[citation needed] From 1996 to 1999 he worked as administrator with the experimental theatre company Complicité[4] (where he met his wife Madeline), before leaving to become a full-time writer.

[citation needed] Chibnall's first short play was produced as part of Contact Theatre's Young Playwright's Festival in 1988, and was directed by Lawrence Till.

[5] While studying at college, he wrote two plays, Victims and Now We Are Free, which were performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and directed by Edward Lewis.

The play was shortlisted for the Meyer-Whitworth Award, and has subsequently been produced in various venues around the world, including a successful three-month run in Paris in 2004.

Chibnall was the only writer other than the show's creators to write for both series of the double International Emmy-award-winning BBC One police drama Life on Mars (2006–07).

During 2005, Chibnall was in charge of developing a proposed fantasy series involving the mythical magician Merlin for BBC One's early Saturday evening family drama slot.

Despite several scripts being written, BBC Head of Drama Jane Tranter eventually decided not to green-light the project,[10] although it later emerged, without Chibnall's involvement, as Merlin (2008–2012).

[11][12] In 2007, Dick Wolf and Kudos Film and Television selected Chibnall to become the show runner on ITV1's Law & Order: UK, a police procedural/legal drama based on the original US series.

ITV commissioned a second run of thirteen episodes,[14][15] but having set up the series Chibnall made the decision to leave the programme, to focus on other writing projects.

The series, a spin-off from Doctor Who, premiered on BBC Three in October 2006 to a then record-breaking audience for a non-sport programme digital channel broadcast in the UK.

Chibnall also wrote the second and fourth episodes for the seventh series in 2012, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" and "The Power of Three", as well as the online/red button exclusive Pond Life.

This previously happened in the 2010 special "The End of Time", when Moffat took over for Russell T. Davies in the final moments of the episode, writing Matt Smith's first words as the Eleventh Doctor.

[40][41][42] Some have further accused Chibnall's run of being too politically correct or "woke"; conversely, others have argued it promotes conservatism through its perceived messaging and portrayal of minorities.