CONFESSIONS OF A TELLY ADDICT

OR "The eclectic stuff that made me write what I do."

Someone very recently said to me, some people try to be screenwriters when they should actually be novelists. "You, Phil" they said "are a screenwriter."
I assumed it was a compliment, I certainly took it as such. For sure, growing up I wasn’t a big reader though apparently I threw tantrums aged 2 at my frustration at not being able to learn to read fast enough.
No, it was the telly that fired my imagination, introduced me to new worlds, words, pictures, stories, people. I loved it, absorbed it. The TV was on all the time in my house and if I wasn’t sat in front of it I was certainly within earshot from the schools programs during the day, through Crown Court, the news, kids programs, soaps right through to the scary opening themes of The Sweeney or Armchair Thriller which inevitably meant bedtime.
In my early teens I may not have been able to recite Shakespeare or known The Lord Of The Rings but I could hum the theme to any TV series, recite whole Kenny Everett sketches and get almost 100% on Noel Edmund’s Telly Addicts (some of the nature programs left me cold).
There’s a bit of a meme going round at the moment for 10 films that had an effect on you. I thought I’d give it my spin and show you ten TV series that had an impact on me. It’s probably significant that most of them are from the 80s - not saying it was a golden age of telly, just a formative period of my life.

DOCTOR WHO

This one is so important I don't even include it in the ten so let's get it out of the way now. Doctor Who has been a constant presence in my life since I was a wee nipper but it was the appearance of Louise Jameson’s ass-kicking Leela that kick-started my love affair with the show. (Spoiler alert: strong females will be a constant theme) I’d been aware of her predecessor Sarah Jane but Leela was the first companion that I ‘met’ and my entry to the show.
Like many fans, I looked beyond the shortcomings of production, the wobbly walls, the shabby props, the shonky acting and was mesmerised by the possibilities, the sheer breadth of imagination of an alien roaming time and space with his best friend in a police box. Every episode seemed breath taking and would end on a tantalising cliffhanger. Then every Monday morning, this little one would go to school and write what he thought was going to happen next. Yep, Doctor Who was certainly the start of something big. Over time, this evolved into writing my own original adventures (I came up with a female Doctor back in 1986!) and ultimately led me to pen a few for Big Finish.

INTO THE LABYRINTH

A kids adventure series, this one really fired my imagination. Three kids enter a mysterious labyrinth and are sent through time to retrieve the fragments of a magical device called the Nydus. Why? I can’t exactly remember…

Pamela Salem and Ron Moody are on fine form as villainess and mentor figure respectively. It’s a classic McGuffin set up with each episode sending our three young heroes into a different adventure in time where the Nydus is disguised as an everyday item but can be identified in its reflection. But the evil Belor is on the same quest and frequently bests them in suitably melodramatic way: "I deny you the Nydus!"

It was total fantasy, with magic and witchcraft. The sets are cheap, the same cave set redressed, lots of chromakey but again my imagination filled in the blanks.

BERGERAC

I was probably a bit too young for this but there was something I found really charming about this Saturday night perennial cop show. It was more than a crime drama. It had a wonderful and compelling cast of characters – ever sexy John Nettles, his long suffering girlfriend (Louise Jameson again), best mate cheeky Charlie Hungerford and the semi-recurring cat burglar Philippa Vale (played by Liza Goddard).

With its whiff of channel islands glamour I guess these days Bergerac would be classed as cosy crime, I don’t remember the crimes being that earth shattering or dangerous. But what has stayed with me is the format – a group of characters we love in new situations every week. It’s Doctor Who again yet Earthbound. It’s Lovejoy. It’s Father Brown. I aspire to find that formula in my own ideas.
Admit it, you have the theme in your head now, right?

VICTORIA WOOD AS SEEN ON TV

I don’t know what it was about Victoria Wood. Maybe it was because ‘Northern’ was so unusual on the telly at the time. Maybe it was the strange turns of phrase – who knew custard creams could be so funny? But whatever it was Victoria Wood burst onto my screen and stuck. I mean REALLY stuck. There is literally not a day goes by that I don’t find myself quoting some sketch of hers.
She taught me to relish and hone every word. Why say biscuit when gipsy cream will add a layer of humour to what may be a humdrum sentence?
But while the sketches like the shoe shop or the Turkish baths will still raise a titter with me, it’s the more poignant scenes like her tragicomic documentaries that have stuck with me and inspired some of my best work. Comedy and drama are both great but when they combine, magic really happens.

