Stephen Poliakoff

Writing

Stephen Poliakoff

Born

1952-12-01 (73)

Place of birth

Holland Park, London, England

Known for

Writing

Credits

34 titles

Stephen Poliakoff, CBE, FRSL (born 1 December 1952) is an acclaimed British playwright, director and scriptwriter, widely judged amongst Britain's foremost television dramatists.

Known for

Film credits

Series credits

Behind the camera

Runners poster
5.4

When his young daughter disappears, her father refuses to accept that she is dead and sets out on a journey to find her.

Runners

1983

Close My Eyes poster
5.8

After some years of tension, Richard begins a sexual relationship with his sister Natalie. Now married, the relationship proves dangerously obsessional.

Close My Eyes

1991

Close My Eyes poster
5.8

After some years of tension, Richard begins a sexual relationship with his sister Natalie. Now married, the relationship proves dangerously obsessional.

Close My Eyes

1991

Astonish Me poster
8.0

When a young boy gets locked in the Natural History Museum after closing, a mysterious guard gives him a magical ticket that allows him to visit a restricted area of the museum, where a professor and a guide show him examples of the wondrous new species of animals being discovered every day on Earth.

Astonish Me

2011

Caught on a Train poster
5.2

British playwright Stephen Poliakoff's comical teleplay investigates Europe's changing social landscape via three strangers who meet on a train. Peter, an English businessman on an overnight trip through Europe, shares a compartment with a beautiful American woman, Lorraine. But Peter's hope for romance is soon dampened by Lorraine's xenophobia and the arrival of a haughty Viennese aristocrat.

Caught on a Train

1980

Food of Love poster
4.0

A group of ex-university students reunite to perform a Shakespeare play in a quaint English village.

Food of Love

1997

Food of Love poster
4.0

A group of ex-university students reunite to perform a Shakespeare play in a quaint English village.

Food of Love

1997

Capturing Mary poster
6.3

A young man ushers an older woman into a dark exploration of her past - back to the time when, as a young girl, she met a stranger who affected her life forever.

Capturing Mary

2007

Capturing Mary poster
6.3

A young man ushers an older woman into a dark exploration of her past - back to the time when, as a young girl, she met a stranger who affected her life forever.

Capturing Mary

2007

Glorious 39 poster
6.0

A mysterious tale set around a traditional British family on the eve of World War Two. Oblivious to the looming shadow of World War II, the wealthy Keyes maintain a confident façade in the British countryside until daughter Anne becomes an unexpected pawn. Her accidental discovery of secret recordings creates a rift in the family.

Glorious 39

2009

Glorious 39 poster
6.0

A mysterious tale set around a traditional British family on the eve of World War Two. Oblivious to the looming shadow of World War II, the wealthy Keyes maintain a confident façade in the British countryside until daughter Anne becomes an unexpected pawn. Her accidental discovery of secret recordings creates a rift in the family.

Glorious 39

2009

Hidden City poster
5.4

Cassies Stuart leads the uncooperative Charles Dance into a world of misplaces government secrets, capalistic artists and bungling secret agents. Will the truth be out, or will the attempts of agents suppress the truth hidden within government propaganda films, classified as top secret by complete mistake, be successful. Or is it the mysterious medical records that are the true catch of the spies.

Hidden City

1987

Hidden City poster
5.4

Cassies Stuart leads the uncooperative Charles Dance into a world of misplaces government secrets, capalistic artists and bungling secret agents. Will the truth be out, or will the attempts of agents suppress the truth hidden within government propaganda films, classified as top secret by complete mistake, be successful. Or is it the mysterious medical records that are the true catch of the spies.

Hidden City

1987

Gideon's Daughter poster
6.4

Bill Nighy and Miranda Richardson star in a story of grief and celebrity, set in the intense spring and summer of New Labour's election victory and Diana's death. Nighy is a PR guru who has to stop and re-evaluate his world when his daughter threatens to leave his life, perhaps as revenge for his serial infidelities. Richardson plays a mother trying to bury her grief in an unconventional way after the loss of her young son.

Gideon's Daughter

2005

Gideon's Daughter poster
6.4

Bill Nighy and Miranda Richardson star in a story of grief and celebrity, set in the intense spring and summer of New Labour's election victory and Diana's death. Nighy is a PR guru who has to stop and re-evaluate his world when his daughter threatens to leave his life, perhaps as revenge for his serial infidelities. Richardson plays a mother trying to bury her grief in an unconventional way after the loss of her young son.

Gideon's Daughter

2005

She's Been Away poster
5.7

A woman who has been institutionalized for 60 years for the "crime" of not conforming to the 1920s image of what a proper young woman should be (in other words, she did what she wanted and didn't care what anyone else thought about it) is finally released to the custody of her family, consisting of her grand-nephew and his family. At first she keeps a self-imposed distance from the relatives, but she soon finds herself coming around to her nephew's wife, a free spirit who is under the thumb of her cold and controlling husband.

