Daisy Coulam

Daisy Coulam is a graduate of the 2007 BBC Drama Writers Academy. She has written for EastEnders, Casualty, Doctors, and Holby City, and is currently developing a series called Mirror, Mirror for BBC3.

How did you become a writer?

I started off as a runner in a production company, and then I got interested in the script editing side of things, so moved into that department on Where the Heart Is. Once you're on one show you tend to move to another, so I did EastEnders and The Bill and a few others, and then on Family Affairs I got the chance to step in and do some rewrites. I sent off for the Writers Academy and was very lucky to get on it. 

Basically the Writers Academy is a course for writers who have either written a play, or done a bit of television, but haven't really got on the ladder to being commissioned all the time, so you get that chance.  You do a three month course, then you do a script on EastEnders, Casualty, Doctors, and Holby, and then after that if you made a connection with any show then they’ll keep you on. So I’ve done that and managed to stay on Casualty, so that's what I do at the moment.

I believe you had a difficult experience...

I got the sack.  Basically I got into Casualty, and I was excited about doing that, and then I got offered an episode of Lark Rise to Candleford. It all seemed to be going swimmingly - then I just got more and more confused, and more and more lost in what they wanted from me. I think they lost confidence in me, and I lost confidence in myself and then I got the call.  So I’ve been writing television drama for a year and a half now and that's been my experience.

What do you want to say as a writer?

What do I want from my drama? What I really want is everyone to write like The Wire! I think what I'd like to see is shows being a bit more complex. What tends to happen on British shows is that the good people are good and the bad people are bad and that’s it, that's the definition. Not to harp on about The Wire, but what that does so brilliantly is that everyone's got a bit of good and bad in them.

 

Daisy Coulam was talking at the recent Q&A for the Everyword Festival of New Writing, together with Hilary Martin and Ellen Taylor. You can also read a full transcript of the event.