Steven Knight
Steven Knight was born on 5 August 1959 in Marlborough and grew up as a citizen of the United Kingdom with English as his working language. He went on to study at University College London, a formative step before he moved into professional writing and filmmaking.
Knight built a career across several roles in the screen industry, working as a screenwriter, writer, film director, producer, and executive producer. That breadth of credits reflects a career spent on both sides of the creative and logistical divide — crafting scripts as well as overseeing productions. His work in those capacities brought him recognition from a number of industry bodies: he received the Edgar Awards, the London Film Critics' Circle award, and the British Independent Film Awards, honours that together point to a body of work spanning mainstream and independent production.
Knight's contributions to British screen culture were formally acknowledged when he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire. That appointment places him among a relatively small group of British creative professionals whose work has been recognised at a national level. As a living subject, Knight continues to be identified as a screenwriter, writer, film director, producer, and executive producer, and his CBE stands as the most recent concrete marker in the available record of his career.
Quotes by Steven Knight
When you think 'Peaky Blinders,' when it first began it got mixed reviews and people didn't know what to do with it, and it was like: 'Why is there modern music on this?' So I think whenever you do something different you're going to get that response.
I never map things out in advance. It would be better if I did and more economical in terms of time, but I've found that if you work out a plot line from beginning to end, at the beginning it becomes very rational.
There's a grown-upness about television now that wasn't there before. You do know you're doing stuff for adults who can tell the difference between right and wrong, well hopefully, and make judgements about violence. And with 'Peaky,' always if there is an act of violence, there is a consequence.
I love the BBC. I love working with the BBC. They leave you alone; they give you zero notes. It's like being on vacation.
No money has ever been spent on 'Peaky Blinders' in terms of publicity, there's no massive campaign - because it's the BBC you just get the trailers. But what's happened is people have found it for themselves and I think the loyalty is greater when people find than when they're told to watch something.
Some accents people - internationally - can't understand, also they come with baggage. London means a certain thing, Liverpool means a certain thing. Whereas with Welsh, he can be a middle-class man with working-class roots and still have an accent and it not be an issue.
Any attempt to recreate a world of 1814, or 100 years before that - I think it's important to understand that the people of the time had a different concept of what reality was. Their reality was much more haunted.
A funny thing about film is that it's the only medium where people say there are really rules that you have to stick to. Nobody says to the writer - in a film you've got to have three acts - there's a character arc you have to do - there's no reason that's true.
