Blog posts by year and monthDecember 2010
Posts (8)
Interview with Heidi Thomas
The legendary TV series Upstairs Downstairs has been brought back to life on ±«Óãtv One, in a three part series written by the award-winning Heidi Thomas (Cranford, Madame Bovary, Ballet Shoes). In October this year, Kate Rowland, the ±«Óãtv's Creative Director of New Writing, led a Q&A se...
The Nativity
How do you tell a story where everyone knows the characters, the sequence of events and the ending, yet still make it fresh? Hell of a brief for a screenwriter. The Nativity was a project that had me running round in circles for a while; I knew that I didn't want to be clever or contentious,...
Miranda
The writing process for Miranda begins with a vast amount of material: Miranda comes up with scenes, jokes, themes and ideas for plots, and writes them all on flip chart paper which is pinned up on the walls of an office. Then the first cohort of her writing team - me and James Cary - spend seve...
Accused: Kenny's Story
The idea for Kenny's Story came from a real incident. A flasher in the park. When I spoke to Jimmy McGovern about it he said it was a story that had always interested him so, after talking it through with Sita Williams and Roxy Spencer, the story grew from there. Having Kenny work in a crema...
Writersroom 10
We've launched a new programme - the Writersroom 10 - for emerging writers working with theatres. Writersroom has always run industry-wide partnerships to help find and develop talent - and new writing theatre remains a place where many many writers begin to (and continue to) develop and express...
Laughing Stock 2011
It's the last thing I need - new writers coming in, lots of them really young, being funny, showing us grouchy old hacks how to do it. I've got a family to feed, a fat mortgage to pay and a high maintenance dog. But I remember when I started writing, trying to focus on the work yet knowing th...
All Mixed-Up - End of part one
A packed and steamy Soho Theatre Studio saw the final of the All Mixed-Up competition at a showcase on Saturday night. An enthusiastic audience was joined by judges Freema Agyeman, Philip Hedley CBE, and Susan Nickson to see extracts from the six final scripts performed by a hard-working and ta...
Accused: Helen's Story
Helen's Story is part of Jimmy McGovern's series the Accused, each episode stands alone and starts with a character in the dock, the ensuing hour tells how they got there. I co-wrote Helen's Story with Jimmy McGovern, normally when I'm writing there are two nagging questions at the back of m...