Matthew David Jones (born 5 August 1968) is a British
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
screenwriter and television producer, who has worked on a variety of popular drama programmes for several television networks in the UK.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20050211183036/http://chat.channel4.com/pastchats/pastchat92.html Archived online web chat about ''Love in the 21st Century'']
Early work
Matt Jones began his writing career as a columnist for ''
Doctor Who Magazine
''Doctor Who Magazine'' (abbreviated as ''DWM'') is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Launched in 1979 as ''Doctor Who Weekly'', the magazine became a monthly publication the followi ...
'' in 1995, before the following year having a novel, ''
Bad Therapy
''Bad Therapy'' is an original novel written by Matthew Jones and based on the long-running British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. It features the Seventh Doctor, Chris and Peri.
Synopsis
1950s London, the Soho
Soh ...
'', printed in
Virgin Publishing
Virgin Books is a British book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Group, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company.
History
Virgin established its book publishing arm ...
's range of licensed ''Doctor Who'' tie-in books, the ''
New Adventures
New Adventures is a British dance-theatre company. Founded by choreographer Matthew Bourne in 2001, the company developed from an earlier company Adventures in Motion Pictures, now dissolved.
History
Adventures in Motion Pictures (AMP) was es ...
''. He later wrote ''
Beyond the Sun'' for the same series.
Career
His big break in television came in 1999, when he was the
script editor
A script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television and radio programmes, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas wi ...
on
Red Production Company
Red Production Company is a British independent television production company owned by StudioCanal.
Background
Red Production Company was formed in 1998 by Nicola Shindler, a television producer who had worked on ''Our Friends in the North'' ...
's controversial drama series ''
Queer as Folk'', screened on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
. The same year, he script edited another Channel 4 drama produced by Red, the anthology series ''Love in the 21st Century'', for which he also wrote one episode.
The following year he worked as a writer on two series for
Granada Television, their popular children's drama ''
Children's Ward
''Children's Ward'' (retitled ''The Ward'' from 1995 to 1998) is a British children's television drama series produced by Granada Television and broadcast on the ITV network as part of its '' Children's ITV'' strand on weekday afternoons. The p ...
'' and flagship soap opera ''
Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford.
Origi ...
'', both aired on 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 ...
network. Returning to Red, in 2000 he script edited the first series of the
British Academy Television Award-winning drama ''
Clocking Off
''Clocking Off'' is a British television drama series which was broadcast on BBC One for four series from 2000 to 2003. It was produced for the BBC by the independent Red Production Company, and created by Paul Abbott.
It was effectively an an ...
'', and in 2001 he gained his first credit as a producer when he both wrote and produced the one-off drama ''Now You See Her'', starring
Amanda Holden
Amanda Louise Holden (born 16 February 1971) is an English actress, media personality, and singer. Since 2007, she has been a judge on the television talent show competition ''Britain's Got Talent'' on ITV. She also co-hosts the ''Heart Brea ...
, for the satellite channel
Sky One.
In 2003 he began working for
Company Pictures
Company Pictures is an independent British television production company which has produced drama programming for many broadcasters. It was set up in 1998 by Charles Pattinson and George Faber, colleagues at BBC Films. Their first film was '' ...
, creating, writing and producing the crime drama ''Serious and Organised'', starring
Martin Kemp
Martin John Kemp (born 10 October 1961) is an English musician and actor, best known as the bassist in the new wave band Spandau Ballet and for his role as Steve Owen in ''EastEnders''.
He is the younger brother of Gary Kemp, who is also ...
and again screened on ITV. Moving up to become an Executive Producer, he worked on another Company series for ITV, the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
-set ''
POW''. In 2004 he was an Executive Producer on Company's critically acclaimed drama series ''
Shameless'', screened on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
, and became the show's producer for the second season in 2005, the year in which the programme won a
British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series
The British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series is one of the major categories of the British Academy Television Awards (BAFTAs), the primary awards ceremony of the British television industry. The category is described on the official ...
.
In April 2005, Jones was announced as one of the writers working on the second season of 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. ...
...
'', fulfilling a childhood ambition to work on the programme of which he had long been a fan. His episodes, a two-parter with the titles "
", were broadcast on 3 and 10 June 2006.
Jones also wrote the seventh episode of the second series of ''Doctor Who'' spin-off series ''
. in 2017, he contributed episodes to ''
'', and in 2020, to legal drama ''The Split''.