17 Facts About Paul Marquess

Paul Marquess was born on 23 June 1964 and is a television producer from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Paul Marquess's credits include Brookside, The Bill, Family Affairs, Hollyoaks, Crime Stories, Suspects and Hope Street.

Paul Marquess originated the idea for the series Footballers' Wives.

Paul Marquess currently holds the post of managing director of Newman Street, a label of Fremantlemedia.

Paul Marquess felt it lacked a hook until he saw Victoria Beckham on TV.

In 2002, Paul Marquess took over as executive producer of The Bill, with a clear brief from network bosses at ITV to shift the series away from stand-alone episodes to a more serialised format, in an attempt to attract a younger demographic.

However, Paul Marquess remained true to the spirit of The Bill's original 1983 pilot, "Woodentop", returning to an over-the-shoulder filming style.

In 2005, the show's consistently high ratings led to commercial interest from Channel 5, prompting ITV to offer an unprecedented five-year recommission until 2010, guaranteeing its place in the TV schedules long after Paul Marquess had departed TalkBackThames.

In 2003, Paul Marquess was promoted to Head of Drama at TalkbackThames and took over as executive producer of Channel 5's tea-time soap, Family Affairs.

In 2010, after a period developing new projects for Endemol and BBC Worldwide, Paul Marquess succeeded Lucy Allan as series producer on Channel 4's teen soap Hollyoaks.

Paul Marquess inevitably cemented his reputation as an "axeman" after culling 11 cast members as part of a major revamp.

In 2011, Paul Marquess stood down from Hollyoaks, but stayed on at Lime Pictures to storyline the second series of The Only Way is Essex for ITV2.

In 2012, Paul Marquess co-created the police procedural series, Crime Stories with writers Steve Hughes and Darren Fairhurst,.

In March 2018 Acorn TV commissioned Paul Marquess to produce a new UK based police procedural to show exclusively on its SVOD platform, the second of its original commissions for the channel.

In 2021, serial drama Hope Street, co-created and co-executive produced by Paul Marquess premiered on BBC One Northern Ireland, with eventual broadcasts on BBC One and Britbox.

Paul Marquess stated that his aim whilst creating the series was to make a long-running, local drama.

Metros Stephen Patterson reviewed the serial and gave it a four out of five stars, noting that Paul Marquess had succeeded in his aims for the series.