Although not necessarily a familiar name to the casual UK television viewer, John Yorke is among the country’s most successful writer-producers. Most notably, he has served as Executive Producer of BBC soap opera EastEnders across three separate stints, most recently from 2017 to 2019. One of John’s most memorable contributions to the show was Kat and Zoe Slater’s infamous “You’re Not My Mother!” scene from the early 2000s.
Additionally, John has also worked on the original UK versions of Shameless and Life on Mars, as well as Waterloo Road, Hustle and New Tricks.
Away from his television career, John Yorke also authored Into The Woods, a popular screenwriting book. Published in 2013, The Guardian described the book as taking a “scalpel to narrative structure – dissecting protagonist, antagonist, inciting incident, crisis and so on – before asking how and why this underlying shape still holds audiences spellbound like a fairytale witch.”
Thank you to John for taking the time to speak with Courageous Nerd.