Firstly you may have noticed that we have a new name and a new look! From this week we’ll be known as ±«Óãtv Writers, losing the ‘Room’ suffix after 23 years of loyal service. Our rebranding is part of a bigger refresh across the whole of the ±«Óãtv which began back in October 2021 with core services including News, Sport and iPlayer. This is now being rolled out across the organisation. We saw this as an opportunity to revisit our name, which has tended to cause some confusion in recent years, as the  has become more familiar in this country. (There had also been an intractable problem relating to an apostrophe, but it’s better not to dwell on that … )

Regardless of what we are called, our core purpose - to find, develop and champion the best scriptwriting talent from across the UK and Republic of Ireland - remains the same.

With that in mind, a reminder that our next Open Call script submission window is open from next week (Tuesday 7th November) until noon on Tuesday 5th December. This is our main annual opportunity, open to all writers aged 18 or over and based in the UK or Republic of Ireland. Full details are here. The outcome for writers who are successful in the Open Call is the possibility of a place in one of two of our development groups, Voices which includes around 70 writers each year, is run from our six hubs across the UK, and lasts for six months or Scripted which lasts for 12 months and includes the creation of a new ‘spec’ script with the support of a professional Script Editor.

If you’re looking for advice for your Open Call submission, then watch our webinar from earlier this week .

Even if you don’t gain a place in one of our groups this time (and most of the writers in the groups have entered our Open Call several times before they gain a place) you still get on our radar, which can include invitations to events or opportunities. The most recent of these, ‘In Conversation with Jesse Armstrong’ took place last Friday in the Radio Theatre in ±«Óãtv Broadcasting House in London. Jesse is the brilliant co-creator (with Sam Bain) of shows including Peep Show and Fresh Meat and creator of the BAFTA, Emmy and Golden Globe winning Succession. The attendees included members of our groups and writers who reached the full-read stage of our last Open Call. They were enthralled as Jesse shared pearls of wisdom in response to questions posed by script-guru John Yorke and members of the audience. We also took the opportunity to interview Jesse for our website, so keep an eye out for that, coming soon.

Finally some news relating to our regionally-specific work.

Last week saw the release of the sixth series of The Break – our returning strand of dramatic monologues by writers who are new to broadcast. Watch all four episodes on ±«Óãtv iPlayer. For this series all the writers are from the West Midlands region and include writers who took part in our Coventry development group as part of Coventry City of Culture back in 2021. Hear from them about the experience of writing their episodes on our blog.

In the meantime, keep watching great new drama from the ±«Óãtv, including the second series of Time, which began last Sunday on ±«Óãtv One and is available on ±«Óãtv iPlayer. You can read and watch interviews with writers Jimmy McGovern and Helen Black (who gained her first scriptwriting break through one of our opportunities) over on our blog.

We’re looking forward to reading your work and will be back with our next update around Christmas.

Can you introduce yourself and your series Anfamol?

My name is Rhiannon Boyle and I’m the Writer, Series Creator and Creative Producer of the Welsh language comedy drama Anfamol produced by , which is an honest, hilarious and heartbreaking story about the reality of being a modern mother.

Tell us about the lead character in Anfamol, Ani ()

Ani is a strong, self-sufficient, successful, single feminist who has a seemingly perfect life. However, she has a very fractured relationship with her dysfunctional family. In the hope of filling a void inside her and finding unconditional love she decides to have a baby on her own by buying sperm for a sperm bank.

What compelled you to tell this story?

A few years back a friend of a friend had a baby this way. She told me when she was choosing the donor on the sperm bank’s website she’d gone through dozens of profiles of men. You get pages of data including - hair and eye colour, height, weight, temperament, hobbies, IQ, medical history, family’s medical history, handwriting, a voice recording, baby pictures - the lot! I found this fascinating. I did some research and interviewed some women who’d had a baby this way. One thing they all had in common is that they were fierce, badass and strong. I wanted to create a character that would embody these inspirational modern women.

What motivated you to write Anfamol? Were you particularly inspired/influenced by anything/anyone?

During the pandemic I was asked to pitch an idea to the theatre company and so I pitched this story - a forty-year-old woman surrounded by couples and families at her little sister’s wedding who starts feeling like a fish out of water and succumbs to societal pressures to have a child. She puts her heart, soul and all her savings into it, only to find that motherhood was not quite what she expected.

Anfamol was first performed at the , can you tell us how you found adapting your play for TV? Did you ever envisage that Anfamol could be a TV series?

I never thought it would be a TV series. I got lucky when the  Drama Commissioner came to see the play in and loved it. At the time I was working as a writer for the Welsh continuing drama Pobol y Cwm and one of the producers, who’d also seen the play, approached me and said she’d had a conversation with the commissioner about the show. She asked if I wanted to work with the team and develop the stage show into a TV series. It didn’t feel real to be honest. It felt like a dream. As a writer you have lots of promising conversations like this and most of them never come to anything, so I tried not to get too excited. And then a few months later my contract was signed, and we were in development.

What steps did you take adapting it from stage to screen?

The monologue was an hour and a quarter so what we found when we tried to stretch the original narrative over five half hour episodes was that there wasn’t enough story. So, we had to add new characters and new strands. That was hard, because the new bits couldn’t feel like add ons; they had to suit the world and be relevant to the themes.

It was so much fun bringing all the characters to life in the script. In the monologue we only get Ani’s version of all the characters but suddenly, they were fully rounded, three-dimensional beings inhabiting the world. Because Ani talks to the audience in the play, I wanted to keep that element of breaking the fourth wall, but it was tricky to work out who she’s talking to and why and to perfectly balance the ‘to cameras’ throughout the episodes. One huge change was moving the story from 2020 to the present day. In the play Ani tries to escape motherhood by going back to work but then lockdown hits and sends her into a deep loneliness and isolated state. We thought setting the TV show during the pandemic would be a bit stale, so it was about finding another situation to give us that total isolation, which I think we managed to do.

Anfamol was the first full-length Welsh-language play to be staged in front of a live audience after the pandemic, how do you find writing in two languages? Do you prefer writing in one over the other?

I’m a half Welsh, half English mongrel and I grew up in a fully bilingual family and home. My husband is also a non-Welsh speaker. My kids go to Welsh language school, so we speak Welsh, but when my husband’s around we switch to English (unless we don’t want him to know what we’re saying, that’s handy). Because of this I’m comfortable writing in both languages. In fact, I like mixing them up because that’s a true representation of the Wales we live in. That’s why Anfamol is about 80% Welsh, but I’d say about 20% of the scenes are in English.

You’ve been a part of a number of ±«Óãtv Writersroom schemes (Welsh Voices, Wales Writer in Residence and now Drama Room), can you tell us about any highlights you’ve had with your time with us? Or any pieces of advice/sessions that have particularly helped with your writing career?

Winning the ±«Óãtv Wales Writer in Residence was a real career changing moment for me. From then on, it’s been a real chain of events, suddenly people sat up and started emailing, calling, and asking for meetings. A highlight for me was an agent session we had with where I met my amazing agent Mark and got signed by United. Without winning that award I wouldn’t have been commissioned to write Anfamol the stage show, which led to the TV show, which will lead to who knows where if it’s a success.

At the moment I’m working on a brand-new English language pilot script MS I Love You through ±«Óãtv Drama Room. It’s a semi-autobiographical story about a young girl who must learn to forgive her estranged alcoholic dad when he’s diagnosed with MS. I’m working with an amazing script editor Kate O’Hara from and this experience has been invaluable. I’m no good at reading blogs or books on structure and narrative as I find them dull. I like learning through doing, which is why these ±«Óãtv Writersroom schemes work so well for someone like me.

