John Yorke

John Yorke is a drama producer, consultant and lecturer on all forms of narrative – from speech writing and advertising to drama. A former MD of Company Pictures where he Exec Produced Wolf Hall, he’s worked as both Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production. As a commissioning Editor/Executive Producer, he championed Life On Mars, The Street, Shameless, Father Brown, Waterloo Road, Our Girl and Bodies, as well as winning a BAFTA as Exec Producer of EastEnders in 2002. In 2005 he created the BBC Writers Academy, a year-long in-depth training scheme which has produced a generation of successful television writers. The author of Into the Woods – the best selling book on how and why we tell stories - John was for many years Visiting Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.