Jon Plowman

Phillip Jon Plowman  OBE (born 1953 in Welwyn Garden City, England) has been a producer at the BBC since 1980, when he produced Russell Harty's chat show Harty. He moved on to executive producing at the BBC in 1986, working on sketch show A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and became head of comedy entertainment in 1994, mainly responsible for sketch shows.

Plowman was educated in Welwyn Garden City and at University College, Oxford,^[1] where was a member of the University College Players^[2] and made friends with others who went on to establish successful careers in comedy. One, Mel Smith, directed Plowman in a production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. After Oxford, Plowman followed Smith to the Royal Court Theatre, where he met the director Lindsay Anderson. Plowman worked in theatre for a while, then joined Granada TV.

He was responsible for producing and commissioning programmes produced in-house at the BBC, of which the greatest successes include The Office and French & Saunders. Plowman became head of comedy in October 2005, and now oversees the BBC's in-house comedy production, but no longer commissions programmes. In June 2007, Plowman announced he was quitting his post at the BBC after 27 years. He decided to become a freelance producer for other shows and hoped to carry on his relationship with the BBC, continuing to create programmes "for them and elsewhere."^[3]

In December 2003, The Observer named him in its list of the '50 Funniest or Most Influential People in British Comedy'.^{[citation needed]} On 14 March 2006, he was honoured with the 'Judges' Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Television' at the Royal Television Society awards.^{[citation needed]}

More recently he has moved into the world of theatre. He co-produced Lucky You, the Carl Hiaasen bestseller that is premiered as a theatre production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2008.^{[citation needed]}

Plowman was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to British comedy.^[4]

Programmes produced by Jon Plowman

• A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1986)
• French & Saunders (1987)
• Smith and Jones (1989)
• Bottom (1991)
• Absolutely Fabulous (1992)
• Kit and The Widow (1992)
• The Stand Up Show (1994)
• The Vicar of Dibley (1994)
• Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round (1998)
• Goodness Gracious Me (1998)
• The Ben Elton Show (1998)
• This Morning with Richard Not Judy (1998)
• BBC New Comedy Awards (1999)
• Gimme Gimme Gimme (1999)
• Let Them Eat Cake (1999)
• People Like Us (1999)
• Sir Bernard's Stately Homes (1999)
• The League of Gentlemen (1999)
• Bruiser (2000)
• Life's A Pitch (2000)
• Mirrorball (2000)
• Rhona (2000)
• The Nearly Complete And Utter History Of Everything (2000)
• The Office (2000)
• The Way It Is (2000)
• Tv to Go (2000)
• Victoria Wood With All The Trimmings (2000)
• We are History (2000)
• Aaagh! It's the Mr. Hell Show (2001)
• 15 Storeys High (2002)
• Celeb (2002)
• Cyderdelic (2002)
• Dead Ringers (2002)
• Grass (2003)
• Little Britain (2003)
• The Harringham Harker (2003)
• Doctors and Nurses (2004)
• Comic Aid (2005)
• Extras (2005)
• The Late Edition (2005)
• The Robinsons (2005)
• The Thick of It (2005)
• The Brown Couch (2006)
• Jam and Jerusalem (2006) executive producer
• The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle (2007)
• Beautiful People (2008)
• Psychoville (2009)
• Twenty Twelve (2011)
• Way to Go (2013)
• W1A (2014)

References

External links

• Jon Plowman at the Internet Movie Database
• Jon Plowman at the BBC Comedy Guide