Mark Burton (born 23 September 1960) is a British television writer, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and film director.

Television and radio career

After turning up at

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...

Light Entertainment Department Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 terahe ...

, Burton teamed up with John O'Farrell and the two were commissioned for ''Week Ending'' by

Harry Thompson Harry William Thompson (6 February 1960 – 7 November 2005) was an English radio and television producer, comedy writer, novelist and biographer. He was the creator of the dark humour television series ''Monkey Dust'', screened between 2003 a ...

(who later named his two pet rats Burton and O'Farrell). The pair won the

BBC #REDIRECT 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 ex ...

Light Entertainment Contract Award, and went on to write or contribute to a number of radio series, including ''Little Blighty on the Down'', ''McKay the New'' and with Pete Sinclair, the multi-award-winning ''A Look Back at the Nineties'' and ''Look Back at the Future'' in which Burton also performed.''Alphabetical Name Index''
"RadioHaHa". Burton also created the BBC Radio 4 panel game ''We've Been Here Before'' presented by Clive Anderson. Burton and O’Farrell were commissioned for ''

Spitting Image ''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ov ...

'' in 1988 and the following year became two of the lead writers on the show. They also wrote for ''

Clive Anderson Clive Stuart Anderson (born 10 December 1952) is an English television and radio presenter, comedy writer, and former barrister. Winner of a British Comedy Award in 1991, Anderson began experimenting with comedy and writing comedic scripts durin ...

Talks Back'',

Nick Hancock Nicholas John Hancock (born 25 October 1962) is an English actor and television presenter. He hosted the sports quiz ''They Think It's All Over'' for 10 years. He also formerly presented ''Room 101'' (1994–1999) on TV, as well as its earlier ...

on ''Room 101'', ''

Murder Most Horrid ''Murder Most Horrid'' is a British black comedy anthology series starring Dawn French. It was broadcast on BBC Two for four series runs, in 1991, 1994, 1996 and 1999. Created by Paul Smith (television writer), Paul Smith, who also co-created '' ...

'', and co-wrote some of the ''Heads to Heads'' for

Alas Smith and Jones ''Alas Smith and Jones'' is a British comedy sketch television series starring comedy duo and namesake Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones that originally ran for four series and two Christmas specials on BBC2 from 1984 to 1988, and later as ''Smi ...

. In 1993, they left ''Spitting Image'' and became the first writers credited for the scripted parts of '' Have I Got News For You''. Also for

Hat Trick Productions Hat Trick Productions is an independent British production company that produces television and radio programmes, mainly specialising in comedy, based in London. History Hat Trick Productions was founded in 1986 by Rory McGrath, Jimmy Mulville ...

they wrote a

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

sitcom ''

The Peter Principle The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to "a level of respective incompetence": employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until ...

'' starring

Jim Broadbent James Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor. He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role as John Bayley in the feature film ''Iris'' (2001), as well as winning a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe for hi ...

(known as ''The Boss'' in the US).

Screenwriting

The pair are credited for ‘additional dialogue’ for the Aardman film ''

Chicken Run ''Chicken Run'' is a 2000 stop-motion animated comedy film produced by Pathé and Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. Aardman’s first feature-length film and DreamWorks Animation's fourth film, it was directed by Pe ...

'', but after a decade of collaboration, Burton and O'Farrell began to work on separate projects. Although he continued to do some TV comedy scriptwriting (with credits for

2DTV ''2DTV'' is a British satirical animated television series which was co-created and produced by Giles Pilbrow for ITV. It premiered on ITV1 on 14 October 2001 and was nominated for the Rose d'Or Award in both 2002 and 2003. The programme was cons ...

, ''

Never Mind the Buzzcocks ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' is a British comedy panel game show with a pop music theme. It has aired on Sky Max since September 2021, having originally aired between November 1996 and January 2015 on BBC Two. The original series was first hoste ...

'' and '' Mike Bassett: Manager'') Burton began to focus on screenwriting, most notably with the DreamWorks Animation ''

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

''. Other major screenplay credits include '' Wallace and Gromit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit'' (which won an Oscar in 2006 for Best Animated Feature Film), ''

Gnomeo and Juliet ''Gnomeo & Juliet'' is a 2011 computer-animated romantic comedy film directed by Kelly Asbury from a screenplay by Rob Sprackling and John Smith. It is loosely based on the play ''Romeo and Juliet'' by William Shakespeare and features the voice ...

'' and ''

Aliens in the Attic ''Aliens in the Attic'' is a 2009 American comic science fiction film directed by John Schultz and written by Mark Burton and Adam F. Goldberg, based on an original story conceived by Burton. Starring Carter Jenkins, Austin Butler, Ashley Ti ...

''. He adapted the novel of his former writing partner for the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

film 'May Contain Nuts' and also wrote and produced the BBC short film One of those Days. He also wrote and made his directorial debut with Richard Starzak with ''

Shaun the Sheep Movie ''Shaun the Sheep Movie'' is a 2015 stop-motion animated adventure comedy film based on the 2007 British television series ''Shaun the Sheep'', created by Nick Park, in turn a spin-off of the ''Wallace and Gromit'' film, ''A Close Shave'' (1995). ...

'', which got nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Animated Feature The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is given each year for animated films. An animated feature is defined by the Academy as a film with a running time of more than 40 minutes in which characters' performances are created using a frame-by- ...

. He would later return to write its sequel '' A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon'' with Jon Brown, based on a story by Starzak.

Composing

Burton is a musician and songwriter, having composed the music for the comedy rock musical ''The Next Big Thing'' which he wrote and produced with Pete Sinclair. He also shares the credit for the original music in 'One Of Those Days' and has written songs and parodies for a number of radio shows.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Mark 1960 births Living people Aardman Animations people DreamWorks Animation people People from South Oxfordshire District Alumni of the University of York Annie Award winners English television writers English radio writers English comedy writers English songwriters English film directors BBC people