Richard Dinnick
Richard Dinnick (born 22 January 1968) is a British screenwriter, novelist, and audio playwright. He is the winner of the 2012 BBC Writersroom opportunity to create a new show and to write for TV on the BBC and is now writing on the CBeebies TV shows Tree Fu Tom and Go Jetters - amongst others - as well as Mind Candy's new Moshi Monsters TV Show. He was one of six finalists in a recent BBC Academy opportunity to workshop a script for Waterloo Road.
Dinnick is now Head Writer on the new Disney TV show Eena Meena Deeka and in-development action adventure show "Captain Extraordinary". He was also a BAFTA Judge for Children's Drama and produced a session for the 2014 Children's Media Conference.
He is developing several ideas for TV including a fantasy drama, Never After and a primetime crime drama, Murder of Crows, which is the first of its kind. Richard is currently in pre-production on new web series – Light & Shadows – with Capital City Entertainment as writer/producer.
Dinnick has written prose, scripts and comics for many media properties including MGM’s Stargate and the BBC’s Doctor Who, as well as adapting the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – including The Hound of the Baskervilles – for CD release.
His first novel Alien Adventures was published by BBC Children’s Books in 2010 and he has since gone on to write books and short stories for Penguin UK, Titan Publishing, Black Library, Running Press and Snow Books. He has also written comic strips for IDW and BBC Magazines and his first original graphic novel is in the works.
His pre-school series Elf Stackers is in the commissioning process with the BBC.
Dinnick is a member of the Writers Guild of Great Britain and the Royal Television Society. He is represented in the UK by Alison Finch at JFL Agency. He is also often a guest at Writing events (including the London Screenwriters' Festival) and Doctor Who conventions (such as Gallifrey One).
Honours & Awards
- Judge, BBC Radio 2: 500 Words Competition, 2015
- Speaker, Norwich Sound and Vision Festival, 2014
- Session Producer, The Children's Media Conference, 2014
- Judge, BBC Radio 2: 500 Words Competition, 2014
- BAFTA Judge, The Children's BAFTA Awards, 2013
- Judge, BBC Radio 2: 500 Words Competition, 2013
- Guest Speaker, The London Screenwriter's Festival, 2012
- Winner, BBC Writersroom TV Writing Opportunity, 2012
- Top Doctor Who Writers to Follow - Doctor Who Magazine, 2012
- Finalist, Duracell "Entangled” Script Competition, 2011
- Chair, Government Committee on Web Design Best Practice, 2001
- Finalist, PTC New Journalist of the Year Award, 1999
TV
Following his winning entry in the BBC Writersroom competition, Dinnick's idea Elf Stackers has been entered into the commissioning process and he is now writing for the CBeebies show Tree Fu Tom as well as development projects and other shows. In 2013 he was as a judge on the drama panel for the Children's BAFTA Awards and in 2014 became head writer on new Disney Show, Eeena Meena Deeka.
- Captain Extraordinary, Series 1 - Head Writer - Rushfirth Creative ( In Development)
- Eena Meena Deeka, Series 1 + 2 - Lead Writer - Maya/Disney
- Go Jetters, Series 1 - BBC/Worldwide
- Moshi Monsters TV Show, Series 1 - Mind Candy
- Tree Fu Tom, Series 5 - BBC/Freemantle
- Tree Fu Tom, Series 4 - BBC/Freemantle
- Development Script, not-for-air pilot - BBC In House
- Development Script, unannounced TV series - BBC
Film
Dinnick is working on a web series for Capital City Entertainment, Light & Shadows.
Novels
Dinnick has written two novels:
- Doctor Who: The Underwater War (BBC/Penguin, 2011)
- Moshi Monsters: Super Moshi Missions (Mind Candy/Sunbird, 2012)
Short stories
Dinnick's first fiction was the short story "Neptune" for Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who anthology Short Trips: Solar System. His published short stories are:
- Short Trips: The Solar System - "Neptune" (Big Finish, 2005)
- Bernice Summerfield: Present Danger - "Past Caring" (Big Finish, 2010)
- "Braking Point" for Stargate Magazine (Titan, 2010)
- Encounters of Sherlock Holmes - "The Adventure of the Swaddled Railwayman" (Titan, 2012)
- Twisted Histories' - "Flaming Sword" (Snow Books, 2013)
Audio scripts
He has written scripts for several different franchises, largely for Big Finish Productions:
- Stargate: Duplicity (2012)
- Doctor Who - The Rings of Ikiria (2012)
- Doctor Who - The Wanderer (2012)
- Sherlock Holmes - The Tangled Skein (adaptation) (2012)
- Sherlock Holmes - The Hound of the Baskervilles (adaptation) (2011)
- Doctor Who - Recorded Time and Other Stories#Paradoxicide - "Paradoxicide" (2011)
- Doctor Who - Short Trips - Volume 4: "A Star is Born" (2011)
- Bernice Summerfield: Dead Man's Switch (with John Dorney) (2010)
- Sapphire & Steel: The Surest Poison (2005)
- Space: 1889: The Lunar Inheritance (with Andy Frankham-Allen) (2005)
Comic strips
Dinnick has contributed to two Doctor Who comics/graphic novels:
- Doctor Who Adventures - "The Lunar Tyk" (issue #191, November 2010)
- Doctor Who Special 2012 - Time Fraud (IDW, September 2012)
Non-Fiction
Dinnick has written a number of non-fiction works:
- The Internet Atlas (Parkgate, 2000)
- A History of the Internet (Pocket Essentials, 2002)
- The Big Finish Companion: Volume I (Big Finish, 2011)
- Moshi Monsters: The Official Collectable Figures Guide (Penguin, 2012)
- Doctor Who: The Official Anniversary Sticker Book (Penguin, 2013)
- Doctor Who - TARDIS (Running Press, 2013)
- Doctor Who - Dalek (Running Press, 2013)
- Doctor Who - Cyberman (Running Press, 2013)
- Doctor Who - Sonic Screwdriver (Running Press, 2014)
As editor:
- The Big Finish Companion: Volume II (Big Finish, 2013)
Journalism
Dinnick started his writing career on the local newspaper Esher News and Mail in 1986. He then specialised in business journalism, working on publications such as Director (the magazine published by the Institute of Directors) and Real Business as part of their editorial teams.
In the late 1990s, he moved to Internet Magazine. During this time he appeared on numerous TV and radio programmes as well as newspapers and industry web sites talking about internet-related matters.[1][2][3][4] He was also shortlisted for the PPA's PTC New Journalist of the Year Award in 1999.
Later he went on to work on the City desk of the Sunday Express and chaired the Government Committee on Web Design Best Practice in 2002/3.[5]
External links
- Richard Dinnick's website
- Richard Dinnick on Facebook
- Richard Dinnick on Twitter
- Listing at Good Reads
References
- ^ Wood, Greg (26 August 1999). "Racing: Courses dig deep for Internet gold". The Independent. London.
- ^ "Internet as propaganda weapon". BBC News. 7 April 1999.
- ^ Interview with Dinnick at the Web Developers' Journal: http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/developers/richard_dinnick.html
- ^ Dinnick wrote a column for Net Imperative: http://www.netimperative.com/news/2001/06/18/The_Dinnick_Room_Heres
- ^ Dinnick authored the consultation document "Quality Framework for UK Government Website Design: Usability issues for government websites": http://www.umic.pt/images/stories/publicacoes/quality_framework_uk.pdf