HAPPY FAMILIES

“All I want to know is what happened to my family, why my sisters all left home and why you hate me so much.”

“Well… I’m not gonna tell you so sod off.”

As I was discovering what made me laugh beyond the old fashioned sitcoms of the 70s, along came Happy Families. Jennifer Saunders delivers a tour-de-force as five members of the Fuddle family in a comic romp from Ben Elton. Not a sketch comedy, this was almost a drama featuring rising stars on the ‘alternative’ comic scene, the new faces for my generation.
Happy Families taught me about structure. A story-of-the-week format concentrating on a different Fuddle character bookended with episodes featuring the entire family.
And while being bloody funny, it was a great story too.
Dying old Mrs Fuddle sends her grandson (Adrian Edmonson) to find and bring back the four siblings she jealously sent away as children. Has her cruel heart finally melted?
No, it hasn’t.

THE COMIC STRIP PRESENTS: CONSEULA

French and Saunders really were at the top of their game in the mid 80s. While I loved their true comedy shows (Girls On Top almost made this list) their work on The Comic Strip Presents was something else and Consuela (written by the duo) was the best of the lot.
Newly married Jessica is delighted to be going to her new husband’s country estate. But she soon discovers the place is run by the devilish Spanish maid.
This was a brooding story, littered with delicious dark comedy and genuine laughs but ultimately was more scary and creepy.

HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR

I did love to be scared as a kid and Hammer’s House Of Horror anthology series managed that right from the doomy theme and the haunted house opening credits.
Each episode presented a new macabre morality tale, deliciously camp (Diana Dors as the mother of werewolf children or Patricia Quinn as a witch out of time “I be Lucinda Jessup”), probably overtly sexual (that went over my young head!) and normally with a moral twist, they managed to combine the genuinely creepy, scary, sometimes gory but always clever and memorable.

SAPPHIRE & STEEL

I admit, on first viewing as a ten year old, I didn’t really understand what was going on. You didn’t really need to understand it to enjoy the creepy atmosphere, the charisma of David McCallum and Joanna Lumley, the chills of the various oblique menaces they faced.
As a grown up watching it again, it still takes some thinking about to understand but that’s one of the glories of Sapphire & Steel. It knows what it is and doesn’t care if you don’t. It gives you a vague impression of what Sapphire and Steel are but doesn’t go into specifics. You are allowed to know only what you need. I love the boldness of that, a kind of ambiguity that keeps you pondering long after the credits have rolled.
But it served up images that stayed in the mind. The man without a face, the roundheads marching down the stairs, the soldier in the misty railway station.
It made a virtue of its small budget. Minimal characters, a single setting. It’s a master class in working within limitations still delivering diverse scenarios, daring to be different, oozing with imagination. And with two lead characters that are sometimes sympathetic and caring, at other times ruthless in the execution of their duties.
And like Doctor Who there were cliffhangers. In this era of binge watching and instant gratification, we’re missing the art of a really good cliff. 

And yet there's always:

EASTENDERS

Soaps had long been a staple of the schedules, especially in our house so the arrival of a new one (especially with all the hype around it) was an exciting event. Unlike Corrie or Crossroads which had just always existed as far as I knew, here was a new one and I was here right at the start and unlike the others, it was set on my doorstep, with places, people and accents that were very familiar.
When it started it was gritty, urban, discussed very current topics and felt incredibly bold with its storylines so early on – Michelle’s teen pregnancy, Den’s affair, Angie claiming that she’s dying, Kathy’s rape. Not to mention the first proper gay characters on telly. Colin and Barry were so normal.
The show has changed over the years but still manages to pull off some great stories (the ‘who killed Lucy’ plot was brilliant) and continues to have iconic characters like Shirley Carter, Kat Slater and even recent nutjob Stuart Highway.
When it really works, EE is a wring out for the emotions. It makes you care, makes you cry, gasp and laugh all in 30 minutes.

