Gaby Chiappe 4

You've recently been awarded a PAWS grant to work on an interactive drama. What's the difference between working on an interactive drama and a linear one?

Well it's something we're trying to work out as we go. But rather than trying to come up with a linear narrative and then have online stuff bolted on, it's an attempt to do it all organically, which is very challenging and really exciting when you get somewhere. At the moment online drama's moving so fast that I kind of feel unable to comment because I know that I have a body of things to catch up on.

But it's about how you take on board the fact that there's a huge chunk of people, particularly younger people, who'd probably rather lose their telly as opposed to their computer. How do you deal with that if you work in telly? Do you want to deal with it? Do you still feel it's your business and that you've got something that you can offer?

What are you most proud of having written?

There's a few things I've been really proud of. The first episode I ever wrote of EastEnders I was really proud of. And I feel like I shouldn't count my chickens, but I am very proud of Survivors as well. And Lark Rise.

There's a lot I've been proud of and what I find maybe more significant is that when I haven't, the feeling of not being proud of something is so devastating. I remember watching an episode I'd written of something and feeling that it wasn't as good as it could have been or as it should have been, and just having a very clear sense that there was no point doing this if it wasn't going to be absolutely the best I could manage.

Watching something that I felt wasn't quite good enough was a hideous experience. And that's always in the back of my head. The things you're proud of, you're really proud of when they happen. And then they sort of merge into a sense that you love your job. The things that you've done that you feel less proud of stay with you and are much harder to live with.

There's nothing I'm ashamed of, just that feeling of thinking "Oh God, that's three months of my life, that's weekends when I didn't see the kids very much because I was working." And if it's not going to translate into something on the screen that I really want people to be watching then it's not worth it.

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