Derek Wax | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | The Manchester Grammar School Balliol College,Oxford |
| Occupation(s) | Managing Director of Wild Mercury Productions,TV producer and executive producer |
| Known for | Sex Traffic - Producer Occupation - Executive Producer The Hour - Executive Producer Humans - Executive ProducerThe Rig - Executive Producer |
Derek Wax is aBritish television executive producer. His work includesThe Rig,The Sixth Commandment,Sex Traffic,Occupation,The Hour,Troy: Fall of a City,Capital,Humans,Lip Service,Tsunami: The Aftermath andFrom There to Here. He was a producer atGranada TV from 2001 to 2005 and an Executive Producer atKudos from 2005 to 2017.
Wax started his career working inLondon-based theatres before moving to theBBC to work in television production. He was an Executive Producer at Kudos from 2005 to 2017. He left Kudos to launch his new label Wild Mercury Productions in 2017.
Wax's first major work came as a producer of theBAFTA-nominated dramaFlesh and Blood forBBC2 in 2002. This was followed by the Channel 4 seriesSex Traffic, which won a number of BAFTA awards including Best Serial, also theRTS award for Best Mini Series, and thePrix Italia.
His first role as an executive producer came on the BBC andHBO mini-series,Tsunami: The Aftermath. In 2009, he produced the BAFTA and Prix Europa-winning BBC mini-series,Occupation. Since then he has been executive producer on theEmmy-winning andGolden Globe-nominatedThe Hour.
In 2015, Wax was executive producer of the BBC miniseriesCapital. Between 2014 and 2018, he was executive producer of three seasons ofAMC andChannel 4 seriesHumans. In 2020 he was announced as executive producer of the Amazon original seriesThe Rig[1], and of mini seriesThe Sixth Commandment forBBC One.[2]
Wax was educated atManchester Grammar School and graduated fromBalliol College,Oxford with a degree in English Language and Literature. His brotherKenny Wax is a theatre producer, whose productions includeThe Play That Goes Wrong andSix the Musical.[3]
His career began in theatre, starting as an assistant director at theGreenwich Theatre andAlbery Theatre on a production of Chekhov'sThree Sisters. He was a staff director at theRoyal National Theatre in 1989 and 1990, before working at a number ofLondon-based theatres where he directed numerous plays, includingIvan Klíma'sGames at theGate Theatre,Patrick's Day at theBattersea Arts Centre,No Remission at theLyric Theatre in Hammersmith andThe Life of the World to Come at theAlmeida Theatre.[3]
His TV career began in 1995 when he moved to BBC Drama Series and Serials as ascript editor. He script edited the two-partMinette Walters serialThe Ice House[4] and the Stella TillyardBBC/WGBH mini-seriesAristocrats.[5]
His debut as a TV producer came on the BBC seriesWaiting for the Whistle, which aired onBBC Choice. For the series he directed the TV filmThe King and Us, which was written byPeter Bowker and starredChristopher Eccleston,Siobhan Finneran andEddie Large.The film covered the story ofDenis Law's goal that relegatedManchester United from theFirst Division in 1974.[6]
Shortly after working onThe King and Us, Wax left the BBC to joinGranada television as a producer, while also working withRed Production Company inManchester. In 2001, he worked on a collaborative project for Red Productions and BBC Serials, which aired onBBC2. The single film,Flesh and Blood, was written by Peter Bowker, directed byJulian Farino and starredChristopher Eccleston. It received a number of awards including a BAFTA nomination for Best Single Drama.[7] Within the 12 months of its release, it won the Prix Europa for European Fiction Film of the year. Domestically, it also receivedRoyal Television Society awards, with Best Writer and Best Actor awards going to Peter Bowker and Christopher Eccleston respectively.[7]
In 2002, Wax produced Sally Wainwright's three-part mini-seriesSparkhouse for Red Productions andBBC One.[8] While at Granada, he worked as a script executive onHornblower and alsoPoirot. The third season ofHornblower also received an Emmy nomination.[3]
Wax developed and produced for Granada the 2004Channel 4 andCBCmini-series,Sex Traffic.[9] The two-part thriller, written by Abi Morgan, directed byDavid Yates and starringAnamaria Marinca andJohn Simm, told the story of two girls trafficked fromRomania to Britain and explored both the social and political aspects oftrafficking.[10] The show won the 2005 BAFTA award for Best Drama Serial, and won eight of the 15 BAFTA production awards on offer. It also won four RTS Awards.[11]
He joined the British production companyKudos in 2005. His first role as executive producer was on the mini-seriesTsunami: The Aftermath. The show starredTim Roth,Chiwetel Ejiofor andToni Collette, and was directed byBharat Nalluri. It aired on both the BBC andHBO.[12]
Wax was the executive producer on the single dramaWest 10 LDN, written byNoel Clarke and directed byMenhaj Huda forBBC Three in 2008. He also worked as executive producer on the Channel 4 sitcomPlus One, in 2009, starringDaniel Mays,Nigel Harman,Ingrid Oliver andSteve John Shepherd.
