Steven Knight on Making the Leap From ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ to ‘Dirty Pretty Things’ to, Eventually, James Bond

One of the most prolific writers and creators working today, Steven Knight‘s body of work includes the likes of “Peaky Blinders,” “SAS: Rogue Heroes,” “House of Guinness,” “A Thousand Blows” and, most famously (even though it’s not even started filming), the next James Bond film.

But, as many might not be aware, his first major breakthrough in the industry was as one of the creators of global smash hit TV game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” in the late 1990s.

This seemingly wild shift from quiz show phenomenons to hit dramas was discussed in a special conversation with Knight at the RTS London Convention on Tuesday, where he revealed that his secret at the time was having “two computers.”

While “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” was starting to make a splash, Knight said he was also writing radio and radio commercials, writing comedy for stand-ups (including British icons such as Frankie Howard, Ken Dodd and Jasper Carrot), and also writing novels.

“I’d had a couple of novels published, and at the time of ‘Millionaire’ I was writing a fourth novel, and it was going to be ‘Dirty Pretty Things,'” he said. “It was going to be a novel, but I was writing it in present tense, which is how you write a script. So I thought, ‘Well, I might as well do the script.”

That script wound up getting into the hands of Stephen Frears and turned into the acclaimed 2002 film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou.

“And then I was in. I went to Hollywood on the back of that,” Knight said, but noted that he was still “introduced in every meeting I went to as the man who helped make ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”

Nearly a quarter-century on and Knight is one of the most in-demand writers around, having recently been hired by Noel and Liam Gallagher to shape the Oasis tour documentary “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and by Amazon MGM to pen the long-awaited 26th James Bond film and 007 franchise reboot.

While Bond wasn’t outwardly discussed in Knight’s RTS talk, it was referenced as “the unmentionable thing,” with host Gaby Roslin asking him if it felt like a “heavy weight” on his shoulder.

“Not at all…. I’m not saying anything,” said Knight, who may have had his wrists slapped by Amazon after revealing recently that the first draft of the script was now finished. “But it’s a wonderful thing.”