STICKY MOMENTS WITH JULIAN CLAREY

There was something really radical and dangerous about Channel 4 when it first started. It really did open up worlds young teen me had never seen before. Furtive, underground places that were exciting and scary at the same time.
Sticky Moments was ostensibly a game show but with Julian Clary in make-up, often in some PVC bondage outfit and clutching Fanny the wonderdog, it screamed Soho and the gay scene, a world far removed from my suburban upbringing but a world which beckoned this burgeoning queer kid.
Utterly camp, silly, naughty, filled with innuendo it’d probably be quite tame now but it did me no end of good to see real gay people on telly and I don’t think we’ve had that kind of representation ever since – not even in ‘dedicated’ LGBT shows like Queer As Folk or Cucumber.

THE LIFE AND LOVES OF A SHE-DEVIL

I do love a revenge story. She-Devil was so flipping bold. Big sweeping emotions, strong, clear characters and a vast plan for revenge from a spurned wife who not only systematically destroys her ex-husband, breaks his mistress and ultimately takes her place but also seeks to destroy the patriarchy and free women from their domestic slavery. With a bit of supernatural thrown in.
Julie T Wallace is an utter rockstar in this as her character Ruth plays various different guises in her long and convoluted plan, beguiling everyone she meets to get her own way.
It’s a powerful, epic story of self-empowerment told with both heart and balls.


I’ve concentrated on the TV shows that have affected me most deeply during my most formative years. There are of course many shows that have inspired, educated and utterly blown me away since. More recently I’ve loved Doctor Foster, The Replacement, Born To Kill. Right now I’m really looking forward to Butterfly and Killing Eve. And that’s just British shows.
So what have I picked up from my totally misspent youth? A love of character, story, bold and big actions, comically poignant tales. Does any of this translate into my work? Yes. I think it does. But it’s always good to remind ourselves why we’re doing this and keep hold of the things that inspire us.

Running up that road, running up that hill with erm… well.

“If I only could, I’d make a deal with God.” Says Kate Bush. Well, god wasn’t available so I made a deal with myself instead.

Anyone who knows me knows that I run. Nothing more serious than a weekly 5k parkrun, I’m no Steve Cram. But some weekdays I take myself for a 10k circle round the streets. Now I live on the middle of a hill so whichever direction I choose to run, I will be tackling a hill at the start and finish.

For this morning’s run, I took myself up the hill knowing that 45 minutes later, my round trip will bring me back to the bottom. So I spend the run making deals with myself. If I take that turning, adding another 5 minutes, I’ll let myself stop at the bottom of the hill and walk up.

As I got closer to the finish, I considered this hill. Over the years, I’ve run up it loads of times but lately it’s taken on a reputation for being unconquerable.

Fine, I say. Phil, if you don’t WANT to do it, don’t do it. There are no ‘have tos’. But if you’re avoiding it because you’re scared, what else are you going to avoid out of fear if we don’t break that habit now?

 

I’m currently working with a TV script editor, writing a trial script, hoping to prove myself good enough to get hired. An actual proper TV writing gig. This is what I’ve been working towards for years, a culmination of hard work, determination. A big scary hill to run up.

Last week, I had to submit my first assignment and I was scared, almost to the point of paralysis. Sitting on things, putting it off. Maybe somehow if I kept putting it off, I wouldn’t fail. Insane, irrational, ridiculous.

Stupid thing was, as with my morning hill, I’d been here before. Every writing assignment, every script submission, every pitch is a big scary hill to run up. What am I going to do? Give up and not go home ever again? Walk and let opportunity run past me?

It wasn’t fast but it was determined, it was the best I could do and yes, I collapsed in a breathless heap when I reached my front door. But I ran it.

And the TV gig? Of course, I got it finished and sent it off, still feeling the fear. And I got notes back quicker than I expected, good helpful, encouraging notes. The next hill is still scary but I know it can be done.

Now, as I guzzle water and stare out of my window at the other runners going by, I know their grit, see their determination, I feel able to cheer them on.

So what’s your scary hill today?

 

 

Does gender matter to Time Lords?



Could Phoebe Waller-Bridge, star and writer of Fleabag be the next Doctor?

My mate Dom Carver has expressed an opinion and sparked a (mostly good natured) debate. He’s not against a female Doctor but (if I’m reading his comments right) wants it for a better reason than box ticking and diversity. His blog on the subject is here. Since the good Doctor is a particular passion of mine, I had to wade in.

