SEAN HARDIE CURRICULUM VITAE
Sean Hardie was born in Northumberland in l947 and educated in Scotland and at Cambridge. He joined the BBC in London as a Graduate Trainee in l968 and worked for ten years as a Producer/Director in TV Current Affairs on 24 Hours, Panorama and Newsnight, covering assignments throughout Europe, the United States and the Middle East.
In l979 he moved to comedy to co-create and co-produce (with John Lloyd) 'Not The Nine O’clock News ', the programme which introduced Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith Pamela Stephenson and Griff Rhys Jones to British television. Other TV work includes six series of Channel 4's BAFTA- winning Bremner Bird and Fortune (writer/director/programme consultant), BBC2's The State We're In (writer/director/script editor), The Lenny Henry Show (BBC 1, director), the Barry Devlin/Sean Hughes adaptation of Flann O'Brien's The Signal Box (RTE, director), and a number of award-winning films for John Cleese’s Video Arts (writer/director) . In addition to BAFTA his work has also won the Silver Rose of Montreux, a US Emmy, and awards from the United Kingdom Writers Guild , the Broadcasting Press Guild and the New York and Chicago Film Festivals.
In l985 he moved to Skeoghvosteen, County Kilkenny to concentrate on writing, since when he has published three well-received novels : 'The Last Supper' (Michael Joseph/ Sphere/Simon and Schuster 'energy-charged, nervy...calculated to grip until the last gulp' - The Guardian - ' an efficient and slyly humorous thriller...original and convincing' - Time Out - 'Such a light touch does not come easy' - The Times) ; 'Right Connections' (Michael Joseph/ Penguin - 'topical, bright and often very funny,' - Mail On Sunday , 'sharp-witted documentary grit' - Sunday Express - 'Speedy, fizzy, credible and confident' - The Times) ;and 'Till The Fat Lady Sings' (Michael Joseph/ Penguin - 'within hailing distance of Graham Greene' - The Observer; 'an excellent thriller with a subtle comic touch' - Sunday Times). Seven of his plays have been produced at the Oran Mor centre in Glasgow, most recently 'Camino' for a sell out run in February 2020. He has been awarded residencies and/or bursaries by the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, the Heinz Foundation/Hawthornden Castle, The Heinrich Boll Trust (Achill), Cill Rialig , Chateau Lavigny in Switzerland and the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, where he was writer in residence for three months in 2009. He was also Writer In Residence in County Carlow in 2004 and 2005. He is a former chair of the Butler Gallery of Contemporary Art, Kilkenny and a founder member and chair of the Duiske Concert Season in Graignamanagh, County Kilkenny. He has been painting for ten years and held his first exhibition at Framewell Gallery in Thomastown in August 2015. He has since held solo shows at the Custom House Gallery, Westport in September 2017 and the Watergarden, Thomastown in February 2018. His work is also on show in the Mermaid Gallery, Inistioge. He continues to paint, and is currently at work on a new novel.
He lives with his wife, the poet and novelist Kerry Hardie, in Skeoghvosteen, County Kilkenny. He is an Irish citizen.