Do you have any advice for any writers hoping to follow in your footsteps?

Early on send your scripts to friends or people you trust who know what a good story is and get them to tell you what they loved but also what they didn’t get or didn’t understand. Watch as much TV Drama as possible. Practice. I started by writing short plays for theatre scratch nights and would go along and see the actors reading my lines and I’d watch and gauge the audience's reaction. Submit your scripts to all the competitions, especially all the ±«Óãtv Writersroom call outs. Never give up if you love it and believe you have talent. You’ll get countless rejections but as Dory says in that fish film, ‘just keep swimming.’

The box set is available on  and iPlayer with English subtitles.

Can you talk a little bit about the inspiration behind the series?

Penelope: So, we were doing some research around con artists, and we learned that there was a strong correlation between the behaviours, patterns and tactics of con artists and how they operate on their victims and other kinds of abuse, for example domestic violence. And we wanted to write a story which explored that and which put the victims of that abuse at the centre.

Ginny: There are new ways of communicating now, but the way that we con people has basically stayed the same, because it’s about lying and convincing somebody that the world is different than it really is. This is something that happens quite a lot on social media, I think, which makes it quite a relevant story.

What about the title? It’s quite unusual, but it’s perfect. Who came up with that?

Ginny: We went through various options, but that one, which wasn’t our original title, was on the first page of the pitch that we brought to . After we’d been through a number of different titles, none of which quite worked, I think it was Naomi [De Pear] who suggested that we could just use the whole thing as the title. As soon as she mentioned it, it just sort of clicked. It seemed like a really fun idea, and it really fitted the show. It was there from the beginning, hiding in plain sight.

Can you tell us a bit about Alice and Cheryl’s relationship?

Ginny: Well, the problem with Cheryl - the fundamental flaw, in fact, with Cheryl and Alice, is that their relationship is based on a lie that Alice tells right at the start. And so, from then on, even though they are on the same side and working towards the same cause, trust is always going to be a big issue for them.

Penelope: Alice is in a kind of catch 22 as she feels if she exposes the truth about Rob to Cheryl, she may not be believed. So she goes down this path of using the tactics that maybe she’s learned from Rob himself in the past in order to try and expose the truth about Rob and ultimately help Cheryl.

So anyone is capable of conning, it doesn’t have to be as sinister as Rob. Would you agree?

Penelope: You could do it. You might not feel very good about yourself when you’re doing it, but anyone could learn the tactics. There are steps and patterns.

Ginny: But most people with any empathy would choose not to do it because of the damage.

Penelope: Which is part of the journey that Alice goes on in the show. When she sets out, Alice wants to right the wrongs she feels were done to her and her family in the past. But as things go on, she begins to realise the effect that it’s having on Cheryl. And I think she realises that Rob needs to be stopped entirely. When Cheryl finds out that she has essentially been betrayed by somebody she thought was her friend, there’s a moment when she has to decide what’s more important – whether stopping Robbie is more important than her anger towards Alice… you’ll have to see what happens.

The series addresses a variety of topics: family, trauma, depression. Can you talk a bit about some of these key themes?

Penelope: The trauma of being the victim of a con is something that we really wanted to explore, both as an individual and the family around that victim, and even the community around them. Because in the case of Alice, lots of people have given money to that scam, and they’ve persuaded other people to give money to that scam. So, it is very traumatising when you realise that you’ve been complicit in other people becoming victims. And we wanted to look at the trauma in the long-term of being a victim of a scam. It’s something that really can affect your self-esteem, your ability to trust other human beings. We wanted to show that relationship 20 years later, in a way, because this is something that is still affecting them: every day they are still living with the financial, emotional and psychological repercussions of this crime which happened to them, basically, which has never been prosecuted. That’s very common with this kind of crime.

And the cast, of course, is amazing. How involved were you in the casting process for this?

Penelope: Very involved. Lots of online meetings. It was very important to us to cast the three of them together because that triangle, if you like, is such an important part of the whole story, that they all fit together. And we feel very happy with how that went.

Ginny: I think like all really good actors, they take the character and take it to the next level so that they have now occupied our imagination as those characters, and we hear their voices as the voices of the character. Yeah, they’re great.

And the last question, why do you think audiences are so fascinated by crime for entertainment and con man stories? Do you think people take it seriously enough?

Penelope: Con artists break boundaries, don’t they? And they know how to beat the system, and that makes them successful in getting their aims and in achieving the goals.

Ginny: And in this story, Cheryl and Alice have to go outside their comfort zones, break some boundaries, and beat the system in their own way. And that’s what makes it interesting.

Penelope: I suppose that as a society, maybe we don’t take it seriously enough. I do think we’re becoming more aware of the impact of this behaviour on individuals. But it is still really difficult to prosecute, it is still really difficult to gather evidence.

Ginny: The police do take it seriously, but they are also aware of how little they can do. We spoke to the police when we were making the show, and they made it very clear that it’s very difficult to get enough proof, especially when these cons often don’t come to light at the time. It often takes a while for victims to realise that they’ve been conned. And then there’s a lot of shame about coming forward. So, that scene in the police station where Alice comes to terms with what’s happened to her and tells somebody for the first time is important, I think.

Watch The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies on ±«Óãtv One and ±«Óãtv iPlayer from Tuesday 29th August at 9pm

How did you get involved with The Sixth Commandment?

I was contacted by the ±«Óãtv who said they had been brought a really interesting story they would like to talk to me about. So I met with Executive Producers Derek Wax and Brian Woods and they then sent me a huge stack of material - I'm not kidding, it reached from the floor to my ribcage - which were the court transcripts, Peter’s diaries, the Thames Valley police investigation... They also sent me the documentary Catching a Killer: A Diary from the Grave which Brian executive produced. I remembered following the case as it was happening and I could feel it coming to life in my head as a story before I even started going through the research material.

What was it about this case that you found so interesting?

There were so many elements to it. I started out thinking that this was a really twisted, sad story which had a fairy tale quality to it. It’s about an English village into which walks somebody who is entirely predatory but who quickly becomes absorbed into the life of the village - the university, the church, and he was so good at camouflage that nobody saw the wolf's clothing.

It felt like one of those Hans Christian Andersen or The Brothers Grimm fairy tales which everybody thinks are really cute but they're not - they're terrifying. I felt that there was something quintessentially English in this dark, dark fairytale in the sense that you could live in this ordinary place, where everybody knows you, you’re surrounded by good neighbours, and yet you could slowly die in front of them and nobody would know what was happening or say anything. That seemed to me to be the story, that tension between public respectability and private yearning, a sexual desire that you can't speak about that’s at war with your religious beliefs. All those elements drew me to the project.

So it is as much about the victims as it is about the crimes?

It is - I’ve spent a lot of my career writing about murder, and I think the victim is always the most important element. One thing I didn't want to do was to glamorise the killer. A lot of TV programmes give you the sense that you're falling under the spell of the killer, who’s incredibly intelligent, with some grand plan, but I wanted to understand and honour the victims, to give them life and dignity. They were more than just Ben Field’s victims. That backstory was really important for me. Peter and Ann led full, vibrant, intelligent, educated, lives full of curiosity with families, friends, social lives, their love of poetry and theatre and their devout faiths.

Tell us about Peter’s journals and what they revealed?

It was Peter’s diaries that helped the police to crack the case and to identify Field as a killer. He wrote assiduously every day, right down to the smallest, seemingly ridiculous, most tiny detail. When he began to write about falling ill, he didn't know of course that he was writing about his own murder. This man spent so much of his time writing about how kind Ben was being to him, bringing him cups of tea - and how four hours later he fell down the stairs.

What about Ann’s private life?

