Simon Ashdown
Simon Ashdown is a British television writer, best known as being a BAFTA award-nominated EastEnders writer.
Ashdown is currently series consultant and lead writer on EastEnders. He was involved in the creation of the Slater family, and along with other writers, developed the characters around the actors themselves, rather than the other way round. He created the character of Max Branning and has been responsible for numerous key episodes such as Ethel Skinner’s death, Stacey Slater’s bipolar and the who killed Archie storyline. In 2010 he wrote the twenty fifth anniversary live episode. More recent episodes that he has written include Pat Evans' death, Mandy Salter's second exit, Janine Butcher's temporary exit, the aftermath of David Wick's return and the Jake and Sadie reveal.
Alongside his work on EastEnders he also wrote and co-created, with Jeremy Dyson of The League of Gentlemen, the innovative drama Funland which was nominated for the best drama serial BAFTA in 2005. He wrote the two part drama Kitchen starring Eddie Izzard and Perfect for Film Four, directed by Rankin and starring Marc Warren. He’s worked on numerous other drama series including City Central, Casualty and has acted as story consultant on numerous productions including Crash Palace for Sky and Come Fly With Me for the BBC. He’s recently adapted Franz Kafka’s The Trial with Jeremy Dyson for the BBC.
The RTÉ series Raw is based on Kitchen, it is currently in its 4th season.