Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham - 2

What's the difference between a character in a script and what the actor brings to it?

Matthew: Originally Gene wasn't even really a main character. It was always Sam's journey anyway, but Philip Glenister brought such amazing magnetism to Gene that right from the first couple of days of filming we thought let's make sure we feed that character as much as we feed Sam.
I think if the casting had been wrong we would have focused much more heavily on Sam. It would have been less of a buddy show. Series television is an organic process, you don't write eight episodes and then go and film them, you write one or two and start filming and then the other episodes follow on afterwards. So you're learning as you go what's working and what's not. And one of the things we realised when we saw Phil was that his character was working better than we imagined, in ways we hadn't seen. We thought people would hate him.

Ashley: I still think it's really weird that on series television, which costs so much money, you start building from day one and you haven't got a clue how it's going to end. On Ashes to Ashes we had two scripts, so it's quite stressful. You can't wait for a muse to visit!

Matthew: Two is now the absolute mandate for the BBC, you have to have the first two scripts written. They want to know how it's going to survive beyond series one, so you have to do documentation for other episodes, even if it's only half a page an episode. If the first two scripts are strong, that sets the tone. But if you haven't sold it to them on two scripts, it's probably not going to happen.

When you're writing a script where music is a large part, do you specify the music in the script?

Ashley: Well we put our music in the scripts, though you can't always clear it.

Matthew: Live and Let Die was one I desperately wanted. We had to send the tape to Paul McCartney. I don't know whether he liked it or whether he even saw it but we got the go ahead to do it.

When you write you shouldn't worry about clearances. I've seen scripts where the writer has said "Some rock music will kick in here," and I think: Well you've obviously got something in your head, put it on the page, and then we can hear it going on in our heads when we're reading.

How many writers have you got working on Ashes to Ashes, and how did you choose them?

Matthew: Mark Greig and Julie Rutherford did Life on Mars for us and we've kept them on Ashes - they'll go on to series two. All the writers that came onto Life on Mars had cut their teeth on previous dramas and worked their way through.

Ashley: We used quite experienced writers.

Matthew: I think the worrying thing is if a writer goes too quickly into a show. There's a difference between starting out on Doctors and EastEnders and starting out on Silent Witness or Life on Mars. The pressures are so intense and you're dealing with very big politics as well, there are budget issues and you're having to write with that in mind... There are very big egos at work, you're not protected very much when you're working on those kinds of shows, and it's very hard for writers to thrive and not feel intimidated or beleaguered in those situations.

I think really it does help if you can start on shows like Doctors. There are pressures on that, but they also have systems in place that try and nurture those writers. We don't have time to nurture anyone on Ashes to Ashes.

Were you surprised at how attractive the seventies came out in Life on Mars?

Matthew: Well it did give you a very distilled version of the seventies. What I think people find attractive about it is the sheer fact that they didn't worry about what they ate, what they drank, what they smoked, and the things that we're so paranoid now about. Gene Hunt doesn't worry about that. Whether that's right or wrong he'll still drop dead at fifty-three, but he'll be dead, he won't mind.

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