl Like You", a dramatisation of the classic Kingsley Amis novel for the BBC and a contemporary version of "Othello".