Ann had also led an extraordinary life. She'd been a model, a teacher and a headmistress. It was vital to me to go beyond seeing a photo of somebody in the paper which is how you then remember them. But there's all the life they’d led before they died, filled with their kindness, their curiosity, their generosity, their open heartedness, their faith, all of which made them a target in this case. It was really important to convey all of that spirit, rather than let Field have the final word, if that makes sense.

There must be a fine line between writing an entertaining script whilst remaining respectful?

Really good TV does something other than entertain, inform and educate, all of which sounds rather dry. I think it draws you into a really deep, dark story which doesn’t just tell you what happened but also how it happened which is just as important. It's about drawing people in, making them really invest in the story. Of course, there’s a fine line to walk but you can't be sententious - you want to tell a love story, because that's what those people believed they were living. You have to understand them and how they might have fallen prey to this man's lies, you've got to make them come to life so that what happens is really shocking. You need to get right under these people’s skins, think about who they are, who they love and what their life means to them; Peter as he writes his diaries or Ann as she walks her dog and looks forward to her family visiting. It was a new experience for me. I didn't want to be prurient but wanted to imagine the richness of their long lives and what they hoped for next. That felt really important to me as a way of driving the story forward, because they were never going to get there now. We also worked closely with the victims’ families, and they had to trust that I was going to do right by their loved ones.

What is it about the story that will appeal to audiences?

I think the appeal is that ultimately justice was done. The trial took place in 2019 so it's very recent. We peel back the layers of that case, which very quickly became about how this young man tricked and inveigled his way into the spotlight. It's about understanding the human cost of this story, not just for Peter and Ann, but also for their families. It’s also about watching exemplary people doing their detective work and finally tracking down somebody who had done terrible things.

How would you sum up The Sixth Commandment?

It's a very emotional and frightening story in a kind of ordinary way. It makes you think about how we live in our own little worlds and what we value in life. We need to look more closely at the people we think we know and realise so many are vulnerable and full of hope. And we need to be more vigilant about the people who come into our lives.

Watch The Sixth Commandment on ±«Óãtv One and ±«Óãtv iPlayer

More interviews with the cast and team behind The Sixth Commandment

Tell us about Champion

Champion is about a brother and a sister. Bosco Champion – a rapper who’s been in prison for the last two years – and Vita Champion his sister. Vita is his long-suffering PA and has been doing everything for Bosco; running around after him, lying for him, covering up for him - everything a PA could do and more. Then you have their parents Aria and Beres Champion, they have their own history in the music industry too from ‘back in the day’, as we find out as the show goes on. Everyone in this family is so invested in music.

When Bosco comes back from prison the world has changed, and the world of music has changed, so what should he do? Vita has been behind the scenes keeping everything going, ready for him to come back. She wants to step up to be his manager now but Bosco wants her to just keep doing what she’s been doing.

Bosco also has a rival, a drill rapper called Bulla. Vita and her friend Honey sing with Bulla and he recognises Vita’s talent… and the show unravels from there.

What are the main conflicts in the series?

Bosco and Vita, obviously, but also their parents Aria and Beres Champion. They’re divorced but Beres is still very much inserting himself into the lives of these people. There is Beres and Lennox, Aria’s new partner, Bosco and Bulla - a musical rivalry. Honey and Vita are best friends who’ve been singing together since they were kids, but Vita makes some choices with their music that Honey isn’t very happy about.

We have so much conflict in every episode. When we were doing the writers room there was one point in the final week where I said we needed to keep a score system. That was the way I made sure every character had their fights and everyone had their wins, and their losses.

What makes this show and the music so special?

I think this show is special in its own right but the music is very close to me. I’m obsessed with music and I always have to listen to something. What got me into this show was the prospect of being able to make music. I’m not a producer but I know the producers and artists that I love, we’ve brought some of those people together to make an amazing soundtrack. Drill, rap, R&B, soul, neo-soul, reggae – we have so many things covered. That in itself was a challenge.

The music team is quite small; me, a music supervisor called Cat Grieves, music consultant Hattie Collins, and Ghetts. He joined as a music exec and writes all of Bosco’s raps working with his own producers. We have Ray BLK, in the show as Honey but also a song writer and music exec for the show, and some amazing music written by Debbie, plus Shola Ama - all of my musical dreams.

What are the themes of the show?

When I watch most TV shows, especially concerning young people I’m always thinking where’s the family, where did they come from? I think where we come from says so much about us. Even if your parents aren’t necessarily around they still make you - what does that absence do to you? When we were making the show I immediately understood that it’d be a family drama. Everyone in that family – Beres, Aria, Bosco and Vita – all have a place, a function and a role - even though the family is fragmented and fragments further throughout the show.

Everyone has to come from somewhere, I love family drama, writing about and observing families. My family in itself is very fractured but I’m always interested in that rather than being sad about it because I can see why it can happen. I can see why when people don’t talk to each other you can have massive rifts that last lifetimes sometimes. Putting that into my work is really important because family is so foundational.

Tell us about the link between the music and the drama?

I didn’t want it to be a musical in that someone breaks into song, I wanted you to see people making songs in their own right. While the song might not adhere to the situation at hand when we were briefing the songs we’d give the context of the storyline. Debbie wrote a song for Vita called My Ones, it’s about hating everyone because they’re taking advantage of you. It doesn’t necessarily name characters but I wanted that feeling in the song and she did such an amazing job. My job overall was to create a sonic world and decide if everything fits.

With Ghetts for example, sometimes we’d give him the brief or sometimes he’d send a song as a suggestion. When Ghetts sent a freestyle we rewrote an episode to have Vita helping Bosco write it, then Bosco recording it in the studio in a later scene.

You have to be very agile, it all works because I’m quite good at remembering the place of everything - where things should work and go. I think it’s because I write novels, you have to know where everything is in a story. I’m good at doing the jigsaw of what is going to work with what.

What are your favourite songs in Champion?

My first is the clash, which is actually four songs in one. It’s amazing and I was in every rehearsal for that because I was specific about it. It’s like a clash but also a rap battle, that’s my favourite musical moment. I really love Bosco and Rusty in episode four when Bosco goes to Birmingham.

Why should people watch Champion?

People should watch Champion because I think we’re doing something people haven’t seen before. Even though I’ve written it when I watch the cuts I get really excited. There is something about what happens with family and music, the heart and pain that comes together really beautifully in this show. We’ve packed so much good stuff into each 45 minutes and it looks really beautiful.

What is the show about for you at its core?

For me, it’s called Champion and it is about fighting because Vita is the person constantly fighting to be seen and to be heard – not just in family but in music, life and as a black woman, this is really important. Champion is about fighting just to exist and exist comfortably and happily.

What is unique about the music in Champion?

In most musicals someone is talking and you feel a song coming up because they’re about to gear up to it, but in Champion all the music is very specific, everything has a point and a place. I really like that we’re not breaking the wall of the drama. We’ve got all these amazing hybrid actor-musicians which is incredible.

The music in the show is written by Ghetts, Ray BLK, Debbie, Shola Ama and more. In terms of producers we have Nana Rogues, KZ, Ten Billions Dreams, Toddla T, so many incredible names. And we have a score being produced by Swindle who is an amazing producer.

And the series wasn’t always called Champion, right?

It was named Star for a while and then I was playing table tennis with Danielle Scott-Haughton - who is one of the exec producers - she won, I said ‘ah, champion’, and everything happened from there.

Who are your five musical GOATs? (Greatest of all time)

That’s really hard…! Chakka Khan, because there is so much emotion there. Ghetts, obviously, it’s been a dream working with him. Vybz Kartel, shady past but great lyricist. Little Sims, I think lyrically she’s absolutely incredible, one of my favourite rappers. The final one is Freddie Mercury who I think is the greatest performer ever to have lived.

