--- name: "Mike Bartlett" canonical: "https://film.one/person/mike-bartlett" roles: ["Writer"] born: "7 October 1980" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "writer" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-17T19:39:59.803588+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Mike Bartlett Writer. Born 7 October 1980 in Oxford, England. ## Details - **Work:** Writer - **Born:** 7 October 1980, Oxford, England - **Active:** 2005–2015 - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Bartlett_(playwright), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6845972, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5411362/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1257471 ## Streaming the US now - **Apple TV:** [*Doctor Foster*](https://film.one/tv/doctor-foster.md) (75) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Mike Bartlett > Mike Bartlett came to television from the stage and brought its habits with him: one small domestic wound, a plot that tightens every hour, and no comfort at the end. *Doctor Foster* is the proof, and it is better acted than it is plotted. A blonde hair on a scarf. That is the whole of the first episode of *Doctor Foster* (2015), and Mike Bartlett gets five hours of television out of it. It is his habit: take one ordinary thing and hand it to a woman cleverer than the people around her, then let her pull at it until the house comes down. Gemma Foster is a GP, and Suranne Jones plays her suspicion as a clinical procedure, symptom by symptom, which is where the series gets most of its force. Bartlett writes women of every age with more than one dimension, and he writes them the trouble rather than the reaction to it. He began at the Royal Court with *My Child* (2007), then went to the National Theatre for *Earthquakes in London* (2010) and *13* (2011), large plays that put a family's quarrel and a whole city's crisis on the same stage. *Cock* (2009) was smaller and stranger. Television came with *The Town* (2012) for ITV, then *Doctor Foster*, which grew out of an adaptation of *Medea*, and that is the key to him. He likes the old forms, Greek tragedy especially, and he drops them into a modern kitchen without softening them. Since then there has been a *Doctor Who* episode, *Knock Knock* (2017), *Press* (2018), *Trauma* (2018), *Life* (2020) and *King Charles III* (2014), a play about a king not yet crowned, which later went to the screen. Rupert Goold and Clare Lizzimore have each directed his work more than once. The Greek habit is his strength. Nobody in *Doctor Foster* is let off, least of all Gemma, and the series declines to tell us whom to side with. We spent five evenings tighter in the shoulders than a programme about a marriage in a large light house had any right to make us, and by the end we were faintly ashamed of how much we had enjoyed the demolition. The reason is that Gemma knows exactly where the joints are, and Bartlett lets her use that knowledge. Ben Wheeler's bright, shadowless daylight suits him too: his people can see everything in their lives and still cannot tell what is true. The weakness is the machinery. Bartlett's plots are less careful than his heroines, and the town in *Doctor Foster* is smaller than any town, so that the right person is always in the right café at the right minute. Tom Vaughan directs fast enough that the questions do not catch up until the credits, which is a kindness to the script and a small cheat on the viewer. Bartlett has said he loves "those moments when there's a big drama or a TV show everyone is talking about, because it feels like we have got a community." He has made one. Start with *Doctor Foster*, and watch it with someone whose loyalty you are sure of. ## Biography Mike Bartlett is an English playwright and screenwriter. Born on 7 October 1980 in Oxford, he began writing for the stage with his first professional play *Not Talking* (2006) and his debut production *My Child* at the Royal Court Theatre in 2007. He later served as writer-in-residence at the National Theatre. Bartlett is best known for his television series *Doctor Foster* (2015–), which he created and wrote, and for writing the *Doctor Who* episode "Knock Knock" (2017). His stage plays include *King Charles III* (2014), which won the Olivier Award for Best New Play and was adapted for television in 2017. Other notable works encompass *Cock*, *Bull* and *Love Love Love*. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, theguardian.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Doctor Foster* (2015), Fi1m 75, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/doctor-foster.md) ## Complete filmography (12) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Ein Schritt zum Abgrund* (2023), series, Writer - *Life* (2020), series, Creator - *Albion* (2020), Writer - *Sticks and Stones* (2019), series, Writer, Executive Producer - *Press* (2018), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator - *Trauma* (2018), series, Writer, Creator - *King Charles III* (2017), Executive Producer, Writer - *Hampstead Theatre At Home: Wild* (2016), Writer - *Wild* (2016), Writer - *Doctor Foster* (2015), series, Creator — Fi1m 75, [page](https://film.one/tv/doctor-foster.md) - *The Town* (2012), series, Writer, Creator - *Doctor Who* (2005), series, Writer ## Awards ### Other awards — 2 won, 1 nominated - Tony Award for Best Play 2016: Tony Award for Best Play (nominated), for *King Charles III* - Richard Imison Award 2006: Richard Imison Award (won) - Tinniswood Award 2006: Tinniswood Award (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/mike-bartlett