Tony Jordan
| Tony Jordan | |
|---|---|
| Born |
21 July 1957 Southport, England |
| Occupation | Screenwriter market trader(former) |
| Nationality | British |
| Period | since 1989 |
| Notable works | EastEnders |
Tony Jordan (born 21 July 1957) is a British television writer. He was listed as the number 1 television screen writer in the UK by Broadcast magazine (2008) and among British Broadcastings Top 20 in The Stage (2009)., He currently resides in Hertfordshire, UK.
For many years, he was lead writer and series consultant for BBC One soap opera EastEnders. Jordan had written for the programme since 1989 including the 2008 single-hander "Pretty Baby...." and is considered to be an 'elder statesman' of the show, for which he has written over 250 episodes as of 2006[update].
Beginning his career as a market trader, Jordan began writing at the age of thirty-two. He joined Eastenders after sending a spec script to the BBC about market traders, with a covering letter saying he had been born and raised in the East End of London. The BBC turned down the spec script, but gave him a job on EastEnders because of his apparent life experience. Afraid of what would happen if the producers found out that he was from the north, Jordan kept up the pretence of being a Londoner for five years. He had left school with no qualifications. For his work in EastEnders, he is particularly known for creating the Slater family along with then producer, John Yorke. Amongst significant episodes he scripted are those featuring the deaths of Arthur Fowler and Ethel Skinner; the "Sharongate" storyline; and more recently Kat's revelation to Zoe that she was her mother, the Andy-Kat-Alfie love triangle, and Dot's monologue. He was the first writer to do EastEnders when it began airing three times a week, when the siege at The Queen Victoria took place in 1994. He continued to work on EastEnders through a period which saw a reversal in its hitherto declining fortunes, with the programme winning the Most Popular Soap category at the National Television Awards in 2005. He wrote the first two episodes (broadcast on 24 and 25 October 2005) for the return of the characters of Phil and Grant Mitchell, popular characters he had originally helped to create back in 1989.
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