GB Films is

Jonathan Ruffle
Probably best known for creating, writing and co-producing TOMMIES
for BBC Radio 4, I write and work on feature films and comedy, too


Steve Wright in the Afternoon
How we changed British radio forever. Probably.

The book I had to write.  


‘There is no one better placed to explain how this radio magic happened, day after day, year after year.’ - SIMON MAYO

'This book could only have been written by one man. You see, he was there, in the eye of the hurricane that was Steve Wright in the Afternoon. That man is “Happening Boy” himself, Jonathan Ruffle. I for one am very pleased he’s set all this down: it's a wonderful journey back to another time. This is the book of how it actually was, the book that only Jonathan could’ve written.' -
PHIL CORNWELL, voice of 'David Bowie' and 'Mick Jagger'

'The people who really knew Steve Wright and who Steve Wright trusted could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Jonathan Ruffle was one of those. 
He created the Afternoon show on Radio 1 in partnership with Steve; it ran with various tweaks for nearly forty years on BBC Radio. 
 So, there isn’t a more accurate, better informed, more clinical, more hilarious story of an extraordinary man than this. I've had to duck a couple of times, because Jonathan adds to all this his observations of the strengths and weaknesses of his colleagues at the time - including his own. 
This will stand as the only authentic “True Story” of Steve, Jonathan his radio partner, and a long-gone era of British showbiz.' –
SIMON BATES

Available as a paperback and a Kindle.



Buy SWITA here

Tommies

Forty two episodes with me as showrunner.

"How lucky we are that Jonathan Ruffle's superb TOMMIES has become a regular Radio 4 fixture." - The Spectator

"Jonathan Ruffle's epic series based on eye-witness accounts continues to uncover less familiar aspects of war." - The Observer

"If this was a lesser drama, there would be a lot of chat about mud, death and the futility of war."
- The Times

"Every episode was heard by a million people. That's more than would fill all three theatres at the National for a year" - Jeremy Howe,  Commissioning Editor BBC Radio 4

Buy TOMMIES here

Peter Jackson's
They Shall Not Grow Old

I provided some of my 2014 recordings of the detonation of real WW1 unexploded shells from the Frenc h battlefields to WingNut Films for their Oscar -nominated documentary.

"The sound effects — gunfire, shelling, falling debris — are the movie’s best addition, helping to conjure the sensation of continuous bombardment, day and night." - The New York Times

"...a rich tapestry of background sound effects transports the viewer from training camps to battlefields..." - Mark Kermode, The Guardian
Buy TSNGO here How I Recorded the WW1 Shells

Stanley's War

I wrote the screenplay for this vivid feature documentary about Stanley Banyard of the 7th Battalion the Suffolk Regiment and his life in WW1. And I appeared as a historical ex pert quite a bit in it too.

"Stanley's War is a riveting and heartfelt story of two Suffolk families from two very different backgrounds and their harrowing experiences of World War One....not to be missed!" - Neil McGlone of Sight & Sound Magazine

Buy STANLEY'S WAR here

Her War

Her War - the first full-length libretto I've ever written, had its world premiere at the Tete a Tete Opera Festival in August 2021. Music by Edwin Roxburgh, soprano voice by April Fredricks, trumpet by Simon Desbrulais, and words by me. The audience recognised the strong similarities between the all-in-it-together nature of front line nursing, and the travails of the NHS fighting Covid. And the struggle the FWW nurses had to gain their pensions, oh so familiar with our current NHS trying to get more than applause. You can see a shorter version premiered in 2020 plus a Q&A, free and for nothing, here.

Watch HER WAR and the Q&A here

The War Just Outside Ipswich

Another script for Video East and Tim Curtis which premiered at the Riverside Cinema in November 2020 in Woodbridge.

Short Films

I've produced plenty of these with my colleague Andrew McGibbon over at Curtains For Radio, starring Daisy Haggard, Tony Gardner and Cyril Nri among many others. 

The Link To All My Work - well, nearly all

IMDb captures nearly everything, although it's a bit frustrating they list all those BBC radio shows as "podcasts". Still, that's a pretty high-class problem 
Galton and Simpson are on my News Page (I know, I know)
The First Ten Pages...under construction

Other Work

Here's a CV that goes through all my other work in more detail,  but you can click on the pictures for more information.

Here's that CV