Derek Wax

Derek Wax is a British television producer, best known for his award-winning production work on Sex Traffic, Occupation, The Hour and Humans. Wax started his career working in London-based theatres before moving to the BBC to work in television production. He is currently an executive producer at Kudos.

Wax's first major work came as producer of the BAFTA nominated single drama Flesh and Blood for BBC2 in 2002. This was followed by the Channel 4 series Sex Traffic, which won a number of BAFTAs. His first role as executive producer came on the BBC and HBO mini-series, Tsunami: The Aftermath. In 2009, he produced the BAFTA winning BBC mini-series, Occupation. Since then he has been executive producer on the Emmy winning and Golden Globe nominated The Hour.

He is currently executive producer of the AMC and Channel 4 series, Humans and the BBC mini-series Capital.

Early life and education

Wax was born in Manchester, England. He graduated from Balliol College, Oxford University with a degree in English Language and English Literature.^[1]

Directing career

Theatre

His career began in theatre, starting as an assistant director at the Greenwich Theatre and Albery Theatre on a production of Chekhov's Three Sisters. He was a staff director at the Royal National Theatre in 1989 and 1990, before working at a number of London-based theatres where he directed numerous plays, including Ivan Klíma's Games at the Gate Theatre, Patrick's Day at the Battersea Arts Centre, No Remission at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith and The Life of the World to Come at the Almeida Theatre.^[1]

Television

His TV career began in 1995 when he moved to BBC Drama Series and Serials as a script editor. He script edited the two-part Minette Walters serial The Ice House^[2] and the Stella Tillyard BBC/WGBH mini-series Aristocrats.^[3]

His debut as a TV producer came on the BBC series Waiting for the Whistle, which aired on BBC Choice. For the series he directed the TV film The King and Us, which was written by Peter Bowker and starred Christopher Eccleston. The film covered the story of Denis Law's goal that relegated Manchester United from the First Division in 1974.^[4]

Shortly after working on The King and Us, Wax left the BBC to join Granada television as a producer, while also working with Red Production Company in Manchester. In 2001, he worked on a collaborative project for Red Productions and BBC Serials, which aired on BBC2. The single film, Flesh and Blood, was written by Peter Bowker, directed by Julian Farino and starred Christopher Eccleston. It received a number of awards including a BAFTA nomination for Best Single Drama.^[5] Within the 12 months of its release, it won the Prix Europa for European Fiction Film of the year. Domestically, it also received Royal Television Society awards, with Best Writer and Best Actor awards going to Peter Bowker and Christopher Eccleston respectively.^[5]

In 2002, Wax produced Sally Wainwright's three-part mini-series Sparkhouse for Red Productions and BBC One.^[6] While at Granada, he worked as a script executive on Hornblower and also Poirot. The third season of Hornblower also received an Emmy nomination.^[1]

Wax developed and produced for Granada the 2004 Channel 4 and CBC mini-series, Sex Traffic.^[7] The two-part thriller, written by Abi Morgan, directed by David Yates and starring Anamaria Marinca and John Simm, told the story of two girls trafficked from Romania to Britain and explored both the social and political aspects of trafficking.^[8] The show won the 2005 BAFTA award for Best Drama Serial. It swept the board at the 2005 British BAFTA TV awards, winning eight of the 15 production awards on offer, including the BAFTA for Best Drama Serial. It also won four RTS Awards.^[9]

He joined the British production company Kudos in 2005. His first role as executive producer was on the mini-series Tsunami: The Aftermath. The show starred Tim Roth, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Toni Collette, and was directed by Bharat Nalluri. It aired on both the BBC and HBO.^[10]

Wax was the executive producer on the single drama West 10 LDN, written by Noel Clarke and directed by Menhaj Huda for BBC Three in 2008. He also worked as executive producer on the Channel 4 sitcom Plus One, in 2009.

Also broadcast on BBC One in 2009, Wax executive produced the three-part drama series, Occupation, working with writer Peter Bowker.^[11][12] The drama traced the fraught interwoven journeys of three British soldiers who take part in the invasion of Iraq and then return to Manchester, before being drawn back to Basra.^[13][14] The drama featured James Nesbitt, Stephen Graham and Warren Brown, and was directed by Nick Murphy.^[15] A year later, Occupation won the 2010 BAFTA award for Best Drama Serial,^[16] a Prix Europa award for Best European Series^[17] and a Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Serial.^[18][19]

Later in 2010, Wax executive produced two seasons of the Harriet Braun created, Glasgow-based TV show, Lip Service, which aired on BBC Three.^[20] In 2011, Wax executive produced the Abi Morgan written drama series, The Hour, set in a BBC newsroom during the 1956 Suez crisis. It was broadcast on BBC2 and BBC America. It was commissioned for a second series but cancelled after the second series was transmitted. The Hour was also nominated for Best Mini-Series at the 70th Golden Globe Awards.^[21] Abi Morgan later won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Mini-Series.^[22]

Wax teamed up with Peter Bowker in 2014 for the three-part mini-series about the IRA bombing in Manchester, which was titled From There to Here.^[23]

Shortly after, Wax worked as executive producer for the Channel 4 and AMC sci-fi series Humans.^[24] The first series of the show, written by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley and set in a parallel present, explored the impact of a suburban family who buy a humanoid robot.^[25] The show quickly received acclaim in both the United States and Britain, with the The Guardian calling the show the "biggest drama hit in 20 years" for Channel 4.^[26] Due to the show's popularity, it was renewed for a second season.^[27]

In 2015, he was announced as the executive producer on the drama Capital. It is based on John Lanchester's novel of the same name. The three-part serial was adapted by Peter Bowker for BBC One, and aired in November 2015.^[28] The drama won the International Emmy Award for Best Mini-Series in November 2016.^[29]

In August 2016, Wax left Kudos and set up the independent production company Wild Mercury under the umbrella of Endemol Shine Group.^[30]

Wild Mercury Productions has a number of other projects currently in development, including the recently announced Cicero, an adaptation of Robert Harris' trilogy of political thrillers set in Ancient Rome – a co-production with Kudos – as well as a slate of contemporary dramas.^[31] It was announced that the first project from Wild Mercury Productions will be Troy: Fall of a City for BBC One, David Farr's retelling of the Trojan War, to be produced in association with Kudos.^[32] The series will be co-produced by Netflix.^[33]

Wax continued in his executive producer role on Kudos' eight part second series of Humans which aired to critical acclaim on Channel 4 in October 2016.^[34]

Credits

• The Ice House - Script Editor (1997)
• Aristocrats - Script Writer (1999)
• Waiting for the Whistle - Producer (2001)
• The King and Us - Producer (2002)
• Sparkhouse - Producer (2002)
• Flesh and Blood - Producer (2002)
• Sex Traffic - Producer (2004)
• Tsunami: The Aftermath - Executive Producer (2005)
• West 10 LDN - Executive Producer (2009)
• Plus One – Executive Producer (2009)
• Occupation - Executive Producer (2009)
• Lip Service - Executive Producer (2010-2012)
• The Hour - Executive Producer (2012-2013)
• From There to Here - Executive Producer (2014)
• Humans - Executive Producer (2015-present)
• Capital - Executive Producer (2015)
• Troy: Fall of a City - Executive Producer (TBA)

References