Michael J. Bullen (born 13 January 1960) is an English screenwriter best known for creating the Granada Television series Cold Feet, which won him the Writer of the Year award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards. He wrote two more series for Granada; Life Begins, which ran for three series, and All About George, which ran for one series. His works have been described as being "about the intricacies of interpersonal relationships and what happens when they break down".
Bullen moved with his wife and two children to Australia in 2002. Two years later he directed his first short film, Amorality Tale. He co-created the Australian–UK television series Tripping Over in 2006 and the writer and director of the Australian television pilot Make or Break in 2007. He returned to producing work for British television in 2010 with the BBC pilot Reunited, and moved back to the UK in 2011.
Background Bullen was born in Bramhall, Cheshire.Simms, Sheryl (6 September 1999). "Just the job". Evening Standard (Associated Newspapers): p. 4.Wylie, Ian (23 September 2005). "By George! Rik is on a roll". Manchester Evening News (M.E.N. Media). Retrieved 17 July 2008. Bullen's father, Alex, was a chemical engineer, and his mother, Joan, was a housewife. Mike and his sister Jane were raised in Solihull, where he attended Solihull School. At the age of 18 he was accepted to Magdalene College, Cambridge, to read economics. He did not enjoy the subject, so switched to history of art. His first experiences of writing came when he was a child and wrote a newspaper for his neighbours. At Cambridge, he dramatised a Johann Wolfgang von Goethe novel.Comerford, Mary (31 August 2006). "Writing drama from the heart". The Stage. p. 26.
Following his graduation, Bullen began a career as a media planner buyer for an advertising company. The job did not excite him and he has described it as "pretty pointless". He quit the job to go backpacking in south-east Asia. On his return he applied for a position as a radio producer at Radio Netherlands Worldwide, having previously worked for a hospital radio.Laws, Roz (19 November 2000). "Write Stuff!". Sunday Mercury (Trinity Mirror): p. 50. He eventually began freelance work for the BBC World Service, where he was a presenter and producer for the magazine programmes On Screen and Outlook.Strenske, Bettina (September 1997). "Golden Rose of Montreux for Mike Bullen" . London Screenwriters' Workshop. Retrieved 17 July 2008.archived by the Wayback Machine, 13 February 1998
Career
1994–1997 In 1994, aged 34, Bullen began thinking about writing a television script, based on the idea that he could "write crap" on television. He was inspired in particular by the American television series Hill Street Blues (a show he "cancelled [his] social life for"McLean, Gareth (20 November 2006). "Mike Bullen's screen life". The Guardian (Guardian News & Media): p. 35.) and Thirtysomething. He began work on scripts for Pie in the Sky and Soldier Soldier but did not complete either.Bullen, Mike (29 October 2000). "Cold comfort fame". The Observer (Guardian News & Media): p. 2 (Screen section). To improve his writing skills, he took a writing course at the National Film and Television School, a comedy course by Anji Loman Field, and attended Robert McKee's STORY seminar.
He began writing another script, this time drawing on his American television influences. Believing that there was nothing on British television for people in his age group that was not a soap opera or a costume drama, Bullen wrote a script entitled The Perfect Match, about a man who proposes to his girlfriend using the screen at Wembley Stadium during the FA Cup Final. He secured an agent, who managed to sell the script on spec to Andy Harries, controller of comedy at Granada Television. Harries described the writing as "impressive—cleverly constructed dialogue, very funny, well observed"Carter, Meg (9 November 1998). "On Air: Our friends in the North". The Independent (Independent News & Media): p. 18 (features section). and commissioned it as part of his drive to move away from making traditional-style sitcoms. Bullen described the moment he walked onto the set of The Perfect Match as "gobsmacking [...] wandering around a room which had previously only existed in my head". It was broadcast on ITV in September 1995 to poor reviews.Stephen, Jaci (7 September 1995). "Soccer tale fails to hit the target". Daily Mirror (MGN): p. 1 (features section). "The Perfect Match didn't quite come off. The idea was good enough, but the writing was too cliche-ridden to do justice to it. The interfering mother is a well-known comic figure, and Mike Bullen's script added nothing to the caricature to make a unique character. The tabloid journalist was also a cliche [...] The romantic lines could have come straight out of Mills And Boon [...] It was watchable enough, and there were lovely performances from the central characters. Tighter script editing, however, could have turned a good drama into an outstanding one."
