Louise Berridge
Encyclopedia
Louise Berridge is a British
writer
of historical fiction
. Before she became a novelist, she was best known as a television producer
and script editor
. The most famous post being the executive producer of BBC's EastEnders
between 2002 and 2004. During her tenure, the long-running soap opera received heavy media criticism and ratings slumped to just over 6 million viewers.
medical drama Medics, her big break came in 1993 when she became a script editor for BBC1
soap opera
EastEnders
, later going on to become the series story editor, where she worked on the highly successful storyline "Sharongate
".
In 1995, she left the popular soap to become a producer
. She started as a producer with video
drama, doing two series of Staying Alive, and then moved to film
drama. Her credits include Messiah, McCready and Daughter, Ambassador II, and an adaptation of Wuthering Heights
.
, Dennis Rickman
, Chrissie Watts
, Stacey Slater
and the critically panned Indian Ferreira family.
Berridge was responsible for some ratings success stories, such as the Alfie/Kat
love storyline, "Janine
kills Barry
", Jamie Mitchell
's death and the return of one of the greatest soap icons, "Dirty" Den Watts
who had been presumed dead for fourteen years. His return in late 2003 was watched by over 16 million viewers, putting EastEnders back at number one in the rating war with the ITV
's rival soap Coronation Street
. However, other storylines, such as a storyline about a kidney transplant involving the Ferrieras, were not well received, and although Den Watts' return proved to be a ratings success, the British press branded the plot unrealistic and felt that it questioned the show's credibility. A severe press backlash followed after Den's actor, Leslie Grantham
, was outed in an internet sex scandal, which coincided with a swift decline in viewer ratings.
On 21 September 2004 Berridge quit as executive producer of EastEnders following continued criticism of the show. The following day the programme received its lowest ever ratings at that time (6.2 million) when ITV scheduled an hour long episode of its rival soap, Emmerdale
, against it. Emmerdale was watched by 8.1 million people. When leaving EastEnders, her immediate superior Mal Young
(at the time BBC Controller of Continuing Drama Series) said Berridge "will now be involved in a major new drama project."
and writes full-time. Honour and the Sword was her first novel, reflecting a lifelong passion for history. The first of a planned series following the fictional life and adventures of André de Roland in seventeenth century France, it was published by Penguin Books
in April 2010. Honour and the Sword became an instant Sunday Times bestseller. A sequel, In the Name of the King, was published August 2011.
Website for Honour and the Sword
Interview with Historvius.com
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
of historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
. Before she became a novelist, she was best known as a television producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
and script editor
Script editor
A script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television programmes, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas with writers, ensuring that scripts are suitable for production...
. The most famous post being the executive producer of BBC's EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
between 2002 and 2004. During her tenure, the long-running soap opera received heavy media criticism and ratings slumped to just over 6 million viewers.
Early life
Louise Berridge read English at St Anne's College, Oxford. She worked first as a teacher before moving into the television industry.Television career
Louise started as script editor on Granada TelevisionGranada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
medical drama Medics, her big break came in 1993 when she became a script editor for BBC1
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, later going on to become the series story editor, where she worked on the highly successful storyline "Sharongate
Sharongate
"Sharongate" is the term used for a storyline in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, which reached its climax on 24 October 1994, attracting 25.3 million viewers. The plot was written by EastEnders scriptwriter, Tony Jordan. In the storyline, Sharon Mitchell confessed on tape that she had slept with...
".
In 1995, she left the popular soap to become a producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
. She started as a producer with video
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
drama, doing two series of Staying Alive, and then moved to film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
drama. Her credits include Messiah, McCready and Daughter, Ambassador II, and an adaptation of Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë published in 1847. It was her only novel and written between December 1845 and July 1846. It remained unpublished until July 1847 and was not printed until December after the success of her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre...
.
EastEnders
In January 2002, Berridge returned to EastEnders when she was appointed Series Producer of the show, and four months later she was promoted to Executive Producer. During her time there, she introduced characters, such as Alfie MoonAlfie Moon
Alfred William "Alfie" Moon is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Shane Richie. He made his first appearance on 21 November 2002, and left on 25 December 2005...
