Theatre writing Chibnall's first short play was produced as part of Contact Theatre's Young Playwright's Festival in 1988, and was directed by Lawrence Till. While studying at college, he wrote two plays,
Victims and
Now We Are Free, which were performed at the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival and directed by Edward Lewis. In 1998, he became Writer in Residence with GRiP Theatre Company, writing three full-length plays, including
Best Daze and
Gaffer! and several short plays. Chibnall's successor as Writer in Residence was Matthew Broughton.
Gaffer! was revived at
Southwark Playhouse in 2004. Chibnall took part in an attachment at the Royal National Theatre Studio in 1999, followed by a year-long attachment to Soho Theatre in 2000, which resulted in his play
Kiss Me Like You Mean It, produced at
Soho Theatre and directed by
Abigail Morris. Its cast included
Catherine McCormack,
Jason Hughes,
Marlene Sidaway and
Harry Towb. The play was shortlisted for the
Meyer-Whitworth Award, and has subsequently been produced in various venues around the world, including a successful three-month run in Paris in 2004. In February 2024, Chibnall's play,
One Last Push, premiered at
Salisbury Playhouse.
Television writing Chibnall's first produced script for television was the successful
monologue ''Stormin' Norman'', starring
James Bolam, made by
Carlton Television for
ITV. In 2001 he was approached, together with writer Nigel McCrery, to develop the format for a drama series which became
Born and Bred. With a cast including Bolam and
Michael French,
Born and Bred ran on
BBC One for four years from 2002 to 2005. Chibnall served as head writer and consultant producer (later executive producer), writing seventeen of its thirty-six hour-long episodes. Chibnall was the only writer other than the show's creators to write for both series of the double International Emmy-award-winning BBC One police drama
Life on Mars (2006–07). He was part of the production team who accepted the 2007 BAFTA Audience Award onstage at the
London Palladium. During 2005, Chibnall was in charge of developing a proposed fantasy series involving the mythical magician
Merlin for BBC One's early Saturday evening family drama slot. Despite several scripts being written, BBC Head of Drama
Jane Tranter eventually decided not to green-light the project, although it later emerged, without Chibnall's involvement, as
Merlin (2008–2012). In 2007,
Dick Wolf and Kudos Film and Television selected Chibnall to become the
show runner on
ITV1's
Law & Order: UK, a police procedural/legal drama based on the
original US series. Chibnall was the lead writer and executive producer, writing six of the first thirteen episodes based on scripts from the US series. ITV commissioned a second run of thirteen episodes, but having set up the series Chibnall made the decision to leave the programme, to focus on other writing projects. Chibnall also show-ran
Camelot, an adult retelling of the Arthurian legend for the
Starz network. It went to air early in April 2011 and was filmed in
Ardmore Studios near
Dublin. The show was cancelled after a single season, though again Chibnall claimed he had chosen not to be involved in the second series in any case, due to other writing priorities. In December 2013, Chibnall wrote a two-part dramatisation
The Great Train Robbery, which tells the story of the
Great Train Robbery on 8 August 1963. Coincidentally, the first part was shown on the same day that train robber
Ronnie Biggs died. In 2013, Chibnall created and wrote a detective series for
ITV called
Broadchurch, starring
David Tennant,
Olivia Colman,
Jodie Whittaker,
Andrew Buchan,
Arthur Darvill,
Pauline Quirke and
David Bradley. The series received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and audiences alike. It followed the story of the fictional seaside town of Broadchurch, struggling to come to terms with the possible murder of a young boy. Viewing figures peaked at nearly 9 million viewers in the finale. After a successful first series, a second was announced at the end of the first series, with location filming finishing in October 2014. The second series aired in 2015 and a third and final series aired in 2017.
Doctor Who Chibnall is a long-time fan of
Doctor Who, and appeared on the
BBC discussion programme
Open Air in 1986 as a member of the Liverpool local group of the
Doctor Who Appreciation Society, criticising
The Trial of a Time Lord (1986), especially the
Terror of the Vervoids segment. In 2005, Chibnall was appointed head writer and co-producer of science-fiction drama
Torchwood. The series, a spin-off from
Doctor Who, premiered on
BBC Three in October 2006 to a then record-breaking audience for a non-sport programme digital channel broadcast in the UK. The programme went on to win "Best New Drama" at the 2007 TV Quick Awards and "Best Drama Series" at the BAFTA Cymru 2007 awards. The series has also been nominated for both Hugo and Saturn awards. In the US, the programme has been broadcast on BBC America and HDNet, to critical acclaim. Chibnall wrote eight episodes during the first two series, including both series' finales, and the premiere episode of series two. He worked closely with
Russell T Davies across all aspects of the show's production. While working on
Torchwood, Chibnall also wrote the 2007 episode "
42" for the third series of
Doctor Who. He returned for the 2010 series, penning the two-part story "
The Hungry Earth" / "
Cold Blood", which reintroduced the
Silurians to the series. Chibnall also wrote the second and fourth episodes for the seventh series in 2012, "
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" and "
The Power of Three", as well as the online/red button exclusive
Pond Life. He also penned another short,
P.S., but it was never filmed, and was eventually presented online in storyboard format. In January 2016, the BBC announced that Chibnall would replace
Steven Moffat as
executive producer of
Doctor Who and would be the head writer and executive producer, starting with the
eleventh series of the revived era. Matt Strevens joined Chibnall as co-executive producer, after having also been an executive producer on
An Adventure in Space and Time. When discussing whether the next Doctor would be a woman, he stated in February 2017 "Nothing is ruled out but I don't want the casting to be a gimmick and that's all I can say”. After
Jodie Whittaker was announced as the
Thirteenth Doctor in July 2017, Chibnall said, "I always knew I wanted the Thirteenth Doctor to be a woman and we’re thrilled to have secured our number one choice." As with the last change of showrunners, Chibnall wrote the final moments of Moffat's last episode "
Twice Upon a Time", so as to allow him to write Whittaker's first lines on the show. This previously happened in the 2010 special "
The End of Time", when Moffat took over for
Russell T. Davies in the final moments of the episode, writing
Matt Smith's first words as the
Eleventh Doctor. On 29 July 2021, the BBC announced that Chibnall would be stepping down from his role as the showrunner of
Doctor Who, and Whittaker would be leaving her role as the Thirteenth Doctor. On 24 September 2021, the BBC announced that Chibnall would be succeeded by Davies, who would be returning as the showrunner of
Doctor Who. Chibnall's run as showrunner has been divisive among fans of
Doctor Who, receiving criticism for the scripts,
characterization, and the perceived
retcon of the Doctor's origins in the episode "
The Timeless Children". == Personal life ==