My question is this:

Has there EVER been an ‘in-story’ reason for the Doctor being in a certain form?

When the Doctor first changed form back in 1966 it was because of William Hartnell’s ill health. The Doctor, “his old body wearing a bit thin” collapses in the TARDIS and changes before our very eyes – not just his face but also his clothes! – and becomes Patrick Troughton. No explanation given, he just pops up, a new man, younger sure but this isn’t just a rejuvenated version of the same character, Troughton brings an entirely new whimsical personality. And rightly so. But we’re expected to accept it. If the Doctor had any reason for choosing this persona, he’s keeping it to himself.

It’s only at the end of Troughton’s run that we start to explore the concept of regeneration. Captured by his own people and forced to “change appearance” as part of his punishment he’s given a number of options. So Time Lords it appears CAN choose.

On this occasion the decision is made for him and it appears, since the Doctor is at the moment of his death for his next few regenerations, deciding his next form is probably not uppermost in his thoughts. Indeed, Peter Davison’s 5^th Doctor laments in the mirror “that’s the trouble with regeneration, you’re never sure what you’re going to get.” A comment reiterated by Sylvester McCoy’s 7^th Doctor when he thinks his new personality is sulky and bad tempered thanks to regeneration “lottery”.

Colin Baker as old Sixy. On a good day.

If any Doctor has an ‘in-universe’ explanation for his appearance (or personality at least) it’s the brash, egotistical 6^th Doctor played by Colin Baker who emerges from a ‘turbulent’ regeneration, throttles his companion then prances around time and space in a pantomime costume.

But as far as casting any new Doctor goes, it tends to be as a contrast to what’s gone before (accessible youngster Davison as opposed to googly eyed alien Tom Baker or older Capaldi following young Matt Smith) or down to nothing more than finding the best person (man or woman, gay or straight, white , black, whatever) for the job.

Peter Capaldi’s Doctor apparently ‘choosing’ the face of some random human he saved a few seasons ago to remind him to be good is a bit of unnecessary retconning. They didn’t address that Colin Baker had played rotten Commander Maxil in the season before he took over.

Having a specific reason for deciding your protagonist’s traits is obviously vital when you’re writing anything. I agree totally with Dom that you shouldn’t shoe horn in a disabled muslim lesbian copper because it’s considered PC, it has to fit the story you want to tell.

But Doctor Who is a special case. The Doctor is the springboard for the story not the other way round. If that were the case, each Doctor would have an arc mapped out before the actor donned the scarf and what would be the point of that?



Going, going...

The Doctor’s (or actor’s) personality should dictate the stories and send the writers off in new wonderful directions. Maybe that’s a good a reason as any to cast a woman in the role. It will allow for stories that could never be told before.

To be honest though, whether the Doctor’s a man or woman doesn’t really matter. It’s still the same character running through weekly machinations and monsters with a quip and a clever last minute plan. The Doctor just is. We don’t need to know the whys and wherefores. We just have to accept and jump aboard for a fun, thrilling TARDIS ride.

Will Phoebe Waller-Bridge be brandishing the sonic lipstick soon? For her sake, I hope not. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love a female Doctor. But with Pheobe’s star currently on the up, I’d hate for her to pin herself down to this one all-encompassing series this early or even worse, be so busy with other stuff, she gets too big for Doctor Who and can only fit in a few feature length episodes every couple of years. Yes, Mssrs Cumberbatch and Freeman, I’m looking at YOU. 

But as for in-story reasons, this is where fanfiction is our friend. How about the Doctor doing it in honour of Missy, his wayward friend that he spent the last thousand years trying to redeem? Actually, taking it to that extreme, is Michelle Gomez still in the building?

 

Philip has written episodes of Big Finish's Doctor Who audios and is available to join Team Chibnal, whatever gender the Doctor is. Just saying.

Raise your voice.

There are tons of writers out there. I mean seriously, loads. For every open submission window there are hundreds if not thousands of scripts jumping up and down in front of the readers screaming “pick me! pick me!”

But guess what. There’s only one YOU. And if you can hone exactly what that is, you could be onto a winner. We are told there are no new stories. And sure, we live in an era surrounded by great films, TV shows, books that feed into us, sometimes without us even realising, so it’s hard not to dream up something derivative. But a bold script that offers a new perspective will make a reader, agent, producer sit up and take notice.

