Chris Lang is the writer of over seventy hours of prime time British drama, including ‘Torn’ (nominated for an RTS award), ‘Amnesia’ (nominated for an ‘Edgar’) and ‘A Mother’s Son’ (nominated for a Broadcast Award).
He trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, leaving in 1983 to work at Nottingham Playhouse for six months. There he met fellow actor Hugh Grant, and the two of them formed a comedy writing partnership (later joined by fellow Rada student Andy Taylor) called ‘The Jockeys of Norfolk’, who enjoyed great success at the Edinburgh Festival, and who went on to star in their own TV comedy showcase.
Lang then moved in to writing for other comedians, including Jack Dee, Jonathan Ross and Smith and Jones before turning to drama in the early nineties. He cut his teeth on prime time staples such as ‘The Bill’ ( picking up a Writer’s Guild award along the way) ‘Casualty’, ‘Soldier Soldier’ and ‘The Knock’, before creating his first original drama for ITV in 2000, ‘The Glass’, starring John Thaw and Sarah Lancashire. Since then he has written and created over sixty hours of original prime time drama, as well as contributing many episodes to existing shows like ‘Hustle’ and Sky Atlantic’s ‘The Tunnel’.
In 2007 he co-formed TXTV with Matt Arlidge and Jeremy Gwilt, through which he now makes much of his original drama.
In 2015 he created, wrote and co executive produced ‘Unforgotten’ starring Nicola Walker, Sir Tom Courtenay, Bernard Hill, Gemma Jones, Trevor Eve and Sanjeev Baskar. It premiered on October 8th to 7.5 million viewers and wide critical acclaim. Sir Tom Courtenay later won the 2016 BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his role, and was nominated for Royal Television Society award for his performance, while Nicola Walker was nominated at the Broadcasting Press Guild awards for best actress. The show was recommissioned for a second season in November 2015.
Several of Lang’s dramas have been remade in France, with ‘Tu Es Mon Fils’, being nominated for the POLAR Cognac awards, and also selected for the Monte Carlo TV festival.
In 2016, alongside filming ‘Unforgotten II’, Lang will be in production on four further original drama series he was created and written. ‘Innocent’, a four part drama for ITV, ‘Wagstaffe’ a two part book adaptation for Encore, and ‘Entre Deux Mères’ and ‘Dans Ses Yeux’, both singles films for TF1 in France.