Watch Champion on ±«Óãtv One and ±«Óãtv iPlayer from Saturday 1st July

More interviews with the cast and team behind Champion

±«Óãtv Sounds: Obsessed with... Champion - With the help of cast members and celebrity fans of the show, Radio 1Xtra presenter Remi Burgz gets into what makes Champion the ultimate love letter to Black British music

When Fiona Campbell (Controller of ±«Óãtv Three) said she wanted the next series of The Break to be from disabled talent we were delighted. We told our Writers’ Access Group (±«Óãtv Writersroom's development group for writers with disabilities), and called out to agents and leading disability Arts organisations. We asked for ideas for short films that might fit the brief.

The writers who sent the best ideas were invited to attend a one day workshop based around The Break in particular, and short-form storytelling in general.

We then developed some ideas further, working with the production company () who were going to make the five films. In the end, we all jointly settled on the five stories that went on to form Series 5 of The Break.

Three of the final five writers are from our first Writers' Access Group, and the writers of the other two were invited to join our current group, as were some of the others who got quite far through the process.

±«Óãtv Studios went on to interview disabled directors, and started the casting process for disabled performers.

Filming was held up due to Covid, and when we did eventually film in November we took stringent precautions. We could not risk any infections on the shoot, and managed to achieve that goal.

Socially distanced post-production was successfully achieved, with editors working remotely and sending though files for us to view. Some films went through various versions as we worked to tell the story in the clearest and most effective way. The final steps were in a post-production facility in Soho, with much hand sanitiser and mask-wearing, and limiting the number of people in each room at a time.

Everyone involved worked tirelessly on these films. and we all love the results – I hope viewers enjoy them too!

Today is Anne Edyvean’s last day as Head of ±«Óãtv Writersroom after six years. We’d like to thank her for her unstinting work supporting new writing and writers at the ±«Óãtv from across the whole of the UK and wish her all the best for her future endeavours.

Watch Series 5 of The Break now on ±«Óãtv iPlayer

For the first time all 25 episodes of The Break are now available to watch on ±«Óãtv iPlayer

Find out more about the writers of The Break series 5

Being a part of a big British-Asian family, you’re surrounded by characters of as many types as you can name, so a career creating characters was a natural choice for me! My screenwriting journey properly began in the spring of 2018 when a scheme popped up on the ±«Óãtv Writersroom website that I just knew I had to apply for. In collaboration with the ±«Óãtv Asian Network, ±«Óãtv Writersroom were commissioning a series of one-minute monologues on British-Asian themes. I was juggling a Screenwriting course, a part-time teaching job and a bartending job at the time - my work has always centred around the British-Pakistani and Indian communities I belong to, so the opportunity to create something with great collaborators like these two was one I couldn’t pass up.

I was over the moon when I was invited to a weekend workshop in Birmingham to develop a short piece I’d written about a wannabe entrepreneur called Moheez. The only problem? I’m a Londoner, and I had a full weekend’s worth of bar shifts that very weekend. I’ll never forget driving back and forth to Birmingham only a couple of hours after cashing up. Even though I was dog-tired, the whole team there were great, and I loved how my idea took shape over the course of the weekend to where it finally got commissioned. A few months later and Moheez Means Business became my first credit and was shown online and on big screens at Asian Network Live – definitely worth those car journeys and sleepless nights!

Having had such a great time working on the piece, I was super happy when Usman Mullan, from the team at ±«Óãtv Writersroom, kept in touch, inviting me to a workshop pitching sketches for C±«Óãtv’s Class Dismissed later in the year. It was my first experience producing work for younger audiences, and this proved invaluable when later, in the Winter of 2019, Usman got in touch once again with an offer to pitch for another monologue, this time for a teenage audience.

I’m not gonna lie, I scratched my head a bit when the brief came in. My school days were far enough behind me to have forgotten most of what it was like to be a teenager. But, talking to my younger cousins and remembering what I went through in my own time, I had an idea for a story about what is a rite of passage for many brown teenagers, your first shave! Shaving for the first time is daunting for anyone and your style of beard can define a lot about who you are a person. But anyone can relate to feeling awkward about growing up and finding their own identity. I knew I was onto something with Shahid’s First Shave, a 9-minute comedy piece that was commissioned as part of the project.

I worked with Usman to develop the pitch into a full-length script from early 2020, with a view to shoot in May of that year. We were halfway through the third draft when... like so many other 2020 stories, Covid got in the way. With everyone’s lives turned upside down by the pandemic, I understood when Shahid’s First Shave was put on hold, although I must admit, I was a little worried we’d never see it come to life after that.

The months of lockdown dragged on until, as things started to open up a little, I finally got news that our little monologue could go back into production. It’s never easy getting back into the rhythm of writing on a script you’ve left behind for a little while, and I was working with a new Script Editor, from ±«Óãtv Children’s, which meant that I had an almost entirely new set of notes. Add to that, we only had a few weeks to get the script perfect before it went off to the production team and we had to consider what can and can’t be done filming in the midst of a pandemic. Luckily, Luke was great and loved the idea behind the monologue, so we worked really hard, often with multiple drafts and zoom calls a week, to get the script to the best place it could be. Some of the notes were inevitably challenging, but when everyone gets the spirit and tone of what you’re trying to write they invariably make the script better, and I truly believe we delivered the best version of the script when it went into production.

From that point on, the writer’s job is mostly done! I did get the chance to talk the director, the wonderful and talented Raisah Ahmed, through the script, as well as watching a table read with our great actors over Zoom. In a way, I was glad I didn’t have the unenviable job of working out how to shoot our script with social distancing regulations in place. Somehow, they managed it, and seeing it come to life this November on ±«Óãtv iPlayer was truly joyous! In many ways, it was better than the vision I’d had pre-pandemic, so I was extremely impressed by the whole team behind it.

It’s been a great journey since that first monologue commission with ±«Óãtv Writersroom, as since then I’ve been privileged enough to secure a wonderful Agent, have three original TV shows go into development with top production companies and worked on numerous schemes such as Channel 4’s Ackley Bridge Shadow Script scheme and the Series Mania Writer’s Campus in France. I’ve been extremely lucky with my collaborators too, particularly at the ±«Óãtv Writersroom and cannot wait for more of my work to get out there!

Watch all 10 Sparks on ±«Óãtv iPlayer

Watch Shahid's First Shave on ±«Óãtv iPlayer

Watch more of the short comedies for Asian Network Live

These five contemporary films about life in Northern Ireland gave our brilliant and dedicated emerging writers (Jan Carson, Karis Halsall, Louise Nesbitt, Seamus Collins and Emily DeDakis) the chance to tell stories and tackle vital real life issues affecting young people here and beyond.

Developing these heartfelt, universal tales that could only come from here was a treat, and helping our writers to paint their picture of a contemporary and relevant Northern Ireland was a welcome and refreshing change. We are among the best storytellers in the world and we have more than one story to tell, hopefully these ambitious, arresting and unique pieces can break through and show that to as wide an audience as possible.

Thanks so much for the writers and their dedication and invention, to ±«Óãtv Studios and Artis Pictures for putting so much into making them, to NI Screen for their constant support and to ±«Óãtv3 and Drama Commissioning for the opportunity.