Also broadcast on BBC One in 2009, Wax executive produced the three-part drama series,Occupation, working with writer Peter Bowker.[13][14] The drama traced the fraught interwoven journeys of three British soldiers who take part in the invasion of Iraq and then return to Manchester, before being drawn back toBasra.[15][16] The drama featuredJames Nesbitt,Stephen Graham andWarren Brown, and was directed by Nick Murphy.[17] A year later,Occupation won the 2010 BAFTA award for Best Drama Serial,[18] aPrix Europa award for Best European Series[19] and a Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Serial.[20][21]
Later in 2010, Wax executive produced two seasons of the Harriet Braun created, Glasgow-based TV show,Lip Service, which aired on BBC Three.[22] StarringFiona Button,Heather Peace,Ruta Gedmintas,Emun Elliott,Natasha O'Keefe,Laura Fraser and Neve Mackintosh.
In 2011, Wax executive produced theAbi Morgan written drama series,The Hour, set in a BBC newsroom during the 1956 Suez crisis. StarringRomola Garai,Dominic West,Ben Whishaw,Anna Chancellor,Oona Chaplin andPeter Capaldi. It was broadcast onBBC2 andBBC America. It was commissioned for a second series but cancelled after the second series was transmitted.The Hour was also nominated for Best Mini-Series at the70th Golden Globe Awards.[23] Abi Morgan later won thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Mini-Series.[24]
Wax teamed up withPeter Bowker in 2014 for the three-part mini-series about the IRA bombing in Manchester, which was titledFrom There to Here. The drama starredPhilip Glenister,Morven Christie,Bernard Hill,Steven Mackintosh,Saskia Reeves,Liz White andDaniel Rigby.[25]
Shortly after, Wax worked as executive producer for the Channel 4 andAMC sci-fi seriesHumans.[26] The first series of the show, written by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley and set in a parallel present, explored the impact of a suburban family who buy ahumanoid robot.[27] The show quickly received acclaim in both theUnited States andBritain, withThe Guardian calling the show the "biggest drama hit in 20 years" for Channel 4.[28] Due to the show's popularity, it was renewed for a second season.[29]
In 2015, he was announced as the executive producer on the dramaCapital. It was based onJohn Lanchester's novel of the same name. The three-part serial was adapted by Peter Bowker for BBC One, was directed byEuros Lyn, and aired in November 2015.[30] It starredToby Jones,Rachel Stirling, Adeel Akhtar, Lesley Sharp, Wunmi Mosaku, and Gemma Jones. The drama won the InternationalEmmy Award for Best Mini-Series in November 2016.[31]
In early 2017, Wax left Kudos to set up the independent production company Wild Mercury underBanijay Group.
Wax continued in his executive producer role on Kudos' eight-part second series ofHumans which aired to critical acclaim onChannel 4 in October 2016.[32] Humans was recommissioned for a third season in 2017, and aired in June 2018 as a co-production betweenKudos and Wild Mercury Productions.
Wild Mercury Productions
Wax's first production for Wild Mercury wasTroy: Fall of a City forBBC One andNetflix, David Farr's retelling of the Trojan War, produced in association withKudos. Starring Bella Dayne, Louis Hunter,David Threlfall, David Gyasi,Jonas Armstrong, Lex King,Tom Weston-Jones,Frances O’Connor,Chloe Pirrie, andJoseph Mawle. The show won the 2019BAFTA Craft award for Best Special, Visual & Graphic Effects.
In 2020 Wax was announced as executive producer ofThe Rig, a six-part original supernatural thriller series forAmazon Prime Video, set on an oil rig in the North Sea. Written by David Macpherson, directed byJohn Strickland, the series was filmed in 2021. Cast includedIain Glen,Emily Hampshire,Martin Compston,Owen Teale,Mark Bonnar,Rochenda Sandall,Mark Addy,Calvin Dembar, Molly Vevers, Richard Pepple, Abraham Popoola,Stuart McQuarrie andEmun Elliott.
In February 2023 it was announced thatThe Rig will be returning for a second series.
In 2022 Wax also executive producedThe Sixth Commandment, a four-part true crime drama forBBC One, written bySarah Phelps, directed bySaul Dibb, starringTimothy Spall,Éanna Hardwicke,Anne Reid,Annabel Scholey, Ben Bailey Smith, Sheila Hancock, Connor MacNeil, Amanda Root and Adrian Rawlins.