Paul Abbott - 3

Was there a writer who inspired you when you started out and/or is there somebody you really admire now?

When I was 22, I entered the Radio Times drama awards with a TV script called Jennifer about the emotional distance between a mother and her rebellious daughter. Then, you had to find a professional sponsor from within the business. I knew no-one. But a mate of my girlfriend knew where Alan Bennett lived. So I sent him the script and asked for an endorsement. He wrote back swiftly saying (something like) 'I'm sure you think it's a masterpiece; it's not, but it's a good piece of drama that I'd be happy to put my name to'.

The script didn't win but it was made into my first radio play. I drink to Alan Bennett every payday, which makes me feel lucky and posh.

Is there anything you've written you feel particularly proud of?

Butterfly Collectors for ITV was an emotional wrench because it was part autobiographical. I was terrified of putting too much of my own perspective in there because it had to work as a piece of drama in its own right. (There's a film adage 'It might be true, but is it believable?'). In the end, I think we got the fact/fiction balance just right. I'm enormously proud of it for that reason.

Clocking Off holds a different pride. I'm proud of that series because it broke a mould and created an opening for other writers to express their own single stories. Execs were very wary of the concept. I remained stubborn. It worked! That's a great feeling.

Then The Secret World of Michael Fry for Channel 4... It was a totally lunatic story with dead-serious subtext. The reason I put this in my top five is because: the end product was nothing like the story we started out with. The original story turned out to be crap. We (and I mean, producer, script editor, execs) all sat down with a problem and emerged with something entirely different. Something bigger and more ambitious, and a lot more other-worldly. And it's great that this can still happen in an industry that seems to be plagued by dot-to-dot telly concepts.

Where does your interest in double lives come from?

I don't deliberately set out to create 'double lives'. I suppose it's just my allergy to the way TV constantly chucks 2D versions of real-life at us. People with social complications are naturally more seductive to a dramatist than the bog-standard catalogue of characters. People with secrets are the cornerstone of decent narrative.

Double Lives can mean anything. It could be a lottery winner who never lets on to her family. Or it could be a man who demands rectitude from his wife while he quietly goes around spraying prostitutes with whipped cream. Psychiatrists have known for years that neurosis is governed by the distance between what you think you are, and what others perceive you to be.

Most good drama makes that gap visible, however small it may be.

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