She's Been Away

1989

Joe's Palace poster
5.9

A drama centered on the relationship between Elliot, a strange and wealthy Londoner, and Joe, a teenager who takes care of an empty house Elliot owns.

Joe's Palace

2007

Joe's Palace poster
5.9

A drama centered on the relationship between Elliot, a strange and wealthy Londoner, and Joe, a teenager who takes care of an empty house Elliot owns.

Joe's Palace

2007

Friends & Crocodiles poster
5.1

Paul Reynolds is a Gatsby-like figure: owner of a magnificent house, the host of great parties, and a collector of interesting people. He persuades Lizzie Thomas, a secretary at a local estate agent's, to come and work for him as his assistant, to bring some order to his chaos. He inspires her with his enthusiasm and imagination, and frustrates her with his apparent carelessness and destructiveness, which culminates in her calling the police as one of his parties is attacked by local troublemakers, seemingly with his tacit approval. But their paths are destined to cross again and again as Lizzie, with the help of some of the people that she met at Paul's house, rises through the changing landscape of corporate Britain. This is the tale of a meaningful and powerful relationship that isn't a love story; it's about those rare people who profoundly influence and shape our lives.

Friends & Crocodiles

2005

Friends & Crocodiles poster
5.1

Paul Reynolds is a Gatsby-like figure: owner of a magnificent house, the host of great parties, and a collector of interesting people. He persuades Lizzie Thomas, a secretary at a local estate agent's, to come and work for him as his assistant, to bring some order to his chaos. He inspires her with his enthusiasm and imagination, and frustrates her with his apparent carelessness and destructiveness, which culminates in her calling the police as one of his parties is attacked by local troublemakers, seemingly with his tacit approval. But their paths are destined to cross again and again as Lizzie, with the help of some of the people that she met at Paul's house, rises through the changing landscape of corporate Britain. This is the tale of a meaningful and powerful relationship that isn't a love story; it's about those rare people who profoundly influence and shape our lives.

Friends & Crocodiles

2005

City Sugar poster
NR

During the course of a live radio broadcast, a disc-jockey is made forcibly aware that he's getting old.

City Sugar

1978

Stronger Than the Sun poster
NR

Kate works in the nuclear industry. She is concerned about the way things are being run. So she smuggles out some Plutonium to prove how easy it is. She tries to pass it on to protest groups, but nobody is interested as they have their own agendas.

Stronger Than the Sun

1978

The Tribe poster
5.2

Property developer Jamie has to evict some weird, post-modern hippies from a building. But they slowly drag him into their dark underworld of bizarre rituals and dangerous liaisons.

The Tribe

1998

The Tribe poster
5.2

Property developer Jamie has to evict some weird, post-modern hippies from a building. But they slowly drag him into their dark underworld of bizarre rituals and dangerous liaisons.

The Tribe

1998

Bloody Kids poster
6.5

Two boys pull a Saturday night prank on the police in a seaside British town.

Bloody Kids

1980

No artwork available
NR

Ralph decides to give his sister Clare a night on the town to cheer her up. They visit a burger bar and a disco in a modern precinct, and Clare gets slightly drunk. At the end of the evening, they both end up at Clare's flat.

Hitting Town

1976

Century poster
5.1

Turn-of-the-century love story centered around a young doctor and the emergence of modern science.

Century

1993

Century poster
5.1

Turn-of-the-century love story centered around a young doctor and the emergence of modern science.

Century

1993

Soft Targets poster
10.0

Stephen Poliakoff's parody of the spy-thriller genre. A Russian diplomat becomes convinced that he is at the centre of a Foreign Office plot.

Soft Targets

1982

A Real Summer poster
4.0

It is 1958, and the final debutante 'season'. Mary, a brilliant young writer and critic is befriended by Geraldine, a seemingly friendly young debutante of a similar age but a very different background. What starts as a friendship becomes something altogether more unsettling. This companion drama to Capturing Mary, charts Mary’s progress before she enters the dangerous world of Mr. Graham’s house and Greville White’s sphere of influence.

A Real Summer

2007

A Real Summer poster
4.0

It is 1958, and the final debutante 'season'. Mary, a brilliant young writer and critic is befriended by Geraldine, a seemingly friendly young debutante of a similar age but a very different background. What starts as a friendship becomes something altogether more unsettling. This companion drama to Capturing Mary, charts Mary’s progress before she enters the dangerous world of Mr. Graham’s house and Greville White’s sphere of influence.

A Real Summer

2007

No artwork available
7.0

An old man and a teenage boy, both neo-Nazis, are travelling across Germany to take funds to the party headquarters. On the way they encounter a young woman and things become difficult.

Strawberry Fields

1985