Keith Martin – Producer, ±«Óãtv Writersroom/ Executive Producer, The BREAK

This year's projects shone out with their empowering and unexpected points of view on provocative or sensitive subjects. As a modern showcase for Northern Irish talent and fresh Northern Irish stories, these films introduce audiences to unforgettable characters and contemporary stories, with universal themes. We strove hard to subvert and inspire and dare to dare. All the teams rose to the many challenges of making such ambitious stories on a low budget and the economies and focus to tell what was most vital in just six minutes. We all learned a huge amount along the way, on screen and off. The result we hope will be wonderfully unexpected to audiences, films that are revelatory in content and character. We congratulate all the teams for all their hard work and talents, which we had the privilege to support.

Kate Croft - Executive Producer, Artis Pictures

Karis Halsall - Writer: Clean 

The subject matter in CLEAN is currently a very divisive topic in Northern Ireland. It’s also something I have direct personal experience of, so working on it brought both private and public challenges. That said, my first take away from this would be - write the thing that scares you. It can be incredibly cathartic and rewarding.

Right from the offset I knew I didn’t want another maudlin, stereotypical depiction of a ‘victim'. It was really important therefore that I showcased my central character Kerry’s humour, despite what’s happened to her. Being a ‘victim’ doesn’t define her. Her character does. Kerry to me personifies the whip-smart wit, warm nature, wicked humour and resilience that define the people of Northern Ireland.

Coming from a theatre background, writing a five minute piece for TV was a steep learning curve. Thanks to Keith and my brilliant script editor Hamish, I quickly learnt that less is definitely more. TV holds your audience in a confined, intimate, close up space. You don’t need to use lyrical writing that’ll impact people sat at the back of the Gods.  It was a hard lesson in brevity!

The team at ±«Óãtv Writersroom were so incredibly supportive throughout. I always felt safe, heard and championed, which was vital when making work about something so personal.  They were always fighting for me and my story and I am so proud of what we created together. So often in the media, survivors are presented as nameless victims. It’s easy to dismiss a nameless victim and I’ve been surprised by the flippancy with how people have spoken about the issue. I hope in some small way, Kerry might make people re-evaluate their behaviour.

Watch CLEAN on ±«Óãtv iPlayer

Louise Nesbitt - Writer: Hot Mess

HOT MESS is a comedy about dating while mentally ill. After reading that about how almost half of all young people in NI have experienced mental health issues it felt important to tell a story that wasn’t about being cured but about finding joy in living. I wanted to show a character with mental illness who was funny and likeable and loved, the antithesis of what we normally see on screen.

For me the script development was the most important part of the process. Finding out how much better the development can make a script has changed the way I write. I’ve found that now I’m considering so many more factors from the very first draft and asking myself essential questions about every aspect of a script. Overall it’s made my writing much more robust and reasoned allowing me to assess what’s really important about a story.

From being on set surrounded by people with copies of the script that I had written to seeing my work on screen, the scale of it was completely surreal.

I am so grateful for the support of the ±«Óãtv Writersroom in trusting me to say something that I felt was necessary while also letting me really go all in with my Legally Blonde jokes.

Watch HOT MESS on ±«Óãtv iPlayer

Emily DeDakis - Writer: Last Night in Belfast

You rarely think about how it began once you’ve seen how it ends.

This tiny love story set in my neighbourhood, North Belfast, started as pure homesickness for 24-hour diners in Washington, D.C. Then realising that the only all-night places in Belfast are staffed by one person behind bullet-proof glass. The oddity of someone else shopping for you in the middle of the night. Questions about desire — wanting what’s on the other side of the window. What happens when you have no control over whether you go or stay? Early in the drafts, I described it to one of the producers as ‘a cross between St Elmo’s Fire and a deportation letter my friend got from the ±«Óãtv Office’. Unrequited love can be for a place too.

This is my first go at TV, and I learned tonnes. I had amazing support from Hamish, Keith & Anna at ±«Óãtv Writersroom and PJ, Kate & Steven the producers, not to mention the folks at the all-night petrol station next to my flat. Storytelling in this new-to-me way meant switching out all of my usual writing muscles (I’m mostly a prose person). Pitches and treatments became beat sheets and eventually scripts. Multiple drafts of all of the above. So many iterations of even something so small. Part of what I now love about writing TV are the many versions of this that exist for me as the writer: I remember the rejected titles, the things that were of course impossible to pull off in the shoot (songs, police vans, dogs, a sweeping shot of the Crumlin Road courthouse as Vivi sprints by), and what was added with Aidan’s and the whole creative team’s minds in the mix: the vintage sneakers, the headphones, the graffiti, and new emotional depth. I can enjoy how Vivi’s written lines lived and changed shape in Ana’s amazing voice. (It was her first time working in English. Total hero.) What I first imagined as kinda silly and cinematic became more polished, sweeter and darker — and yet also exactly what it started as, a tiny love story set in my adopted neighbourhood.

I’m really fortunate to be part of the ±«Óãtv Writersroom development group in NI, Belfast Voices, which is where I heard about this opportunity. There are so many deserving voices here; please listen to these here in The Break series, and seek out more. If you’re a NI writer, start something, get it out there and stick with it. Through all the many drafts.

Watch LAST NIGHT IN BELFAST on ±«Óãtv iPlayer

Jan Carson - Writer: Wings

The Break was my first experience of writing for television. I’ve written a number of pieces for ±«Óãtv Radio 4 and Radio 3 and love radio so much I’d never really considered screen writing as an option.

I’ve always heard that writing for television is incredibly competitive and difficult to break into and so I’m incredibly grateful to the team behind The Break for giving me a really fantastic -and I think- authentic experience of what it’s like to work with producers, directors, actors and all the various creatives who worked together to bring my script to life.

The Break was my first experience of writing for television. I’ve written a number of pieces for ±«Óãtv Radio 4 and Radio 3 and love radio so much I’d never really considered screen writing as an option.

I’ve always heard that writing for television is incredibly competitive and difficult to break into and so I’m incredibly grateful to the team behind The Break for giving me a really fantastic -and I think- authentic experience of what it’s like to work with producers, directors, actors and all the various creatives who worked together to bring my script to life.

I gained an incredible amount of insight into the world of screen writing through The Break. It was practical and hands on and there was always a team of more-experienced writers on hand to support me throughout the process. I learnt how to write more concisely, how to bring immediacy into my writing, how to take critique and direction, and above all, how to create within a team. I’m primarily a novelist and normally work by myself or with a single editor.

The opportunity to work alongside a large production team was a really invaluable creative experience for me and definitely something which I’d like to repeat in the future.

Watch WINGS on ±«Óãtv iPlayer

Seamus Collins - Writer: Bin Bagged

I have always said* that my three favourite types of people are underdogs (like Frodo Baggins), people who aren’t afraid to stand up to authority (like Muhammad Ali) and people who swear a lot (like Gordon Ramsey.) Therefore, it’s unsurprising that my first idea for The Break series 4 was about a tiny, hairy-footed boxer/political activist who travelled around Middle Earth improving restaurants (while swearing a lot.)

Thankfully, my next idea was better. Chloe – a young girl in foster care who makes a huge mistake at school and desperately tries to get away with it (while swearing a lot.)

I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to work with and learn from the many wonderful script editors, producers and directors involved in this project. They all gave me such great advice and help (while swearing a lot.) As Chloe became more and more developed, I realised that I have a fourth favourite kind of person – people who are lost and in need of help.

This is what I wanted to capture with Bin Bagged. I hope I have done that (while swearing a lot.)

*I have literally never said this.

Watch BIN BAGGED on ±«Óãtv iPlayer

WATCH ALL 5 EPISODES ON ±«Óãtv IPLAYER

Find out more about Series 1, Series 2 & Series 3 of The Break

You've published novels for many years (including the Booker prize-nominated Atlantic). What was different about the origins and publication of the Villanelle novellas?