Harries was pleased enough with Bullen's work to ask him to pitch some more ideas to The Perfect Match assistant producer Christine Langan, who shared Bullen's desire to see more television directed at their age bracket. Bullen pitched the idea of a traditional "boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-wins-girl-back" story told from both sides of the relationship but using elements of fantasy and flashback to distort events to fit a character's point of view.Tibballs, p. 7. Harries accepted the pitch and Bullen began work on Cold Feet. Initially commissioned as a pilot for ITV's Comedy Premieres programming strand, the prospect of a full television series was given to Bullen. Cold Feets main character, Adam Williams, a lothario character and a serial monogamist, was based on Bullen himself during his twenties. The other main character, Rachel Bradley, was based on a combination of his ex-girlfriends and the "ideal girlfriend". Harries suggested that if a series were to be commissioned, more characters would be needed. Bullen developed a supporting cast for Cold Feet, basing each character on friends of his. The script for Cold Feet went through "six or seven" drafts before being filmed in 1996 and was broadcast in 1997. After a hiatus, it was commissioned for a full series. During the hiatus, he wrote a romantic comedy feature film script for Granada and developed a pilot for London Weekend Television, neither of which were picked up. The Writers' Guild of Great Britain presented to Bullen the award for New Writer of the Year at their awards ceremony in October 1997.
When he first started writing professionally, Bullen could not structure his scripting in a coherent way, adopting a "mix and match" method; he began by structuring a script on cards, then typing what he had onto a computer, then returning to the cards. After completing the Cold Feet pilot, he starting writing ten pages of script per day, regardless of the quality of the writing. His own third draft was usually submitted to producers as the "first draft".
1998–2003 Production on the first series of Cold Feet began in January 1998.Tibballs, p. 28. Bullen continued his method of developing storylines based on his life; he and his wife had their first child in the latter half of 1997 and he integrated their experiences into the storyline of characters Pete and Jenny, who have their first child in Cold Feets first episode.Tibballs, p. 18. Throughout 1998, he retained his job at the BBC, working on three radio shows per week at the same time as writing Cold Feet. During the second series he cut back to one show per week. By the time of the third series in 2000, he felt confident enough that he would have a future in television that he was able to give up radio presenting. He moved from his home in London to Cambridge, where he was able to write for two full days a week, at evenings and weekends.Smith, p. 9.
He worked on other projects at the same time as Cold Feet: After watching the 1997 docusoap Holiday Reps, he became interested in what happens in the personal lives of holiday representatives while in foreign countries. Out of this idea he developed Sunburn for BBC One.Rees, Jasper (17 January 1999). "Sun, sea, sand and ... Cyprus ". The Independent (Independent News & Media): p. 8 (Television section). Sunburn starred Michelle Collins and was broadcast for two series from 1999 to 2000. Bullen shared writing duties with Lizzie Mickery and Sally Wainwright. His inspiration from American television continued; following the premiere of The West Wing in 1999, he began outlining a British version, The Firm, that would be set in Buckingham Palace. The project never moved beyond planning stages because Bullen believed that British political issues such as "cod wars with Spain" are not as "sexy" as the issues covered in The West Wing.Bedell, Geraldine (17 March 2002). "The affairs of state". The Observer (Guardian News & Media): p. 10 (Observer Review supplement).
In 1999, Cold Feet was adapted into a series of the same name for American network NBC. He wrote the screenplay for one of the pilot episodes. At the same time, NBC and Granada Entertainment USA commissioned a pilot script from Bullen entitled Small Beer, which centred on a group of people who take over a microbrewery in the north-western United States.Dempsey, John (5 May 1999). "Granada, NBC toast deal for pilot of Small Beer". Variety (Reed Business Information). Retrieved 3 August 2008.
The third series of Cold Feet (2000) was extended from six to eight episodes by ITV. Bullen believed that the production team had covered all potential storylines in the first two series, so declined to write any more episodes. A team of five writers was hired by Granada Television, overseen by Bullen as a co-executive producer. Four out of the five writers left the team due to their scripts not being appropriate for the series, leaving only David Nicholls on the staff. Writing had made Bullen think twice about not writing and he began thinking about further storylines, such as mid-life crises and IVF. The same year, he signed a two-year contract with Granada to develop new projects. A fourth series of Cold Feet, also of eight episodes, was commissioned for 2001. Bullen announced that he did not want to write a fifth series, and that the fourth would be the last. His reasons were that with ITV's proposed commission of up to 20 episodes a year, the series would become like a soap opera.Wells, Matt (27 December 2000). "Cold Feet over a fifth series of hit show". The Guardian (Guardian News & Media): p. 9 (MediaGuardian supplement). The popularity of the fourth series persuaded Bullen to write four more episodes that formed the fifth series in 2003. The fifth series won Bullen the Writer of the Year Award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards.
In 2002, he began developing Life Begins, a one-hour television series. The following year he conceived George the Third.Jury, Louise (18 February 2003). "Best foot forward". The Independent (Independent News & Media): pp. 8–9 (Media section). He moved to Australia in 2002 but continued to work on UK-based series.
2004–2006