Corrie writer profile: Simon Crowther

Sources: IMDB, Shots.net, itv.com, Wales Online

Simon Crowther (or Simon Crowther Jones as he’s sometimes credited) is the husband of ex-Coronation Street producer, Kim Crowther, pictured here. I bet tea-times in their house are fun. The couple have two children, Danielle and Jake.

Simon has an MA in Screenwriting, a BA in Film Studies and has worked as a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University.

Simon has written episodes of Hollyoaks as well as Coronation Street and in addition to scriptwriting, he’s also a director.

With two of his colleagues from the Street writing team, Damon Rochefort and Chris Fewtrell, Simon Crowther was commissioned to write pilot scripts for two new proposed ITV dramas this year; Stretch and Home Team.

Find out more about Simon Crowther from this interview in Wales Online:  "I was born at St. David’s Hospital in Canton in 1976 and brought up in Penylan. I went to Llanedeyrn High, which I still can’t spell! I went to the Northern Film School in Leeds, flirted with being a TV commercials director, but mainly tried to write screenplays. I became a TV writer for the regular work.

How did you get the gig on Coronation Street?
About seven years ago the then Corrie producer Steve Frost called me having read a comedy of mine at Granada, and offered me a place on the writing team. Jack Rosenthal, one of my heroes, started out on Coronation Street, and I’d always liked Tony Warren’s writing, and Harry Kershaw’s. Plus lots of my family are northern, so the warmth and humour was very familiar to me, the love of language, the tone of it. I’ve always felt at home on the show. You can write in your own voice.

What are some of the major storylines you’ve been responsible for on Coronation Street?
On Corrie, we often pitch stories on our own or in pairs, but then they’re hit around the conference room. Nobody takes ownership or sole credit for a story. I seem to have written a few deaths recently – Jack Duckworth’s, Schmeichel the dog’s, Betty’s funeral, but I don’t know why they’ve fallen to me."

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