Mark Gatiss

Mark Gatiss is a familiar name and face to fans of Doctor Who, having written two popular episodes since the programme returned to our screens – The Unquiet Dead and The Idiot's Lantern. He also narrates the current series of Doctor Who Confidential.

However, Mark's passion for Doctor Who began in the early 1970s when he was growing up in County Durham.

By his early 20s Mark had become one of the first Doctor Who fans to have a full original novel published by Virgin Books as part of their New Adventures range of Doctor Who books – namely Nightshade, in August 1992.

More novels followed for both Virgin and BBC Books - St Anthony's Fire, The Roundheads and Last of the Gaderene - plus several Doctor Who audio plays for Big Finish.

Recently, Mark's first non-Doctor Who novel, The Vesuvius Club, earned him a nomination for Best Newcomer in the 2006 British Book Awards.

Mark's talents weren't limited to simply writing though – he attended a drama club in his late teens, where he met Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Jeremy Dyson. Together they would go on to form one of the most successful and best-loved comedy troupes in recent history – The League of Gentlemen.

Starting off on stage and then progressing from radio to three massively popular seasons of sinister comedy-horror on TV, The League eventually stormed into cinemas with The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse in 2005.

Mark's also appeared in TV shows as diverse as Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Spaced, Little Britain, Footballers' Wives, Marple, and the 2005 live re-creation of The Quatermass Experiment.

He's currently working on a the life story of legendary TV cook Fanny Craddock, in which he plays Fanny's ever-suffering husband Johnnie, and a star-studded BBC adaptation of The Wind in the Willows.

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