Rob Shearman

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Robert Shearman (also credited as Rob Shearman; born February 10, 1970 near London, England) is currently best-known as a writer for Doctor Who and for his ongoing association with Jarvis & Ayres Productions (Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres) which has resulted in six plays for BBC Radio 4 broadcast in the station's regular weekday Afternoon Play slot.

Shearman was educated at Reigate Grammar School (where he was a contemporary of David Walliams) and University of Exeter. During this time, he was regularly seen on stage at the University in various productions, and made his broadcasting debut as the reporter Fergus McIntyre, reporting on University Radio Exeter (almost live) from Zagreb at the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest.

An established theatrical playwright, Shearman has worked with Alan Ayckbourn, had a play produced by Francis Ford Coppola, and has received several international awards for his work in theatre. His plays include Fool to Yourself, which premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 1997.

His association with Doctor Who began with a play written for BBV Audios, Punchline, in which Sylvester McCoy played the Dominie, a disguised version of the Seventh Doctor. This was penned under the pseudonym "Jeremy Leadbetter" (the name of a character from the popular BBC sitcom The Good Life). Several audio plays for Big Finish followed. He has also had Doctor Who short stories published.

Shearman wrote the television episode "Dalek" for the 2005 series of Doctor Who produced by Russell T. Davies for the BBC. This was, at Davies' request, a re-working of the themes introduced by Shearman's earlier Big Finish audio play Jubilee. However, he did not return to write a script for the second series due to other work commitments. "Dalek" was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form in 2006, and came in second in terms of votes for its category. Shearman provided an audio commentary for the episode on the Doctor Who – Complete First Series DVD boxset.

Other television work has included episodes of the 1950s-set rural drama Born and Bred, broadcast on BBC One.

Shearman also provided the initial script for the second series of the BBC 7 programme The Chain Gang: Picture This. The series was awarded a Bronze in the Sony Radio Academy Awards' "The Competition Award" category.^[1]

His first book, Tiny Deaths, was published by Comma Press in November 2007. It has been shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize^[2] and made the longlist for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.^[3]