Peter Harness

In 2018, Harness wrote for the crime drama series McMafia, about the Russian Mafia. In 2019, he wrote a new miniseries adaptation of The War of the Worlds for BBC One, produced by Mammoth Screen.

On 8 May 2015, the BBC press office officially confirmed Harness would be writing a 2-part story titled "The Zygon Invasion" and "The Zygon Inversion" (the latter co-written with Steven Moffat) for the ninth series of Doctor Who. The story sees the return of UNIT, Jemma Redgrave, Ingrid Oliver and the Zygons. He also co-wrote the seventh episode of the tenth series with Steven Moffat, titled "The Pyramid at the End of the World".

In April 2014 it was announced that he would be writing the seventh episode for the eighth series of Doctor Who, starring Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor. The episode is titled "Kill the Moon".

In November 2012 it was announced that he would adapt Susanna Clarke's novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell into a television series of the same name.

Aside from Wallander, Harness has worked on several other successful series. City of Vice, starring Ian McDiarmid and Iain Glen, was shown on Channel Four to critical acclaim. Harness (along with co-writer Clive Bradley) was nominated for a Writers Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Series. In 2011, he adapted Kate Atkinson's novel When Will There Be Good News? as part of the BBC1 series Case Histories, starring Jason Isaacs as private detective Jackson Brodie. Harness's episodes of the series won a Scottish BAFTA for Best Television Drama, 2011. Harness also adapted the fourth Jackson Brodie book, Started Early, Took My Dog for the second series of Case Histories, which filmed in Summer 2012.

He grew up in Hornsea, East Yorkshire and attended Oriel College, Oxford where he studied English. He is a former president of the Oxford Revue. He was one of Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow, 2007 and is a recipient of the Dennis Potter Screenwriting Award.

His first original screenplay, Is Anybody There? was filmed by award-winning Irish director John Crowley in 2007. The movie, set in an old people's home, starred Michael Caine, David Morrissey, Anne-Marie Duff and Bill Milner. It was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, 2008, and released theatrically across Europe and the US in 2009. Harness was nominated for a Writers Guild Award for the film.

In 2005, he adapted the M.R. James Short story "A View From A Hill" for BBC4. It was the first in a new annual series of BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas. Harness went on to write several other single films for BBC4, including a biopic of Frankie Howerd, Rather You Than Me, starring David Walliams and Rafe Spall, which was part of the Curse of Comedy season, as well as the Spanish flu drama, The Forgotten Fallen, starring Bill Paterson, Mark Gatiss and Charlotte Riley, which dealt with the efforts of a medical team in Manchester to combat the disease in 1918.

Mongoose, his first original stage play, was performed at the Southwark Playhouse in 2003 (directed by Thea Sharrock) and later at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh and the Trafalgar Studios, London. The text is published by Nick Hern Books.

Peter Harness (born 1976) is an English playwright, screenwriter and actor. He has contributed to programmes such as McMafia, City of Vice and Case Histories.