So you have a script. A witty protagonist, a deadly antagonist, a love story sub plot, a fight, some tears maybe even a car chase. But what is your story ABOUT? It’s about a woman who has to rob a bank to feed her kids. No. What is it really ABOUT?

What are you trying to say to your audience? What is your perspective on the world and what are you aching to change? What injustices are you fighting? What desperate emotional need are you serving every time you hit the keys of your laptop? What is your VOICE?

My first play was called “It’s Behind You!” a bit of a camp carry-on style romp, set in the faded fairy-tale land of Pantoville. A young Essex lad ditches his pregnant bride at the altar and finds himself lost in Pantoville amid a series of grisly murders with jilted bride in pursuit. Turns out he’s gay and unable to admit it until he starts to fall for a boy in Pantoville. It all ends happily ever after, natch, even for bride not-to-be Karen.

After seeing the show a friend of mine said “it’s very much your voice.” At the time I didn’t really understand what she meant. But the more I wrote, plays, short stories, scripts, the more I realised I kept coming back to the themes of "It's Behind You!"

“It’s in our ‘all is lost’ moments that our writers' voice is burned.” 

Jen Grisanti, speaking at The London Screenwriters Festival 2016

Growing up as a gay man in the 70s/80s devoid of decent role models, bullied just for being different has left me with a very deep scar. Consequently lot of my work explores themes of identity, not just being gay but being different to the norm and finding the courage to be one's self. It’s a passion of mine to champion people that aren’t properly represented and give voice to diversity – especially in the current climate of isolationism and the rise of fascism around the world.

There are other traumas since that have given me other themes that are prevalent in my more recent work. I revisit grief a fair bit at the moment. But it’s finding these universal truths within ourselves and mining them that will make our work resonate with others. This, I think is the real meaning of "write what you know".

But the trouble with our voices is they tend to come from dark places, our deepest fears and darkest traumas that we’d rather not revisit. Though if you take an honest look at your scripts, chances are, you’re already touching on those subjects. Now be bold and look directly into the eyes of the beast.

Many fledgling spec scripts lack conflict. I know I’ve been there. It comes from a subconscious unwillingness to really grapple with the topic. Surely it’s OK if Ethel and Albert get over their differences with a meaningful look then put the kettle on? NO. Your characters are there to feel those deep emotions for you. Really put them through the wringer, chuck everything at them that you’re shying away from.

What’s that Ethel? You feel like you’ve been in a loveless marriage for 40 years? Oh Albert, how does that make you feel? What? You’ve been deliberately making Ethel’s life hell because she looked at that sailor funny in 1974? Here, have some weapons and duke it out in a poignant black comedy. 

If they survive, Ethel and Albert will emerge stronger, having learned something. So will you. And so will your script.

But you don’t need to have lived 40 years of loveless hell like Ethel. In fact you may think that you haven’t lived enough yet. You’re quite a settled person, you don’t have that kind of trauma in your life. Really? Take another look at the work you’re creating. What’s it really saying to you? The more you write the more you’ll realise you keep returning to certain themes.

And our voices evolve and change the more we explore our reality. You’ll find other people writing about similar subjects. With any luck you’ll be hitting the zeitgeist and people will snap up your work. Keep going and you’ll be ahead of it, then you really will be in demand.

And once you know what your voice is, you can refine it and use it.

“Go dancing naked in the rain, then come back

and tell us what it was like.” 

Kate Leys, speaking at The London Screenwriters Festival 2015

I’m about to apply for a writing competition according to a brief. I’m choosing between a bunch of suitable ideas but I’m thinking how can I make my story stand out? The answer – by being true to my voice and writing what I’m passionate about. 

Sure, it may not hit home with the readers as they sift hundreds/ thousands of entries but it will have a better chance than if I try and second guess what they want and end up with something bland and passionless that's thrown out without a second glance.

Fortune favours the bold. In this era where competition is fiercer than ever your secret weapon is your uniqueness. Find it. Use it. I look forward to seeing your work on telly soon.

Going Rogue

There absolutely IS room for more Star Wars stories. 