The previous books I'd written (for Hutchinson, Atlantic and Puffin) were all published in the conventional, hard-copy manner. In 2014 I was approached, as were a number of more or less established writers, by an editor at Amazon, who were about to launch their Kindle Singles programme. The appeal of this idea to me as an author was that work would go online, and be available for sale as soon as it was completed.

I wrote on this basis, each around 15,000 words. I thought, right from the start, that the stories would make a good TV series, and deliberately shaped the stories as 'episodes'. It was in this form that the stories and characters were optioned by a London-based production company (). It was felt that the working title of the project should be based on Eve rather than Villanelle, and I came up with "Killing Eve", which would become the actual series title.

When commissioned the first series, several publishers wanted to collect the four Villanelle titles in a single volume, and publish them in hard copy. There was an auction, won by John Murray, and in spring 2018 the first volume of a projected Killing Eve trilogy was published under the title .

Would you describe your fiction writing as your ‘passion’ writing alongside ‘work’ writing? How do you divide your time between them or know which to prioritise?

I have always moved backwards and forwards between books and journalism. Each medium imposes its own constraints and disciplines. I've never prioritised one over the other.

Did you write the Villanelle stories with the idea of adaptation for television or film in the back of your mind? 

I've always written that way, and I think there's a degree to which contemporary literary sensibilities have been shaped by TV and film structure.

How did you decide on Phoebe Waller-Bridge to be the lead writer for the adaptations? What was it about her voice that made her the right person?

She was one of several writers suggested to me by , who runs Sid Gentle Films. When I saw Fleabag, then a stage play rather than the series it later became, I liked Phoebe's fearlessness and her oblique take on life. Her writing completely avoided any recognisable and hackneyed conventions which I really didn’t want to see applied to my characters and my work.

Have you ever written scripts yourself or would you consider this now?

I would consider it if it was absolutely the right project, but right now I have at least two novels to write!

Is it unusual for the writer of the original source book to be so involved in the scripting of the adaptation and if so why do you think it worked for Killing Eve? 

Writing the Villanelle stories involved a lot of research, plotting, and background knowledge. I spent a long time thinking about, and creating, Eve and Villanelle, and the details of their lives and their backstories. I've reported from Russia, for example, and I've written about the security services and have a working knowledge of that world and know some of those people. This is not stuff Phoebe knew about, and we talked about all of it at length - firstly just the two of us and then, in a more structured way, with the production team. The idea was never that Phoebe should reproduce the novellas as TV scripts - TV closely tracking fiction rarely works, the two forms are just too different in their natures and requirements - but that she should make Eve and Villanelle and their universe her own, and put her own unmistakeable imprint on them.

You must be delighted with the end result, with the actors who are involved and the reaction?

Of course, and the brilliant casting is a huge part of the success of the series.

What can you tell us about Series Two which we know is in progress? Is that an original story or based on your new novel which has just come out? Are you still so directly involved or is there a point in the process where the novel writer has to step away?

Series Two is completing filming now. We are into the last episodes. The series has been scripted by , and it's terrific. It's from an original story. My second novel Killing Eve: No Tomorrow has just come out, so Emerald and I were writing, in a way, in parallel. Same Eve and Villanelle, same universe, different adventures. It's not so much a question of my stepping away, as the author. I continue in my role as the person who created those characters, and Emerald and the producers continue in theirs as the people who take my idea and run with it, taking it to new places. It's a developing process. You'll be hearing more from all of us.

Watch the complete first series of Killing Eve on ±«Óãtv iPlayer

Developing and Producing the latest series of The Break in Scotland gave us the perfect opportunity to tell contemporary stories not only set here but about life here. All five of our selected writers (, , , and ) have worked tirelessly to create their own unique, thought provoking and compelling monologue that looks at love in all its various shapes and forms. I have to give special thanks to and the entire cast and crew who were brilliant throughout the process and were instrumental in bringing these fantastic monologues to life. We hope you enjoy them.

Angela Galvin, ±«Óãtv Writersroom, Scotland

There's nothing more exciting than working with passionate new writers who have such original voices. Huge thanks to the three very talented directors (, , ) across the shorts who have done a superb job of realising the vision of the writers from page to screen. I am so proud to have been involved with such talented individuals and I’m sure their innovative story telling will be a hit with audiences.

Gavin Smith, Producer

Meet the 5 writers and watch their episodes

You Really Got Me Going started after reading an article about male loneliness in Britain. I’d always thought of loneliness as a disease that happens later in life, not to 20-year olds. The more I began to research it, the more I realised this wasn’t just afflicting Britain, this is a worldwide epidemic.

From day one of creating The Break it’s been the most brilliant, rewarding experience. The support from ±«Óãtv Writersroom Scotland, especially the note sessions, pushed the project to a new and very exciting place that I don’t think I would’ve got to otherwise.

The day of filming itself was quite surreal. Nothing prepares you from being cooped up in a room with your laptop to be being out in the fresh air with lots of people bringing the story to life. It’s a lovely feeling!

Anita Vettesse

I'm interested in baddies. So the idea I originally pitched to The Break was just that: an exploration of a completely amoral character. A few drafts later and something happened to me that had never happened before: I got the same set of notes twice. So I chucked out my whole story. I kept the character and put her in a situation where the stakes couldn't be higher. I got through.

The entire team were gloriously, fanatically perfectionists. The Costume Designer Carole Fraser plucked the perfect costume from a vague note saying the character is 'neatly dressed' and director Raisah Ahmed saw right to the heart of the character and turned her into something real. I spent the day on set in astonishment as the character I made up stood there in the flesh. 

Grace Knight

I thought I stood no chance when applying for ‘The Break’. In fact, when I was selected, I cried and then I cried a bit more through sheer happiness.

Throughout the entire development process and The Comedy Unit have continued to nurture my idea, support me in its development and help me to break down barriers. Specific barriers that I had been struggling to break down on my own for years as a writer.

My idea focuses on the complexity of cultural, religious and sexual identity blending together. I wanted to showcase a character that deals with making a respectable, responsible and independent choice about their identity without self-destructing. Rather than it being a problem, my story was seen as ambitious and became a real labor of love for everyone working on it. 

Omar Raza

I’ve been a fan my whole life. My father is a Rangers fan as his father was before him. The passion for Rangers and is unrivalled, the baggage of hatred fuelled by religious division is as problematic as it’s ever been. Most fans are tired of the curious banners and unsavoury songs, an ever present background noise with little relevance to the modern football fan. Having recently moved to Swansea (a one team city) Glasgow’s ‘vocal minority’ has never felt louder. I was drawn to the imagined quandary that only in Glasgow would a young man be more concerned about telling his father what team his boyfriend supported than the fact that he was gay in the first place.

Seeing the script take shape and being present for the shoot itself was a fantastic experience. Through the development process it became obvious that as well as dealing with the negative side of , it was important to shine a light on the positive too. Glasgow has its problems with football, but with the most passionate fans in the world, most of whom are ready to leave the past where it belongs, hopefully one day that problematic monitory can be silenced.

Stewart Thomson

This is a story about a half-Chinese social outcast doing anything she can to pick some scraps from the feasting table that is the school social scene. It is a story about the comedy of desperation, loneliness and the impossibility of acceptance. Being half Chinese myself the viewer may lazily assume that this is in some way autobiographical, and make the knee-jerk, uninformed assumption that these are the sorts of sorry events by which my own school life was marred. They’d be absolutely right, of course. For that reason I have loved transforming these horrendous anecdotes into something enjoyable and of course therapeutic, in a way.

