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Murdered by My Father: Creating characters with feeling

2016-03-30T10:30:29+00:00

Murdered by My Father dramatizes a very real human tragedy at the heart of a family. But how did its star and writer ensure its characters had heart, too?

Kiran Sonia Sawar, actress:

It was really important to me that my character, Salma, wasn’t portrayed just as a vulnerable victim. I wanted to make her an intelligent girl who could make her own choices, who had her own will and who had her own backbone – having that behind her was really important to me. Just making her a normal teenager and a really accessible character that you see in the street every day was important.

I also didn’t want it to be a tyrannous relationship with her father – I wanted it to be a really loving relationship in a loving family home where there is a lot of compassion and empathy between herself, her brother and her dad.

Essentially, what I discovered with Salma was all her actions were to protect the people she loved and that’s all she really wanted, and the more she tried to do that, the harder it got for her.

I think it’s important to give a voice to these stories and also to bring light to the fact that it’s not necessarily what people think it is. It’s a human rights issue. Making dramas like this opens up that dialogue – I think that’s really important.

Vinay Patel, writer:

A 17-year-old girl is a complex person – I remember my sister when she was 17, she was lovely but an absolute nightmare! – and I think you want people to be able to see themselves. You want her to perhaps be a bit bolshy, you want her to have her own thing going on, you also want to see the contrast with that and the way she interacts with her father. We are all different with our friends than what we are with our parents – when you’re 17 that’s an especially big contrast! That was really important to me to get across.

With the father, Shahzad, you come to the programme knowing what an audience’s expectations of that character are roughly going to be. I think it’s important for the writer to try and flip that as much as possible.

It’s weird what having a title like Murdered by My Father does to something like this dramatically because you know what’s going to happen – both what’s going to happen to someone and who does it. You already know everything about the actions of that character so as a writer you want to give that character an arc and a journey.

There are cases where you can see a person’s mind turned by the sort of pressures that sit around them and that’s what helps you really get to the heart of the issue. The act is almost an aside – it’s the way of thinking that causes that to happen. I wanted people to see that he does struggle, because he does genuinely love his daughter and his mind is in conflict.

You want to believe that he might not do it. You want that character, who you know a little bit about, maybe even like a little bit, to tell himself: “Don’t do it, there is a good person in there who doesn’t have to do this”.

Vinay Patel wrote Murdered by My Father. Kiran Sonia Sawar plays Salma.

Murdered by My Father is available to watch in BBC iPlayer until 5pm on Sunday, 25 September.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Murder: Who are they all talking to?

2016-03-04T14:45:50+00:00

After the success of one-off drama Murder: Joint Enterprise in 2012, the team behind the programme are back with a new three-part series. In each standalone episode of Murder the actors speak directly into the camera. Writer Robert Jones explains…

Actors aren’t the only ones who ask who it is that their character in Murder is talking to.

I’ve never felt the format was a fly-on-the-wall documentary or video diary. When I started writing Murder, the form I used for inspiration was the witness stand in a law court. I was struck by how compelling this storytelling was, and how easily or problematically it fitted with the testimony of others.

Actress Anne-Marie Duff stars in episode two - directed by Paul Wright

The characters in Murder aren’t in court, they aren’t talking to a barrister - but they’re still giving their unique version of events in a way that favours their own actions over other people’s. Almost all of us will put ourselves in as favourable a light as possible, whatever terrible thing we might have done. There’s always some mitigating or provoking circumstance that can be stressed, and that’s what these characters are doing. They rarely lie, but they often omit and embellish. The best description I’ve come up with is that they’re conversations with God.

The other big difference for the actors is more technical: they have to perform alone, and look right into the camera. Some find this unsettling, especially as they can see themselves reflected in the lens. A few times, actors have invented stage directions for themselves for the moments prior to their lines: walking about or imagining a scenario that might fit with what they’re doing. Almost all seemed to enjoy it in the end. They might not be sparking off other performances around them but they do have the undivided attention of the director and crew.

Watch the unusual acting approach in action in a clip from Murder: The Third Voice

The direct-to-camera approach is demanding but pays dividends. Because there’s nowhere to hide, it seems to reveal character starkly. The combination of the close-up and the confessional nature of the speeches is potent. It’s also quite intense over the course of the drama, so it helps to have all the other evidential elements in play and to have editors as skilled as Jacob Thuesen and Kristina Hetherington to bring them together so beautifully.

I’m aware that the format could be demanding on the viewer. It’s not perhaps as straightforward as some more conventional dramas. I notice in the Radio Times that Alison Graham encourages viewers to "attend closely". I think she’s right - and I hope that those who do will find their attention richly rewarded.

Robert Jones wrote Murder.

Murder, episode one is available in BBC iPlayer until 11pm on Saturday, 2 April. The series continues on Thursday, 10 March at 9pm on BBC Two. Each episode will be available to watch in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Stag: We wanted to skewer masculinity

2016-02-26T17:55:55+00:00

Think of the worst stag do imaginable. Well, it would pale in comparison to the weekend timid teacher Ian Telford has to endure in upcoming dark comedy Stag. Taken deer-stalking with his future brother-in-law Johnners and his obnoxious pals, Ian already wants to go home. But when they start being killed off one by one, will he even make it through to Monday?

Writer and creator Jim Field Smith tells us why this age old ritual was the perfect environment for a dark comedy thriller.

