Piers Wenger

Wenger at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2011.

Piers Wenger (born 1975) is a British television executive who was appointed Head of Drama at Channel 4 in 2012. Prior to C4, he was Head of Drama at BBC Wales and an executive producer on the hugely successful reboot of Doctor Who where he cast Matt Smith into the lead role. As a producer, he closely collaborated with the late Victoria Wood over a decade on her dramatic projects. He produced her BAFTA and RTS award winning dramatization of Nella Last's diary Housewife, 49, collaborated with her on Loving Miss Hatto, Wood's dramatization of the life of the life of classical pianist Joyce Hatto and co-executive produced Eric and Eric, Peter Bowker's biopic of the young Morecambe and Wise in which Wood also starred.

At Channel 4, he has spear-headed the launch of a number of popular and award-winning drama series. In February 2015, Indian Summers, a period drama chronicling the last years of British imperial rule in India launched and recorded the highest overnight drama audience for a C4 drama in 20 years. No Offence, Paul Abbott's anarchic police procedural launched strongly later in the same year and won the Royal Television Society Award for best drama series. While Humans, Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley's sci-fi series, a co-production with AMC, became a significant ratings hit breaking the record set by Indian Summers earlier in the year. Topical mini-series also feature strongly in C4's current drama slate from Tony Grisoni's BAFTA winning Southcliffe to Jack Thorne's forthcoming mini-series about Operation Yewtree entitled National Treasure, starring Robbie Coltrane, Andrea Riseborough and Julie Walters as well as Peter Kosminsky's The State, which tells the story of four radicalized Brits who travel to Syria to live as a part of Islamic state.

While at the BBC he was responsible for commissioning Tom Stoppard's Parade's End and Kevin Elyot's dramatization of the life of Christopher Isherwood, Christopher and His Kind.

Credits

Producer

• Housewife, 49 (2006)
• Ballet Shoes (2007)

Executive Producer

• The Sarah Jane Adventures (2009)
• Doctor Who (2010–2011)
• Upstairs, Downstairs (2010)
• Eric and Ernie (2011)

References

External links

• Piers Wenger at the Internet Movie Database
• Lonely hearts, The Observer, 13 February 2005