In this monologue we see Franny Wong trying desperately to get into a party, to which she has brought a bottle of (my favourite) dry sherry, in order to snare the man of her dreams, Ferdinand Trotter. (Disclaimer: All names and likenesses to real individuals are purely coincidental.) I am of course extremely grateful to the ±«Óãtv Writersroom for giving me the platform to vent my excruciating teenage angst and of course to give me as a new writer confidence, help and a writing credit!

Sophie Wu

You can also watch all 5 episodes of The Break plus Series 2 on ±«Óãtv iPlayer

Find out more about & of The Break

Can you tell us a bit about five by five and how you became involved in the project?

is five five-minute films that stand alone, but can also be watched back-to-back as one 25 minute film. I got involved because I was lucky enough to be working with on another project and he asked if I’d like to be involved in this one as well.

Idris was talking about themes that I was very interested in – looking at identity and perception and looking at those chance encounters that you have that can, you know, potentially change somebody’s outlook…or their day, at the very least.

It sounded like a great opportunity and, also, I’ve spent the last couple of years writing on other people’s shows and this was an opportunity for me to lead a group of writers and I hadn’t had that experience before, so it was a great opportunity to try something new.

What does the role of “lead writer” entail? And how did you feel about taking on that title?

It was slightly different to the normal thing you might have on a show, where you have a lead writer who has created it, written a first episode, storylined it and then, you know, you bring on other writers. With this we were certain about the themes we wanted to explore and we had an idea for the format of it, but it was much more up for grabs, in the writers' room, what was going to happen.

So it was a writers' room process?

Oh, definitely a writers' room process, yes. We got into the room, people had brought ideas, we discussed them and we, as a group of people, had to meet the challenge of creating something that would both stand alone as individual films, but would work together as one story and explore the themes and ideas we wanted to explore. So it was quite, I think, a challenging and ambitious task.

Had you done a writers' room process like that previously?

Yeah, I’ve worked in quite a few writers' rooms on the shows I’ve been on in the last few years, but I’ve never been the lead writer and it’s a slightly different role. Although, to be honest, it’s kind of a free for all once you’re in the writers' room. Everyone’s throwing ideas in.

Did you have a lot of involvement with the other writers in that process? Did you have to guide them, help them…?

I was one of the voices, I suppose, feeding back to them, as is normal in telly. There’ll be a lot of people inputting notes and saying we’ll do it this way. You’ve got script editors, producers and, at a later stage, the director all throwing ideas in and, you know, I was one of those. And hopefully one of the voices that was trying to consolidate all those notes. It’s a really difficult thing for any writer, but particularly new writers, to respond to notes, actually. There were a lot of voices feeding in and it’s a really interesting project for that. Most of the writers hadn’t had a television experience before this and they did amazingly well at dealing with that. They were so good.

Did Idris Elba have any input in the writing process?

Yes, because he had brought the original idea and he was very clear on the themes he wanted to explore, he was very involved. He came into the writers' room, he had loads of great ideas for how we could tell the stories, what kind of characters it would be interesting for us to look at, and then further down the line he was looking at scripts and inputting on that. As well as being a fantastic actor, he’s a fantastic producer. As somebody who’s directed, he’s got loads of ideas across the board, so he’s a really good person to work with.

A lot of writers say that they struggle with writing short form content and find it much easier to write a full length drama – would you agree with that?

Totally. I think writing short films is so difficult. And this, because it had a dual thing of being slightly longer as well, was just so tough. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard that expression “I apologise for the length of this letter. If I’d had more time it would have been shorter.” I think that totally sums it up really. Doing something short is so difficult.

With these films, they’re about encounters between two people and, because you’ve got five minutes, you can’t get into this person’s life or who they are as a person. It’s just about what happens, you know, in that moment between them. And it’s really hard to make something happen in five minutes between two characters. It’s an amazing discipline for us, as writers, to practise that thing of keeping action absolutely in the moment. Sometimes, in the writers' room, we’d stray off into that thing of, “Well, maybe she’s coming to this place and because of that, this is weighing on her mind…” but the audience don’t know any of that. All they care about is what does A say to B, what does B say back and what does that do to their relationship and how does that change them in some way. It’s almost like a writing exercise, you know. It’s good.

When did you first hear about the ±«Óãtv Writersroom and what led you to submitting to our ?

I just feel like I’ve always been aware of the ±«Óãtv Writersroom in one way or another. I was somebody who, around that time, applied for lots of stuff. Lots of stuff on the ±«Óãtv Writersroom website and I went on to win that one.

Then I did the  which was also because of the ±«Óãtv Writersroom and a lot of people who I met afterwards would say, “Oh, you’ve been really lucky because you’ve won a few things through the ±«Óãtv Writersroom and that’s really launched your career.” I would say, yeah, I am definitely lucky and that has definitely launched my career, but for the two things I got somewhere on, fifty things  I didn’t get anywhere on! Or 100 things!

The brilliant thing about the ±«Óãtv Writersroom is that it’s a great way of bringing your work to the attention of people who can make a difference for you. I think the only bad thing about it is if applying for things and not getting anywhere is something that can knock your confidence, because it’s too easy to assume I didn’t get anywhere because I’m rubbish and that’s just not the case. It’s not a certainty that it’s not good because it didn’t win or didn’t get shortlisted. There are a million and one reasons, you know, so I would like people to know that I’ve applied for so much stuff that I’ve got nowhere on! 

For every writer that is out there working professionally, they have got a ton of rejection letters under their belt, I guarantee it. There are probably some very lucky ones who make it through without that, but they’re most definitely the exception.

How did you initially approach the transition from writing for radio, to writing for screen, or had you always been doing both?

I was writing stage plays really, when I entered the Alfred Bradley Award, but I was really keen to write for television. I’m trying to remember which came first.  I think it was that I did the short film – the iPlayer Shorts - and then around the same time I had the opportunity to write an episode of . Which I can’t recommend highly enough, actually, because the great thing about Doctors for a new writer is that you get to create the characters, you have to bring them a story and a group of characters. That is so exciting.

I did an episode of Doctors and that did well, and then I went on to another ±«Óãtv show, , I wrote some episodes of that and then I went on to … All ±«Óãtv shows! I have done other shows too! I do work for other broadcasters too, just so you know.

When people say that continuing dramas are just a training ground, what would you say to that sort of statement?

I would say that it’s an invaluable experience. Like any craft, you have to learn it, you know. All these shows give you a really good insight into something. Doctors is great because you’re creating characters. EastEnders is great because it’s got its own distinctive style, house style, that you have to write in. If you’re going to be a jobbing writer out there working on people’s shows, you need to be able to adopt the voice of that show. That’s a great skill to learn. I think working on continuing drama is great. I wouldn’t have got the opportunities I’ve had since if I hadn’t done that.  Also, it’s really good fun as well! 

Do you have any writing rituals? Or funny habits? 

Oh, only procrastination. Not being able to get started. And not being able to start until I’ve tidied up and had a cup of tea and had a bath and walked that cat. Or whatever else I can find. That thing of procrastinating, for me, was always about… You know, I’d have this script to write, I’d have this deadline, and really it’s the fear because once you’ve started, you’ve committed yourself. The script doesn’t exist. The script can be amazing, but if you commit yourself to write it, the script is what it is. But, actually, if you’ve got two weeks to do it and you don’t start until the second week, it’s not going to be a different script in the end. You’re just going to have spent a week worrying about it.

The more experience I’ve had, the more I’ve learnt, as well, that this stuff is so subjective. If one person doesn’t like your script or has particular notes, the next person will feel something different about it. I think it’s important not to allow those things to knock your confidence, really.

Have there ever been moments where you’ve said, actually, I’ll challenge that note, or would you always go with what’s been said? 