Tonally different side-steps into other planets and cultures? Yes please. In an era where every movie studio is desperate to create their own series of linked Marvel-esque movies Star Wars is a ready-made galaxy far, far away ripe for exploration. 

I just don’t think Rogue One is the best example of how to do it.

On the plus side, it feels like a different kind of movie. No opening crawl this time, but a flashback to a young Jyn. By the time we see her rescued from an Imperial prison we can surmise the troubled journey she’s been on. So far so good.

It’s the other characters that need some help.

Ok, looking them up on IMDB Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus
don’t seem so unpronounceable but if you’d asked me their names
straight after the movie I'd have been clueless.

Star Wars has a history of throwing together a disparate band of misfits that overcome their differences to achieve the heroic. Rogue One certainly has its merry band and full marks for different ethnicities and accents. But backstories are non-existent and names are just a step too far from the norm to be instantly comprehensible.

As such, I found it really hard to engage with these people or care what happens to them. And if it was in the dialogue, the reason for Imwe and Malbus being on Jedha was lost on me.

With all the rumours of reshoots and rewrites buzzing in my head and with awesome bits from the trailer simply not there I wonder if we’re not getting the film as it was originally intended. Have the characters been softened? There is a lot of deliciously grey morality about. Jyn has been to prison, her dad helped build the death star, Ando kills a comrade within moments of his intro and Jyn’s mentor figure (while lacking any great story function) is acknowledged as a terrorist.

None of the characters get a particularly heroic death, another reason to suppose that they should all have been morally ambiguous. Would I have engaged more if they had more grit?

There’s a lot to love about Rogue One

but it’s a film that didn’t have to be made.

I sound like I hated it, I didn’t. As an old school fan there is a LOT to love about Rogue One. It really does flesh out the Empire era of the Star Wars galaxy and show planets and people beyond the main conflict.

It’s undeniably a Star Wars film with plenty of laser guns, spectacular space battles, glorious visuals (the death star hanging in the sky above Skarif is beautiful) and crazy architecture with consoles at the end of precarious gantries – no place for vertigo in the Empire! 

It’s just that I expect, no, we deserve better.

While it seems generally accepted that Uncle George’s prequels were a bad lot, it’s strange to go back and mine the same territory again unless you’re going to do something different or improve on it. Rogue One does neither.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nothing like the bland CG-fests of Episodes 1-3 but while Lucas peppered his prequels with new characters that fired the imagination and potentially outshone the main protagonists (Step forward Jango Fett, Zam Wessel, Mace Windu and even Yoda) here the heroes seem to be playing second fiddle to the main saga with too many ‘for the fans’ cameos and references and villains upon villains that only indirectly impact on our main cast.

Given that we’ve never heard of these characters beyond Rogue One and go in assuming none of them are getting out alive, it’s a disappointment that none of them do. What better way to surprise and subvert our expectations?

Instead Rogue One has an inevitability about it that’s almost mechanical in its execution right up to its CGI Princess Leia who’s so placid and chipper, it’s like she’s been dropped in from another movie rather than caught up in the massive space battle that’s just occurred. And while I’m thinking about it, just what was the Tantive V doing docked inside a Mon Calimari capital ship rather than out there fighting? Did someone say ‘contrived’?

More than that, with the death star plans randomly beamed into space where any of the rebel ships could have received them, including those that escaped doesn’t it rather take away the sense of urgency from Princess Leia’s subsequent mission?

What it all amounts to is that as nice, cosy and nostalgic as it may be to see the death star firing sequence recreated, Peter Cushing resurrected and Darth Vader swishing his lightsabre, Rogue One is a film that absolutely didn’t need to be made.

In fandom, it’s commonly known as fanwank, an obsessive need to fill in every continuity gap. This is Space Opera, not Soap Opera. We don’t need to see the moment Bail Organa decides to send for Obi Wan Kenobi. In fact, the more of these self-indulgent moments we see, the more it takes away from the original.

So the rebel boffins didn’t find a way to destroy the death star, it was designed that way by Galen Erso. I know he needed to keep it hidden but couldn’t he have made it easier? At least design fewer gun turrets along that trench.

Luke Skywalker looking to the horizon, yesterday.

And when the pros are serving up fanwank, where is there for fans to go? What stories are left for the 8 year olds to dream up with their Christmas action figures? Maybe better ones than are being served to them.

