Stephen Poliakoff, born in December 1952, was appointed writer in residence at the National Theatre for 1976 and the same year won the Evening Standard's Most Promising Playwright Award for Hitting Town and City Sugar. He has also won a BAFTA Award for the Best Single Play for Caught on a Train in 1980, the Evening Standard's Best British Film Award for Close My Eyes in 1992, The Critics' Circle Best Play Award for Blinded by the Sun in 1996 and the Prix Italia and the Royal Television Society Best Drama Award for Shooting the Past in 1999. His plays and films include Clever Soldiers (1974), The Carnation Gang (1974), Hitting Town (1975), City Sugar (1975), Heroes (1975), Strawberry Fields… (1977), Stronger than the Sun (1977), Shout Across the River (1978), American Days (1979), The Summer Party (1980), Bloody Kids (1980), Caught on a Train (1980), Favourite Nights (1981), Soft Targets (1982), Runners (1983), Breaking the Silence (1984), Coming in to Land (1987), Hidden City (1988), She's Been Away (1989), Playing with Trains (1989), Close My Eyes (1991), Sienna Red (1992), Century (1994), Sweet Panic (1996), Blinded by the Sun (1996), The Tribe (1997), Food of Love (1998), Talk of the City (1998), Remember This (1999), Shooting the Past (1999), Perfect Strangers (2001) for which he won the Dennis Potter Award at the 2002 BAFTAs and Best Writer and Best Drama at the Royal Television Society Awards, and The Lost Prince (2003), winner of three Emmy Awards in 2005 including Outstanding Mini Series. His most recent work for the BBC includes Friends and Crocodiles (2006) and Gideon's Daughter (also 2006) which won two Golden Globes and a Peabody Award in 2007.