I think you definitely should challenge notes that you feel really strongly are not the right thing, but, you know, it’s a constant grappling with yourself of working out, “Is my response to this note because it’s not a good note? Or is my response to this note because I’m very attached to this and I’m defensive and I’ve lived with it for a long time and I can’t see it another way?”.

I think, generally, if someone is really pressing for a note, you’ve got to give them at least the benefit of trying it. I’ve never worked with any producers or script editors who’ve said, “You must do this.” It’s always been a dialogue. Collaboratively finding a way to get to the end of the process. For me, one of the most exciting things about television is how collaborative it is. For some writers, they want absolute, undiluted authorship. That’s great, I don’t think television is the right medium for those people. But if you like working with people and like an idea evolving and growing, then television’s brilliant. 

What advice would you give to new writers trying to break into TV and Radio? 

I think it’s learning to take what resonates from notes and leave the rest behind. Trying to develop a thick skin. Trying to not take rejection as a soul destroying thing. And to keep writing. The more you write the better you get. One time I was saying these kinds of things and I got kind of trolled for saying them. “Like we don’t know you have to write, Cat!” But I remember starting out and not writing that much and, kind of, just hoping that I’d get somewhere on these few bits that I did write.  But the more I write, the more I practise, the better I get.  And recycling. “I couldn’t make this happen as a stage play, let’s see if I can make it happen as a radio play.” It’s hard to invest into characters and then do nothing with them. Loads of times I’ve had stuff that didn’t happen for one reason or another and then come back in some form.

My starting point for was observing mother-daughter relationships. I’ve always thought of having children as being quite a narcissistic act – the desire to create something in your own image and for it to be not only yours, but so very you. I was reminded of this one day when watching a miserable 7 year old being relentlessly coached to play football by her parents, with all three wearing matching tracksuits. I’ve also seen friends of mine still experiencing the same problem – how to dare to be that person your parents never expected, considered or perhaps even wanted you to be. (I must note here that Sally is in no way modelled on my own mother. And not just because she might be reading this. She was ace when I came out to her and she has never, to my knowledge, attacked a cheerleader. Though she did once chase after someone with a golf club when he tried to steal from her shop. Go mum.)

Also, as a parent myself, I was especially interested in exploring just how hard it is to get that mother-daughter relationship right. There are such high expectations on both sides and I wanted to depict a moment in which both parties see each other not just as a mum or a daughter, but as people. So from these musings, the characters and story of Sally and Charlie were born. In July 2014, I was told my pitch was being taken to script (eight were commissioned) and by October, after various meetings and rewrites, I was given the amazing news that 'Playing Ball' was one of the three to be produced.

The process from initial draft to shooting script involved meetings with Catherine (Producer), Maddie (Script Editor), Ollie (Assistant Script Editor) and Rachna (Director). It was fantastic to work with a team who understood so well the story, themes and characters. It allowed us to openly and productively debate and question decisions that I had made in the writing and to create the best script possible. Of course we didn’t always agree on everything but that’s to be expected and at the end of the day that’s simply because everybody cared so much. I’m pleased to say it never came to fisticuffs, though there inevitably came that point where you become so deeply immersed that you’re momentarily unable to see the wood for the trees. This point probably came when Maddie, the script editor, and I spent nearly fifteen minutes late on a Sunday evening discussing the difference between being boss-eyed and being cross-eyed. Other things I’ve done as part of the writing process for 'Playing Ball' include Googling “unusual terminal diseases” and “lesbian arts and crafts”, and calling a construction company to ask if a traffic cone could fit on someone’s head. Many of these things never made it into the final version but I like to assure myself it was time well spent in some way.

What never changed, however, was the clear vision I had of the emotional journey Sally and Charlie would take. I also knew that they had to come together doing something quite absurdly criminal – I liked the idea that such a dark act could be a moment of union for them. A great piece of advice I was once given about writing was to start by thinking about the ending – what do you want to end the film with? What do you want to leave the audience with? And what do you want to have said? I have always known from the very beginning how I wanted to end 'Playing Ball' and the final scenes were already in my mind long before any of the others. Sally and Charlie are two characters struggling to find the truth in their own lives and that’s pretty much what I do with any story I tell. It was also important for me not to offer any judgement on these characters – everybody has a bit of the crazies in them, after all. 'Playing Ball' is about learning that sometimes people do the wrong things for the right reasons and that bonding with your mum can be murder…but rewarding nonetheless.

of the Original Short Dramas for ±«Óãtv iPlayer , and

(now a 4 part series)

, made through the ±«Óãtv Writersroom scheme

Download the scripts for &

TV Blog:

It is March 2014. have just been officially launched and I am sat with the producer. She tells me that the ±«Óãtv wants to make a sequel to ''. And the first thought that goes through my head is; "Why?"

In the moment that Fahmida turned around and gave Nazir the look he had wanted, I was certain that my time with these characters was done. This was the ending I'd always known they'd have.

The story was complete.

When people watched the short and asked me what happened next I sympathetically replied that I didn't care. I had never, during the entire writing and production process, even once thought about what happens to these characters after that look. Truth be told; it didn't interest me.
The story was complete.

Except ...

Unless your story climaxes with the end of existence there's always more to say, more to tell. A script is like a picture. It captures a brief moment and holds it up for the world to look at. But the picture isn't the whole. A multitude of lives, events and experiences exist outside of the frame.

And so, epiphany; the story is not complete.

To Be Continued ...

Writing is difficult. It is time consuming, arduous and painful. Its saving grace is its autonomy and freedom. The writer can sit alone and write anything he or she wants. That's the beauty of it. You can conjure up whatever characters and situations you please, and allow those strands to take you wherever you want to go.

Writing a sequel is not like that! There are many constraints that have already been set by the existence of the characters and situations from the first episode. For example, I couldn't suddenly decide that Nazir is a secret agent because this would be a betrayal of the character. And as much as it would have tickled me to turn Fahmida into a serial killer, that just was not true to the story being told.

You want more constraints? Each episode of '' had to simultaneously be seen as;

• a continuation of the story begun by
• a single short movie in-and-of itself
• one part of a 4 episode story

Luckily, there was a great team of people on hand to offer feedback, and this leads on to probably the best advice I can offer budding writers; learn to love collaboration.

A writer can often spend so much time in his or her head that their writing begins to suffer. Tunnel vision sets in. Glaring problems become invisible. Staggering inconsistencies can be seen as justified plot twists. So when people critique your work, listen carefully. They may not be able to articulate the exact problem with the script. They may not use words like 'structure' or '2nd act issues' or 'momentum' (or, even worse, they may use those exact words!), but their thoughts are valuable, so learn to read them.

I hope every writer out there gets a chance to work through the pre-production process. For some it will be illuminating and rewarding. For others it will be a horrendous experience. Because we often painfully dredge our work up from deep within us, we can become very possessive over every single word. We may react poorly to feeling like we have to change something. If you find yourself in such a situation, don't be afraid to argue for what you believe is right for your work. Learn to articulate your views in a manner that doesn't alienate others. Be firm but not stubborn, so that if the contrary argument is stronger, you can accept it gracefully.

And take pride in your work. That's not to say that we should be arrogant. It simply means we should aspire to do the best work we can. Better minds than mine have said that a piece of writing is never perfected; it simply reaches a point at which its author feels comfortable abandoning it. But that's no excuse to not strive for perfection. Put in the hours, the effort, the graft; and if, at the end of it all, you can smile and honestly say that you've done your best; walk away and head towards your next challenge. There's a whole multitude of lives, events and experiences outside of the frame!

 (Episodes 2-4 go live on ±«Óãtv iPlayer on Sunday 28 June 2015)

 Shakeel explains on the TV Blog

 (at 23'30" into the programme)

(at 1 hour 13' into the programme)