BBC Blog Network

User Profile

WilliamGallagher

Listed below are comments made by WilliamGallagher between Wednesday, 4th March 2009 and Wednesday, 19th August 2009.

«Newer
Older»

Would you report on a neighbour for a cash reward? 7:15pm on 19 Aug 2009 If the reward is ever more than the fine then you could make a profitable deal with your neighbours to grass each other up several times a day.

William Gallagher
Birmingham
Writers Academy 8 6:24pm on 04 Mar 2009 It's always going to be easier to disparage a show than to get to write for it.

Plus it's true that people who don't write Continuing Drama don't realise how very, very hard it is and they do regard them as inferior. Mark you, you do know CD writers who believe their work to be superior to all other dramas, don't you? So it all works out.

Except there has been a systemic issue here that I think exacerbates this fantasy divide between the myriad types of writing. I've worried a lot, especially a few years ago and fortunately very definitely less so now, that Continuing Drama has been painted as the exclusive route into drama writing. The moment you think that, and the moment the industry pushes it, you've not created a door, you've created a routemap. The implication is that you must go through CD to get to something "better", which I think is a huge insult to Continuing Drama.

And I don't think it's remotely true. CD is a route for new writers for practical reasons: you wouldn't rush to give an entirely new writer an episode of EastEnders, but you'd sooner do that than let them near a six-part BBC1 serial costing £600,000 per hour.

CD, because it has support like the Academy, is priceless not only because it teaches a type of writing and because it gives new writers a voice, but because it is real and live: you get the immeasurably great practical experience of writing for TV. Writing to schedules, to deadlines and within production constraints, within the needs of someone else's show, writing for very demanding audiences. Unbeatable. And also transferrable skills.

But it's easy to believe that the writing itself is transferrable and it ain't necessarily so. Russell T Davies wrote a lovely piece in the Queer as Folk DVD liner notes about the shock of moving from soap to evening drama, about how he had to learn new skills. Plainly, he did. And so have myriad other CD writers. And who wouldn't want to keep learning new skills? To keep stretching?

However, for all those who can do more than one type of writing, others cannot. Andrew Davies would surely struggle to write Doctors: he couldn't get enough sex in that timeslot, for one thing.

So let's say you're a drama writer who fears Continuing Drama, who doesn't understand it. Or you're a CD writer who believed you knew everything and have been slapped into realising that no, actually, comedy-drama isn't half a different skill. You're going to be wrong-footed at least, you're going to be scared at worst.

And who among us wouldn't consciously or unconsciously put down the writing that we can't do?

Mind you, I say all this and it's probably just that you bumped into some right misery guts.

William

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

WilliamGallagher