Michael Chaplin (born 1951 in County Durham) is an English theatre, radio, television and non-fiction writer and former television producer and executive. He grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne where he now lives and works again.
After graduating from Cambridge University in 1973 with a degree in history he trained as a reporter on The Journal newspaper in Newcastle upon Tyne and then became the paper's Health Correspondent.
In 1977 he moved to London, becoming successively a researcher, producer, director and executive producer in London Weekend Television's current affairs and documentaries department. Among his many credits there was as editor of the cult arts/lifestyle show South of Watford which helped to establish the TV careers of its successive presenters, Ben Elton and Hugh Laurie. He then produced the ITV drama series Wish Me Luck about female secret agents in France during World War II which aired on ITV between 1988 and 1990.
In 1989 he became Head of Drama and Arts at Tyne Tees Television and was Executive Producer of the early Catherine Cookson adaptations, which ran on ITV with great success for a further decade or more.
In 1991 Chaplin moved to BBC Wales as Head of Programmes where he was responsible for transforming the BBC's output in English on both television and radio. By this time Chaplin had begun to write for Live Theatre, the acclaimed new writing company in Newcastle upon Tyne, collaborating first with Alan Plater on “In Blackberry Time” (1987-8)., a play about the life and work of his late father, Sid Chaplin.
His first credit on television was the ITV mini-series “Act of Betrayal” about an IRA super-grass on the run in Australia, co-written with his friend and former LWT colleague Nicholas Evans (author of The Horse Whisperer and other novels).
His first radio writing credit was “Hair In The Gate” (1990) for BBC Radio 4, based on a play of the same name staged at Live Theatre the year before.
In 1994, having just completed the acclaimed ITV mini-series Dandelion Dead directed by Mike Hodges and starring Michael Kitchen, about the notorious Hay on Wye poisoner Herbert Armstrong, Chaplin became a full-time writer and since then has chalked up many credits across various genres.
In TV he has created the original series Grafters (1998-9) starring Robson Green and Stephen Tomkinson for ITV; and for the BBC Drovers Gold (1997) about a group of Welsh cattle drovers in the 19th century; and then Monarch of the Glen (2000-2006) starring amongst others, Richard Briers and Susan Hampshire; the series ran for 69 episodes and has been screened in many countries around the world.
Chaplin also adapted novels by the crime writer Reginald Hill for four films in the BBC series Dalziel and Pascoe (one of these, “On Beulah Height”, won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America); and also P. D. James' “Original Sin” for an ITV mini-series.
Other TV work includes the ITV drama screened in 2006 – “Pickles - The Dog Who Won The World Cup” and his TV adaption of Michelle Magorian’s novel Just Henry screened in 2011. Chaplin also worked on the BBC series Robin Hood and the ITV series Wild at Heart.
Chaplin's radio work for BBC Radio 4 encompasses single plays like “Hair In The Gate” (1990), “One-Way Ticket to Palookaville” (1992), and “The Song Thief” (2008), later adapted for the People's Theatre, Newcastle, during its centenary year in 2011. There were also seven contributions to “The Stanley Baker Baxter Playhouse” : “Flying Down to Greenock”, “Fife Circle” and “A Dish of Neapolitan”, “The Pool” and “Melancholy Baby”. Chaplin created and wrote all 13 plays in the much loved series “Two Pipe Problems” (2006-2013) about life in a retirement home for faded theatricals with a Sherlock Holmes trope, starring Richard Briers and Stanley Baxter. This came to an end in 2013 following the death of Richard Briers.