Matthew Bird

Producer

November 15, 1971 (54 years)

Shipley, Yorkshire, England, UK

Biography

Award winning Drama Producer – Matthew Bird has been working in TV drama for over 35 years and producing primetime series, serials and one offs for over 30 years. Throughout his career he has always looked for innovative ways to create, develop and deliver projects, with credits varying from Jimmy McGovern’s acclaimed BBC series ‘The Street’ through popular one off pieces such as ‘Worried about the Boy’ to international co-productions such as ‘Death in Paradise’, ‘Fortitude’ and more recently IT…

Filmography

7.5

Death in Paradise

A brilliant but idiosyncratic British detective and his resourceful local team solve baffling murder mysteries on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie.

8.2

Silo

In a ruined and toxic future, thousands live in a giant silo deep underground. After its sheriff breaks a cardinal rule and residents die mysteriously, engineer Juliette starts to uncover shocking secrets and the truth about the silo.

6.1

Soulmates

Fifteen years into the future, science has made a discovery that changes the lives of everyone on the planet – a test that unequivocally tells you who your soulmate is.

7.9

Inspector George Gently

Crime drama set in the 1960s about an old-school detective trying to come to terms with a time when the lines between the police and criminals have become blurred.

6.8

Fortitude

Fortitude is a place like nowhere else. Although surrounded by the savage beauty of the Arctic landscape, Fortitude is one of the safest towns on earth. There has never been a violent crime here. Until now. In such a close-knit community a murder touches everyone and the unsettling, mysterious horror of this crime threatens the future of the town itself.

7.6

The Street

Anthology drama following the lives and passions of neighbors on a northern English street.

7.0

The Lakes

The Lakes is a mystery drama created and written by Jimmy McGovern for BBC1. The first series – comprised of four episodes – broadcast from 14 September to 5 October 1997. A second series of ten episodes ran from 10 January to 14 March 1999. Danny Kavanagh leaves Liverpool for the Lake District, finding work at a hotel and love with a local girl named Emma. Yet Danny remains an outsider in the close-knit community, and through the machinations of fate, he finds himself implicated in a tragedy. The secrets, lies, and crimes, of the seemingly tranquil community continue to be revealed.

7.2

Boat Story

Two hard-up strangers stumble across a haul of cocaine on a shipwrecked boat. After agreeing to sell it and split the cash, they become entangled with police, masked hitmen, and a sharp-suited gangster known as 'The Tailor'.

6.6

New Street Law

Follows two rival barristers' chambers in Manchester, England, contrasting defence Jack Roper's struggling firm with his former mentor, prosecutor Laurence Scammel's more established chambers, and exploring their personal and professional rivalry through complex legal cases.

6.5

Strangers

A sheltered London professor attempts to uncover the cause of his wife’s mysterious death in Hong Kong, traveling there after discovering she died in a car accident on the mountain roads of Tai Po.

5.7

Bedlam

Welcome to Bedlam Heights. Converted from an imposing former lunatic asylum, this apartment building offers the ultimate in stylish 21st century urban living. But little do its new residents suspect that behind the luxury fittings lay unimaginable horrors.

7.2

Linda Green

Linda's a Manchester girl, born and bred. She's in her early 30s and the friends she has now are the same friends she's had since primary school. By day she potters around in Craven Lane Motors selling cars and flirting with mechanics. But when night time comes around she can usually be found singing her heart out on stage at the Lee Lane Social Club. Her best friend Michelle may be settled and happy with her boyfriend and kids, but Linda's single and loving it. She may not have found Mr Right just yet, but she's having a whale of a time while she's looking.

5.7

Decline and Fall

Paul Pennyfeather is an inoffensive divinity student at Oxford University in the 1920s who is wrongly dismissed for indecent exposure having been made the victim of a prank by The Bollinger Club.

6.8

Anna Karenina

In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation. A four-part British television adaptation of Tolstoy's novel.

6.4

Blackout

Daniel Demoys has gone from being an idealistic young man with a burning desire to make the world a better place, to a disillusioned and corrupt council official. His alcoholism has driven a wedge between him and his family. When Daniel wakes up after another drunken night, he realizes that he might be responsible for a murder. A dramatic act of redemption buys him public adoration, so much so that he has become a candidate in the race for Mayor, but as his public star rises ever higher and he tries to repair the damage done to his private life, he is painfully aware that it could all come crashing down at any moment.

5.1

The Turkish Detective

Inspector Cetin Ikmen, his partner Mehmet Suleyman and Detective Ayse Farsakoglu, solve crimes and experiencing euphoric highs and tragic lows. Each crime story is heavily rooted in the rich and varied culture and history of Istanbul and set against the vibrant, dazzling and frenzied world of modern-day Turkey.

6.2

Isolation Stories

A series of four short dramas depicting life in lockdown. Each episode will be 15 minutes in duration and will reflect what families are going through after weeks of isolation. The series will be filmed observing the strict rules of lockdown with actors and their families filming the scenes themselves watched remotely by the directors. Each of the directors — Paul Whittington, Paul Andrew Williams, Louise Hooper and David Blair — will be watching footage via their mobile phones and giving advice to the actors and their family members about camera positioning, scene composition and lighting as they record the scenes.

7.0

The Project

The Project is a BBC two-part 2002 television drama, directed by Peter Kosminsky from a script by Leigh Jackson. The series presented a fictionalised account, seen through the experiences of three young activists, of developments in the Labour Party and its progress into Blairism, from the party's failure to win the 1992 General Election through its election victory in 1997 to its re-election victory in 2001.

4.8

Boudica

The Celtic queen who shook the Roman Empire. Boudica is one of history’s first and fiercest women warriors. Sickened by ceaseless war, the king of the Iceni accepts a treaty with the Romans in exchange for his tribe’s continued independence. But oppressively high taxes impoverish the tribe and soon the Romans want something more — slaves. Refusing to submit, the Romans, led by the greedy and psychotic Emperor Nero, move to crush the Iceni and control their lands. Drawing on the strength of her warriors, mystical druidic powers, and her own pain, Boudica unites the historically fractious tribes of Briton to unleash a stunning onslaught on the Roman colonial camps. The ferocity of Boudica’s attacks will shake the foundations of the Roman empire and make her a legend.

4.5

Human Bomb

An unhappy male takes a classroom of children and their teacher (Patsy Kensit) hostage with a set of explosives strapped to his body.