--- name: "Sam Bain" canonical: "https://film.one/person/sam-bain" fi1m_id: "sam-bain" imdb_id: "nm1095060" tmdb_id: 62948 wikidata_id: "Q7407134" roles: ["Writer","Producer"] born: "3 August 1971" reviewed_on_fi1m: 5 average_fi1m_score: 82 average_as: "writer" average_over: 5 updated: "2026-10-13T21:55:13.443811+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." --- # Sam Bain ## Identity Sam Bain - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/sam-bain - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** sam-bain - **IMDb ID:** nm1095060 - **TMDB ID:** 62948 - **Wikidata ID:** Q7407134 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Bain, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7407134, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1095060/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/62948 Writer and producer. Born 3 August 1971 in London, England, UK. ## Details - **Work:** Writer, Producer - **Born:** 3 August 1971, London, England, UK - **Active:** 2003–present - **Frequently works with:** [Jesse Armstrong](https://film.one/person/jesse-armstrong.md), [Simon Blackwell](https://film.one/person/simon-blackwell.md), [Tony Roche](https://film.one/person/tony-roche.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 82, as writer, over 5 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 91 (2), 2010s 84 (2), 2020s 62 (1) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 81 to 71 across 4 titles - **Score spread:** 3 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Genres:** Comedy 5, Drama 2, Action & Adventure 1, Crime 1, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 1 - **Screen time:** 2 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $6m across 1 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Bain, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7407134, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1095060/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/62948 ## Streaming the US now - **Apple TV:** [*The Thick of It*](https://film.one/tv/the-thick-of-it.md) (94), [*Time Bandits*](https://film.one/tv/time-bandits-2024.md) (62) - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Four Lions*](https://film.one/film/four-lions.md) (94) - **BritBox:** [*Peep Show*](https://film.one/tv/peep-show.md) (88) - **The Roku Channel:** [*Fresh Meat*](https://film.one/tv/fresh-meat.md) (74) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Sam Bain > Sam Bain makes the excuses people offer themselves painfully funny. We rate his writing with Jesse Armstrong highly, though *Peep Show* is best taken a few episodes at a time: the embarrassment can become exhausting. In *Peep Show* (2003), a man tries to look reasonable while his internal narration explains precisely how unreasonable he is being. Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong give the excuse enough time to sound persuasive before exposing its selfishness. David Mitchell’s Mark Corrigan and Robert Webb’s Jeremy Usborne are allowed to think things that a spoken exchange would conceal. We felt caught out by the series because their private justifications sounded unpleasantly familiar. The point-of-view camerawork makes it difficult to keep a comfortable distance from either of them. After sketches and children's television in the late 1990s, Bain and Armstrong built *Peep Show* around two people whose thinking could sustain far more than a sketch. Bain also wrote for *The Thick of It* (2005), a comedy we rate highly for making ministerial chaos both funny and unpleasant. His credits are often shared, and there is little value in guessing which writer supplied which insult. What we can judge in *Peep Show* is how carefully the jokes fit the men making them, even when the repeated embarrassment becomes tiring. In *Four Lions* (2010), Bain shares the writing with Chris Morris, Simon Blackwell and Armstrong, and the need for approval has more frightening consequences. Preparations for an attack become petty disputes among men who bicker, misunderstand and give way to one another. Morris directs a comedy in which incompetence never makes the men harmless; the writing keeps their reasons for following one another recognisable. We recommend it despite a middle stretch that repeats jokes already made, because their foolishness does not let us stop worrying about the harm they might do. With Armstrong, Bain co-created *Fresh Meat* (2011), extending their ensemble writing to university students, and wrote *Babylon* (2014), an hour-long comedy-drama whose pilot was directed by Danny Boyle. *Ill Behaviour* (2017), his first solo series, takes him into black comedy thriller territory. Those shifts give a sense of the work beyond the private narration, without diminishing what is so useful about hearing Mark and Jeremy think. Start with *Peep Show*; choose *Four Lions* if a comedy that leaves us uneasy sounds like a good evening. ## Biography Sam Bain (born 3 August 1971) is a British comedy writer and producer. He is best known for co-creating and writing the Channel 4 sitcom *Peep Show* (2003–2015) with Jesse Armstrong, on which he also served as producer. He contributed to the BBC series *The Thick of It* (2005). Bain attended St Paul's School in London and graduated from the University of Manchester, where he met his long-term writing partner Jesse Armstrong. With Armstrong he also created *Fresh Meat* (2011) and wrote the film *Four Lions* (2010, with Chris Morris). His other credits include *Babylon* (2014) and *Ill Behaviour* (2017). Bain comes from a family with connections to the entertainment industry; his father was director Bill Bain and his mother was actress Rosemary Frankau. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, theguardian.com.* ## On Fi1m (5) - *Time Bandits* (2024), Fi1m 62, Consulting Producer, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/time-bandits-2024.md) - *Fresh Meat* (2011), Fi1m 74, Creator, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/fresh-meat.md) - *Four Lions* (2010), Fi1m 94, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/four-lions.md) - *The Thick of It* (2005), Fi1m 94, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-thick-of-it.md) - *Peep Show* (2003), Fi1m 88, Creator, Writer, Producer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/peep-show.md) ## Complete filmography (24) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Time Bandits* (2024), series, Consulting Producer, Writer — Fi1m 62, [page](https://film.one/tv/time-bandits-2024.md) - *The Stand In* (2020), Executive Producer, Writer - *Corporate Animals* (2019), Writer - *Dead Pixels* (2019), series, Executive Producer - *What We Do in the Shadows* (2019), series, Executive Consultant - *Room 104* (2017), series, Writer - *Ill Behaviour* (2017), series, Screenplay, Executive Producer, Creator - *Babylon* (2014), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator - *Bad Sugar* (2012), Writer - *Fresh Meat* (2011), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/fresh-meat.md) - *Four Lions* (2010), Writer — Fi1m 94, [page](https://film.one/film/four-lions.md) - *The Old Guys* (2009), series, Writer, Creator - *Childrens Hospital* (2008), series, Writer - *Ladies and Gentlemen* (2007), Writer - *Magicians* (2007), Producer, Story, Writer - *The Thick of It* (2005), series, Writer — Fi1m 94, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-thick-of-it.md) - *Peep Show* (2003), series, Writer, Producer, Executive Producer, Creator — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/tv/peep-show.md) - *Seriously Weird* (2002), series, Writer - *The Story of Tracy Beaker* (2002), series, Writer - *My Parents Are Aliens* (1999), series, Writer - *Smack the Pony* (1999), series, as Additional Writing - *Days Like These* (1999), series, Writer - *The Queen's Nose* (1995), series, Writer - *Jonty*, Screenplay, Executive Producer --- © 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/sam-bain