Tony Marchant

Tony Marchant is an award-winning writer usually associated with hard-hitting contemporary drama. His work includes Holding On for the BBC and The Mark Of Cain for Channel 4.

Tony's new series Garrow's Law airs on Sundays at 9:00pm on BBC1.

How did you get started as a writer?

Inspired by The Jam and The Clash I wrote a stage play which, miraculously, Stratford East wanted to put on. I didn't realise it at the time but that's a bit like winning the lottery, because I just sent it off in an envelope!

What's your writing routine/writing process?

I treat process/routine like a job. In other words, start work about 9:30 and do a day's work.

What sort of research do you do before writing?

Depending on what I'm writing I do quite a lot of research, but there comes a point when you know you're just researching as a displacement activity because you're dreading the idea of actually writing. Or, rather, getting the sort of anxiety that comes with having to turn research into something creative.

How did Garrow’s Law come about?

TwentyTwenty approached me because they had, rarely, been given a green light on the back of a treatment about a maverick barrister called William Garrow and the Old Bailey online archive - verbatim accounts of trials.  What I was looking for, beyond dramatising the development of the law, was the main character's journey and his relationships with key individuals like his former mentor / father figure and attorney, John Southouse.

How disciplined are you in your writing?

I suppose I'm quite disciplined, but I also get anxious if I don't write every day - as if I'm cheating myself somehow and guilt sets in!

Do you start with a big topic/concept and find the detail or do you start with something small and build up to a big topic/theme?

It depends but with, say, The Mark of Cain I couldn't simply write about the war in Iraq, I needed to find a way in that felt personal and universal, so I became interested in the idea of friendship between two 18-year-old boys - a rites of passage idea set in an extraordinary context.

What also helped enormously was coming across a small press story about a soldier who had been arrested outside of Snappy Snaps for some photos he had taken in to be developed - photos of the abuse of Iraqui detainees. This was both utterly blithe and banal but also revealed a mindset that he didn't really seem to think he had done anything wrong or had anything to hide.

In this case, I went from something very particular and small which then in narrative (and news) terms becomes a national scandal.

Your work is known for tackling big, difficult, unhappy subjects. Do you feel driven to tell stories in a certain way?

All subjects, no matter how difficult or contentious, have to have the examination and portrayal of humanity at their heart. For me especially, I'm ultimately interested in the idea of how to be good!

How has television changed since you’ve been working as a writer?

Writers have lost the initiative over the past few years. This has partly come about from structural changes in TV - the advent of independent production companies means that broadcasters have stopped talking to writers and now only really deal with production companies (in-house an exception obviously!)

More generally, TV is much more risk averse and writers aren't trusted as much - there's a lot of top-down commissioning, which means that controllers and execs are having an undue influence on what writers write. It means that writers become more pragmatic - giving broadcasters what they think they want, rather than what the writer is impassioned about - or are simply co-opted to write to order.

Do you find it difficult to stay passionate about a project given the length of time it takes to go through to production?

I know that it's normally a long slog but as long as there's the chance of a green light it's amazing how resilient you become.

Is it a different process writing for different broadcasters?

Channel 4 is very conscious of its brand, so for instance they don't so much want a Tony Marchant drama, as a  Channel 4 drama that happens to be written by Tony Marchant.

Who or what inspires you?

My big inspiration was Arthur Miller. And Paul Weller!

What are you working on at the moment?

I'm doing a number of things at the moment - because of the slowness of response you have to have several things on the go! I've written a screenplay for Working Title based on a book called McMafia; a single in with BBC1 called The Escape Artist, a single in with Channel 4 called Catching a Balloon; a Film Four project; and a three-part serial idea I'm developing for BBC1 called Public Enemies.

If someone wants to write for a living what advice would you give them?

Advice to writers is: have very thick skin, bags of endurance, and bags of passion! Writing for a living is tough and you can't forget that this is an industry not a patronage-led art form - although equally you have to believe that television writing is an art form!

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

The best thing about writing for a living is the freedom to express yourself and get paid for it!