, Dennis Rickman
Dennis Rickman
Dennis Rickman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Nigel Harman. He entered the show on 14 April 2003 and made his last appearance on 30 December 2005, when he was fatally stabbed as the midnight fireworks began. He is part of the Watts family, though his...
, Chrissie Watts
Chrissie Watts
Christine "Chrissie" Watts is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Tracy-Ann Oberman. She first appeared in April 2004 as the second wife of the show's "most enduring character", Den Watts, becoming a prominent regular for the next 18 months...
, Stacey Slater
Stacey Slater
Stacey Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Lacey Turner. She made her first appearance on 1 November 2004. The character was introduced as a feisty and troublesome teenager, an extension of the already established Slater clan...
and the critically panned Indian Ferreira family.
Berridge was responsible for some ratings success stories, such as the Alfie/Kat
Kat Moon
Kathleen "Kat" Moon is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Jessie Wallace. She was also played by Kate Peck in a flashback in 2001. She appeared in the show from September 2000 to November 2004, then returned in May 2005...
love storyline, "Janine
Janine Evans
Janine Butcher is a fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders, currently portrayed by Charlie Brooks. Rebecca Michael originally portrayed the character from 1989 until 1993, when the role was given to Alexia Demetriou for three years. Brooks took on the role in 1999...
kills Barry
Barry Evans (EastEnders)
Barry Evans is a fictional character played by Shaun Williamson. He appeared in the BBC soap opera EastEnders between 1994 and 2004. The character was portrayed as a "buffoon." Williamson controversially left the serial after ten years in 2003 after executive producer Louise Berridge refused to...
", Jamie Mitchell
Jamie Mitchell
Jamie Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Jack Ryder, who made his first appearance on 9 November 1998. Ryder decided to leave in 2002, and his final episode aired Christmas Day 2002, when Jamie was killed off....
's death and the return of one of the greatest soap icons, "Dirty" Den Watts
Den Watts
Dennis Alan "Den" Watts is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by actor Leslie Grantham. He became well known for his tabloid nickname, "Dirty Den"....
who had been presumed dead for fourteen years. His return in late 2003 was watched by over 16 million viewers, putting EastEnders back at number one in the rating war with the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's rival soap Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
. However, other storylines, such as a storyline about a kidney transplant involving the Ferrieras, were not well received, and although Den Watts' return proved to be a ratings success, the British press branded the plot unrealistic and felt that it questioned the show's credibility. A severe press backlash followed after Den's actor, Leslie Grantham
Leslie Grantham
Leslie Michael Grantham is an English actor best known for his role as "Dirty" Den Watts in the soap opera EastEnders. He is also a convicted murderer, having served 10 years for the killing of a German taxi driver, and he generated significant press coverage as the result of an online sex scandal...
, was outed in an internet sex scandal, which coincided with a swift decline in viewer ratings.
On 21 September 2004 Berridge quit as executive producer of EastEnders following continued criticism of the show. The following day the programme received its lowest ever ratings at that time (6.2 million) when ITV scheduled an hour long episode of its rival soap, Emmerdale
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
, against it. Emmerdale was watched by 8.1 million people. When leaving EastEnders, her immediate superior Mal Young
Mal Young
Mal Young is a British television producer and executive producer.-Background:His initial career was in the Graphic Design industry, and it was not until the age of 27 that he began working in television, on the acclaimed Channel 4 soap opera Brookside.Working on the show for nearly a decade, he...
(at the time BBC Controller of Continuing Drama Series) said Berridge "will now be involved in a major new drama project."
Writing career
Louise now lives in St AlbansSt Albans
St Albans is a city in southern Hertfordshire, England, around north of central London, which forms the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans. It is a historic market town, and is now a sought-after dormitory town within the London commuter belt...
and writes full-time. Honour and the Sword was her first novel, reflecting a lifelong passion for history. The first of a planned series following the fictional life and adventures of André de Roland in seventeenth century France, it was published by Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
in April 2010. Honour and the Sword became an instant Sunday Times bestseller. A sequel, In the Name of the King, was published August 2011.
External links
Louise Berridge's websiteWebsite for Honour and the Sword
Interview with Historvius.com