Ben Richards (born 1964) is a British screenwriter and novelist. He has been 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.
Career
Before writing
novels
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...
and
TV dramas
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...
, he worked for three years as a housing officer in
Newham
The London Borough of Newham is a London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of West Ham and East Ham, authorities that were both abolished by the s ...
and
Islington
Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...
, London. As a research student at
UCL's Department of Geography 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.
Richards was a lecturer at the
University of Birmingham
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
and at
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
, where he taught
development studies
Development studies is an interdisciplinary branch of social science. Development studies is offered as a specialized master's degree in a number of reputed universities around the world. It has grown in popularity as a subject of study since the e ...
, specialising in South America.
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
The New Puritans was a literary movement ascribed to the contributors to a 2000 anthology of short stories entitled ''All Hail the New Puritans'', edited by Nicholas Blincoe and Matt Thorne. The project is said to have been inspired by the Dogme 9 ...
anthology of 2000.
As a screenwriter, Richards has written for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
''). He has also written for the British/French crime drama television series ''