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Philip Dalkin Philip Dalkin i(A114081 works by)
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Philip Dalkin is a television script writer, director, and producer, as well as the co-creator of several successful television programs.

Dalkin's first scripts were for Special Squad, a Crawford Productions' police procedural that ultimately proved less successful than previous Crawford programs. After this, Dalkin scripted the 1985 film Wills & Burke, a comedy that purported to tell the 'untold story' of the explorers (crediting them with, among other things, the creation of the idiom 'get lost'). After this and the 1988 drama Beyond My Reach (co-written with Frank Howson), Dalkin co-created (with Pino Amenta and John Powditch) the sit-com All Together Now, in which aging rock star Bobby Rivers finds himself the unexpected father of fifteen-year-old twins after their mother dies in a plane crash. All Together Now ran for four seasons and over one-hundred episodes, including episodes scripted by Shane Brennan (who would go on to create NCIS), Jan Sardi, and Steve J. Spears.

Dalkin's next two creations were The Bob Morrison Show (also created with Pino Amenta, as well as Alan Hardy and Jon Stephens) and Us and Them (created with previous collaborators Pino Amenta, Alan Hardy, and John Powditch).

In the mid to late 1990s, Dalkin wrote for programs produced by the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF), including Crash Zone, Legacy of the Silver Shadow, and The Genie from Down Under. Patricia Edgar recalls Dalkin as 'a scriptwriter who was willing to write tirelessly', though she also notes disputes with director Esben Storm over script alterations for Crash Zone (Bloodbath: A Memoir of Australian Television, Melbourne: Melbourne UP, 2006, p.328).

Dalkin has written for a number of animated children's television programs, the most notable of which is perhaps the multi-award-winning Dogstar, which (with the exception of a single episode) is written exclusively by Dalkin and co-writer Doug MacLeod. His first novel, Dogstar, is adapted from the screenplay of the television series and co-written with MacLeod. His scripts for live-action children's programs, other than those for the ACTF, include work on Heartbreak High and a number of programs from Jonathan M. Shiff Productions.

Dalkin's script-writing is not focused exclusively on television for children and young adults: he has also contributed scripts to Water Rats, Always Greener, All Saints, and Stingers, among other programs.

Dalkin has lived in Melbourne.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

form y separately published work icon The Deep ( dir. Trent Carlson ) Australia Canada : Nerd Corps Entertainment A Stark Production , 2015-2019 7810230 2015 series - publisher film/TV science fiction children's

Animated series about the Nekton family, deep-sea explorers.

For a full list of episodes and authors, see Film Details.

2017 nominated AWGIE Awards Television Award Children's Television – C Classification For two episodes: 'Beware the Sentinels' (Thomas Duncan-Watt) and 'Finn Comes Aboard' (Rachel Spratt).
2016 nominated Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards Best Children's Television Series
form y separately published work icon Get Ace ( dir. Gian Christian et. al. )agent Australia : Galaxy Pop Network Ten , 2013 Z1917866 2013 single work film/TV children's adventure

'Meet Ace McDougal... just your average, everyday nerdy school kid... Well he was, until he happened to be in the wrong dentist’s chair at the wrong time and accidentally said the secret codeword. Next thing he knew he’d been fitted with a set of top-secret, ultra high-tech experimental braces. From that moment on he’s catapulted - teeth first - into one oddball adventure after another! Now he’s the kid proving you’re never too nerdy to be cool!'

Source: Screen Australia.

2014 nominated Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards Best Children's Television Series
form y separately published work icon 33 Postcards ( dir. Pauline Chan ) Sydney China : Portal Pictures Zhejiang Hengdian Film Production , 2011 Z1784534 2011 single work film/TV Sixteen-year-old Mei Mei has dreamt of meeting her Australian sponsor and pen-friend Dean Randall and his "perfect family" for ten years. When her orphanage travels to Australia to attend a choir festival, Mei Mei disobeys the school leader and sets out to find him, navigating unfamiliar streets with the help of Carl, the charismatic son of a dodgy car dealer. When she discovers that the idyllic life Dean depicted in his postcards is far from the truth, Mei Mei remains tenacious in her efforts to connect with him.' Source: http://sff.org.au/films-container/33-postcards/ (Sighted 08/06/2011)
2011 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Community Relations Commission Award
Last amended 23 Aug 2012 15:22:28
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