This makes me somewhat reticent about further spin-offs that try to plunder the ghost of Star Wars past. What further nods and cameos will be shoehorned into the Han Solo or (rumoured) Boba Fett movies. Surely it’s better and more exciting to make companion pieces to the latest trilogy? What if Po Dameron had a side adventure between chapters? How about a story that fleshes out the woefully underused Captain Phasma?

I grew up with a Star Wars that looked to the horizon. The future. Excitement. Come on Star Wars, enough naval gazing. You’re better than this.

The Writer Bubble

 
For a long while I’ve been going to networking dos for writers. They’re great. Vital, even. Catching up with friends, forming new relationships. Sometimes writers at the same level, sometimes a bit further along the path willing to shine a torch on the road ahead of you, other times writers just starting out to whom you can pass the benefit of your experience thus far.

But hanging out with only writers can in itself be a comfort zone and that’s a one way ticket to Rutsville.



Yes, many of us writers also produce, script edit and get stuff made but we do also need to find dedicated producers that want to work with us, connect with other people in the industry, script editors, TV execs, commissioners.

We need to stop thinking of these people as gate keepers trying to keep us out and more like, well… people. Friends, colleagues that you are going to have a fabulous time working with.

“Oh, I can’t talk to them, I’m only a writer.”

I was very lucky. My ticket to the International Drama Summit at Content London 2016 came to me free as a finalist in the C21 Drama script competition. At nearly £400 it’s not cheap. But getting out of the writer bubble gives you a different perspective on the business and makes it seem less scary and impenetrable.



So began three amazing days of sessions and speakers from across the globe, all about the gogglebox. Many of them were on the creative side – Tony Jordan, Jed Mercurio, Marnie Dickens, Tom Basden and Anna Winger ON THE SAME PANEL!!! - while others were more business-skewed like the session on Drama finance after “Brexit”.

Polly Hill from ITV. Not keeping you out.

And it was a level playing field. No us and them. No green room. Everyone in the business together. No egoes, no “oh, I can’t talk to them, I’m only a writer.” Everyone friendly, good natured and receptive. One minute you’re on the escalator with a showrunner from South Africa, the next you’re chatting in the coffee queue to an American producer with $$$ burning a hole in his pocket, desperate for a good script.

As a writer trying to knock on the door of telly, I came away feeling there ISN’T someone trying to keep us out. Sure, we have to have a certain level of skill and that comes with time and hard work. But if you’ve got stories to tell, people want to hear them.

These are my top tips based on the things I was hearing at C21.

• Don’t be afraid to tell YOUR story. It’s unique to you and that’s what they want. Don’t try and skew it to fit an existing formula. Producers, program makers and ultimately audiences want to be surprised. But whatever you do, tell it with PASSION.
"Avoid the middle at all costs. Go for extremes."
Jane Tranter (Producer, Bad Wolf Productions)

• We all have something to say. The wounds in our lives that we’re trying work through in our writing. Drill down and find yours. Go to the places you don’t want to go within yourself to find what you’re really about. Then write that. 

"If you want to be universal, be specific."

Sarah Phelps (Writer, And Then There Were None)

• “Auteur driven” was on everyone’s lips. They want the next Fleabag – but that doesn’t mean you have to star in it or have your main character talk to the camera (see point 1 above). They want dramas that are so specific to that writer’s voice, experience and worldview. Intimacy and specificity are the key.

"Small, intimate, worthy can still be big in scope.

Universal themes in International Shows."

Sharon Tal Yguado (EVP, Fox Networks Group)

• Think of your audience. Given what’s going on politically it’s clear that great swathes of people feel unrepresented and this applies to TV too. It’s an image of Britain we like to export but not everyone lives in Downton Abbey. Not everyone is middle class and owns their own home. Not every woman is Olivia Coleman. If you’re worried you’ve got nothing to say because you grew up on a housing estate, didn’t get a media degree and you’re not a white heterosexual man, stop worrying and get writing.

"Entertain the people who have been missed out."

Greg Brennan (Producer, Drama Republic)

Above all, the main message from C21 was "Make great content and audiences will come."

Philip is the winner of the C21 Drama Script competition and was mentored for his final pitch by Tony Jordan.