Michael Wearing is one of Britain's most well­ respected and successful producers of authored serial drama, responsible for developing a string of award­ winning miniseries in the 1980s, including Boys from the Blackstuff, one of the landmarks in British television drama. His career in television began in 1976, when he was appointed script editor to the BBC's English Regions Drama Department in Birmingham. From 1980 Wearing was producing both single plays and series for the unit; he came into prominence in 1981 with the adaptation of Malcolm Bradbury's novel, The History Man.

     In the development of single plays BBC producers have enjoyed considerable autonomy and, following the trend in contemporary theater, Wearing was keen to commission socially challenging material. However, by the early 1980s, single plays were being squeezed out of the schedule, and their potential to create a social stir had diminished accordingly. Wearing's contri­bution to television drama hinges on his success in carrying over the progressive tendencies of the single play into the short series/serial-an altogether more difficult format to negotiate with management because of the higher costs and risks incurred.

     In Britain, the most celebrated of these programs was Alan Bleasdale's Boys from the  Blackstuff (1982), a five-part play series, which explored the impact of unemployment on a gang of asphalt workers in Liverpool. The hard-hitting program coincided with a rock­eting unemployment rate and gave voice to the despair of the 3 million people in Britain forced to go on the dole at the time. The series touched a vital nerve and stimulated a national debate on a major social issue like few other dramas before it.

     Wearing moved to London to play a substantial role in producing the last season of single plays on the BBC in 1984. He then began work on The Edge of Darkness, a nuclear thriller serial by Troy Kennedy-Martin. Once again the moment was highly opportune, as the program's transmission in 1985 coincided with widespread anxiety about the nuclear issue in the wake of Chernobyl and the deployment of cruise missiles. Subsequently the program was sold to 26 countries and proved to be one of the BBC's most successful exports to North America. Other award-winning programs followed, including Peter Flannery's Blind Justice series in 1988, which exposed the inadequacies of the British criminal justice system.

     Wearing became a head of department in the BBC Drama group in 1988 and was head of drama serials until 1998. The BBC serials product, much more than a conventional miniseries, is required to contribute to the prestige of the corporation. In the bureaucratic turmoil of the early 1990s, when the corporation was attempting to secure its charter renewal, there was considerable reappraisal as to how drama might best contribute. Under Wearing's stewardship the classic serial was reintroduced, and Andrew Davies's adaptations of Middlemarch and Pride and Prejudice enjoyed significant international success. However, Wearing also managed to preserve the space for socially engaged contemporary programs, such as The Buddha of Suburbia, Family, The Final Cut, and Peter Flannery's Our Friends in the North, an ambitious saga of friendship set against key moments in recent British politics. 

     By 1998 the transition from producer-led to consumer-led product in British TV was complete, and Wearing's position in the BBC had become untenable. He tendered his resignation. lashing out in the process at the "rampant commercialism" of top executives and their undue reliance on focus groups as a means of determining project viability. He continues to develop socially engaged contemporary material, working as an associate producer in the Anglo-Irish film industry.