Nigel Colin McCrery (born 30 October 1963, London) is an English screenwriter and ex-police officer.
Because of his father's RAF service, Nigel spent much of his early childhood travelling around before finally settling in Toton, Nottinghamshire. He attended Bispham Drive Junior School Toton, followed by George Spencer Secondary School, Stapleford, and Beeston College of Further Education, Beeston, Nottinghamshire. He married in 1978 moving to West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire. Together he and his wife Gill had three children, Luke, Emily, and Rebecca. Nigel and Gill are now divorced.[1]
He joined the Nottinghamshire Constabulary in 1978. During his service he worked on a number of murder cases and became interested in Forensic Science. McCrery retired from the police hurt in August 1987 before attending Trinity College, Cambridge in October of the same year reading Modern History. In 1988 he persuaded Seb Coe and Steve Cram to race around the Great Court at Trinity College, a race made famous in the film Chariots of Fire; Coe won by a whisker. The event raised of £50,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital. He also organised the first ever debate between Cambridge University and Harvard University once again raising a considerable amount of money for children's charities.
His daughter Emily McCrery now lives in London and works in Events, Rebecca has followed in her father's footsteps taking on a career in Media and Luke is a successful personal trainer residing in Nottingham.
He was selected for the BBC's Graduate Entry Scheme in 1990. After working on a variety of BBC documentaries including All The King's Men,[2] he joined the BBC drama department in 1992 becoming the researcher on the award winning Our Friends in the North. He then went on to create the series Backup (1994), Silent Witness (1995),[3] All The King's Men (1999), Born and Bred (2002), Impact (2003) and New Tricks (2005).[4]McCrery is now moving from TV into the world of feature films and is currently developing no less than six films including the adaptation of his book 'Core of Evil' to be filmed by Carnaby Films later this year. To be adapted by Gary Young (Harry Brown with Michael Cain) and directed by Julian Gilby (lonely place to die). He has also written several crime novels, Silent Witness (five books) Still Waters[5] (four books with two more to follow). Also written Under the Guns of the Red Baron, History of the VC, History of the SAS, All the King's Men (The Vanished Battalion) and Go Go Go - an account of the Iranian Embassy Siege in 1980 (To be published by Orion Books April 2010 for the thirtieth anniversary). He has also been commissioned to write two 'Francis Luke' books (World War I naval sagas) and two Indian detective books on the Indian detective Simon Favel. More recently McCrery has finished writing two new 'Silent Witness' short stories for Boxfiction both of which will be published in the middle of November 2011. He is also working on his first stage play 'Going Home' with his friend and writing partner Mark Zakarin. McCrery lives, at his homes between Cork Ireland, London, Italy and LA.
In 1992 while working as an Assistant Producer on the BBC1 show Tomorrow's World McCrery arranged and paid for the remains of the Russian Royal Family to be brought to the UK for DNA examination. The work was carried out by Peter Gill who with the assistance of the Russian Forensic Scientist Paval Ivanoff established that the remains were indeed those of the Tzar Nicholas II and the rest of his family. The remains were brought over in an old BA travel bag before being placed in the back of his Volvo and taken to Peter Gill's house. "Not many people" McCrery later joked "can say they had the Russian Royal family in the boot of their car."
He worked for HRH The Prince Edward (a friend from his Cambridge Days) from 2001 to 2002 as Head of Drama at Ardent Productions during which time he attended Prince Edward's wedding.