Adrian Hodges

Adrian worked as a journalist and in film development before taking up writing full time in 1990. His work includes Primeval, Rome, Charles II: The Power and the Passion, and Kavanagh QC.

His new series, an update of Terry Nation's 70s TV series Survivors, is on now. You can read the script of the first episode in our script archive.

How did you get started as a writer?

I always wanted to be a writer and had a TV screenplay optioned in my early twenties. Then I spent about eight years inside the TV and film industry doing different jobs - script reading and development - and really getting to know the business. After a while I knew I had to try writing again and I found out that a producer I knew had optioned a book and I offered to write a spec script for free. It all worked out well and the film - The Bridge - was eventually made by Channel 4. At the same time I'd been commissioned to write a script for the BBC and that was made as well, so I was off and running.

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to write for a living?

Simple things really: be dedicated, work regularly, see as many films and as much TV as you can (you'd be amazed how many people don't), and above all finish something.

Self confidence is all-important and you don't exist as a writer unless you have something out there to be judged. So no matter how self-critical you are it's vital to get the screenplay finished. After that, it's down to luck and talent. And remember, it's a business run on opinions - don't be disheartened by a negative opinion, but at the same time listen to constructive advice even if it hurts.

What's your writing routine?

Depending on the deadlines I write from about eight in the morning until about four or five in the afternoon, six days a week, with a break for lunch. It's all about routine, really. But if the pressure's on it can be a lot more. But I take a lot of breaks and tend to work in short bursts. The key thing is not to wait for inspiration to strike, but to be at the desk the same time every day. Inspiration comes from steady working. And as PG Wodehouse said, the key to writing is applying the seat of the bottom to the seat of the chair.

With Survivors, how difficult was it to update a show that's more than thirty years old?

Certain things were easy. We have a lot more technology now than then and it's easy to imagine how much chaos we'd face now if our mobiles and computers went down. In a way society is even more fragile now than it was in 1974.

Another factor was that the original was perceived to be very middle class - a little unfair but there is some truth in it. So it was important that a new version had a cultural and class mix that really represented the country as it is now, which I hope it does.

But the essential elements of the story: What kind of world do we live in? What kind of society would we build if everything we knew was gone? remain pretty much the same. It's just a question of exploring them in a dynamic way. Some of that is inspired by the original, and some of it comes from me.

What was it that attracted you to Survivors?

See above, really. I always thought it was a fantastic human story and it's very rare to get a chance to write about the big issues - life, love, death, and so on. I'm fascinated by the idea of whether humanity would stand together in a terrible situation like Survivors, or whether we would fall apart. My version explores the two options... I also wanted to write a big action-adventure series. Survivors explores some big ideas, I hope, but it's also a genre thriller and adventure, and that's something I've always wanted to do. So it was a perfect vehicle in all sorts of ways.

Which show that you've worked on has been the most difficult to write for? Why?

I've loved all of them but the hardest was definitely Kavanagh. We tried to get a lot of the legal side right in that show and it meant endless rewriting to ensure accuracy. Time and time again a lovely dramatic situation would turn out to be ridiculous legally, so it had to be rethought. I'm no lawyer and it was very tough!

Do writers on Primeval and Survivors have to write treatments, or do you assign stories?

On both shows I storyline every episode in advance (in the case of Primeval I do that with Tim Haines) and then give the writer their treatment which might be a few pages or a bit longer. In the case of Survivors it was a ten page outline.

I then sit round the table with the writers and talk about ideas and obviously hope they will contribute a lot of their own. Ownership really matters with a script and obviously good writers will want to do their own thing. That's fine, as long as I know in advance roughly what it is - significant things, anyway.

After that we go to first draft and develop the script in the normal way. I do reserve the right to do a final polish on all scripts I've created, but in the case of Survivors that hasn't been necessary. The reason for rewriting is a question of tone - you want every episode in the series to feel like it's the same show. Nothing kills a series more quickly than weird changes of tone every time a new writer comes on. But happily on Survivors the other writers - Simon Tyrell and Gaby Chiappe - got the tone brilliantly. They've done really wonderful work.

What's the best thing about writing for a living?

When writing goes well - when something really clicks - it's a complete joy. You feel as though you're flying and the characters write themselves. It's like being in a kind of fever. Of course it mostly isn't like that but when it clicks, it's wonderful. My routine is pretty regular but of course I do have the freedom to organise my own life and that's a gift.

But I suppose the the best thing about writing for a living is that it's what I always wanted to do, I really love doing it, and when people like something you've written the level of appreciation is very gratifying. You really feel like you've made an impact on people's lives and that's a lovely feeling. Of course the downside of that is that when they don't like something they don't hesitate to let you know! But that's just something you have to live with.