London SE14 6NW
UK
How does a childhood interest in ghost stories and horror grow into a fascination with the scientific study of the paranormal? And how does that in turn feed back into creating dramas about the supernatural? Stephen Volk is an avowed sceptic, yet repeatedly drawn to telling tales of the spooky and other-worldly, in books, on stage, on film and for the small screen, working both in Britain and in Hollywood. He will be talking about his reasons for writing in the genre and his attitude to his subject matter.
Biography
Stephen Volk is probably best known as the BAFTA-winning writer of ITV’s paranormal drama series Afterlife starring Lesley Sharp and Andrew Lincoln, and the notorious (some say legendary) BBC TV “Halloween hoax” Ghostwatch, which spooked the nation, hit the headlines, and caused questions to be raised in Parliament.
In 2015 he adapted Phil Rickman’s novel Midwinter of the Spirit as a 3-part miniseries for ITV, starring Anna Maxwell Martin and David Thelfall, while his last feature film was 2011’s The Awakening, a period ghost story starring Rebecca Hall, Dominic West and Imelda Staunton.
His most recent play The Chapel of Unrest premiered exclusively at The Bush Theatre, London, starring Jim Broadbent and Reece Shearsmith and his short story collection Monsters in the Heart won the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection in 2014, while his story Newspaper Heart won Best Novella in 2015.
His first produced screenplay was Ken Russell’s Gothic (1986), a trippy telling of the Mary Shelley/origin of Frankenstein story starring Gabriel Byrne, Natasha Richardson and Timothy Spall.
His other scripts since then include The Guardian, directed and co-written by William (The Exorcist) Friedkin; Superstition starring Mark Strong and Charlotte Rampling; and Octane starring Madeleine Stowe, Norman Reedus and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, as well as screenplays for Goldcrest, MGM, Sony/Columbia, Paramount, TriStar, Universal, BBC Films and StudioCanal.