Stag weekends are always predictable, rarely truly enjoyable - but it’s who you’re with, and everyone’s mood, that makes or breaks it.

In the case of this show, it’s a pretty unconventional weekend of hunting in the beautiful wilderness of Scotland. That in itself could be fairly pleasant. But they all behave so appallingly, so despicably - even when they should be working together to save each other - and that’s the defining factor.

For Stag, we wanted to skewer masculinity, and really there’s no better (or worse) display of that than on a stag weekend. Particularly when you add the ritualism of the hunting, the bloodsport, the testing of man versus nature.

We made our characters privileged which enabled us to heighten it even further - to set them up as entitled, supercilious, opinionated, unlikeable characters but then pull the rug from beneath them. To break them down to see what they’re really made of when it’s a case of life or death.

Getting the viewers to sympathise with these obnoxious individuals was a challenge we set ourselves, and something our amazing cast did a great job of bringing to life.

It might not be much, but if you can move the needle on the character just a few millimetres, if we can show that their bullishness is just a bluff, and there’s some deeper insecurities and vulnerabilities under there, then we might start to care about them. We’ve really tried to redeem almost all the characters in some way. We wanted to try to surprise the audience into empathising with characters we had initially encouraged them to despise.

I myself wouldn’t go near this particular stag weekend. But Ian (Jim Howick) doesn’t have a choice – he’s the bride’s brother. He’s too polite to say no, for one thing. But more importantly he’s got to defend his sister’s honour, and keep his promise to look out for her fiancé.

I’ve been in Ian’s position on my brother-in-law’s stag do. Well, it felt more like an organised riot than a stag party. It was fairly uncontroversial though. We spent the day paintballing in some forest somewhere. Just a bunch of very unfit men in their thirties, running for their lives and squealing like children. Then we ended up in a pub I think.

But Stag is a thriller. We took this so seriously we didn’t even let the cast know who was behind the killings. It was an absolute nightmare to keep it secret because our cast were all so flipping nosy. And in particular when they figured out that some people knew more than others.

So we had to engage in all sorts of misdirection and subterfuge. Changing names in the scripts, putting fake names on the call sheets, squirrelling people around in blacked-out cars and making sure they didn’t cross each other in the hallways. The conspiracy behind the scenes was almost more complicated than the on-screen plot.

Jim Field Smith is a writer, producer and director of Stag.

Stag starts on Saturday, 27 February at 9pm on BBC Two. Each episode will be available to watch in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Josh Widdicombe and Tom Craine debate TV's best and worst flat-mates

2015-11-18T15:00:17+00:00

Hi. Tom Craine here. Stand-up comedian and Songs of Praise Christmas special soloist 1992. After spending 23 years dining off a pitch-perfect rendition of Once in Royal David’s City, I co-wrote the new BBC Three sitcom Josh with fellow comedian Josh Widdicombe.

It revolves around three flat-mates and their daily stresses. Flat-sharing is something most people experience at some point. In fact Josh and I lived together a few years ago, and I think it’s safe to say he’d suggest I was an incredible housemate: kind, wise, and with a body in peak condition. Not too muscly. Not too slight. Just right. And I, in turn, would like to take this opportunity to say that Josh was an absolutely fine flatmate. Perfectly adequate. Although he did have a slight belly.

So with our flat-share sitcom hitting the airwaves, and with our house sharing past, the nice people at the BBC have asked us to mull over some famous sitcom roomies, and how we’d feel about living with them…

Josh's pick: Men Behaving Badly

Neil Morrissey and Martin Clunes lived 90s lad culture in their sitcom

Josh: I hate to admit this in print, but when I was an impressionable teenager with dreams of being independent, drunk and anywhere other than Devon, living the impossibly 90s lifestyle of Gary and Tony seemed like a utopia.

Looking back at that now I shudder at my naivety: while Men Behaving Badly remains a brilliant sitcom, how did I ever aspire to Gary and Tony’s eternal adolescence? Consistent trips to an awful local pub, badly functioning relationships, weak lager, and long hours in boring jobs. Having now lived all of these experiences at one time or another I can report back to my 13-year-old self that the reality doesn’t match up to the dream.

Tom's pick: Friends

Rachel Green (actress Jennifer Aniston) was an early crush of Tom's

Tom: I’d enjoy living with this bunch, and not just because I’d get to live in a New York penthouse for diddly-squat. Joey, Monica and I have a love of food in common, while Ross could tell me about dinosaurs, and hopefully loudly enough to drown out Phoebe.

But best of all, I’d get to spend time with Rachel, my number one teenage crush. As a spotty adolescent with nothing to show for myself apart from a crisp packet pencil case, I remember feeling genuinely happy when Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston had marital issues… as if that gave me an in.

Josh's pick: Bottom

Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson played the neighbours from hell in Bottom

Josh: A lot of problems here for me. Number one: I am quite scared by physical violence and consequently have never been in a fight. As a result I wouldn’t ideally choose to live with two men who would hit you in the face with a frying pan as soon as look at you.

Add this to cleanliness problems and issues with one of your flatmates having the surname Hitler, and you can count me out of this room ad. This is despite the obvious benefit that - for the first time - I'd be considered the household’s resident ladies’ man.

Tom's pick: Father Ted

This external content is available at its source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOWR2LPZ-TI

Tom: The issue here would be Dougal. I’ve had a dopey housemate before, and it was stressful. This was a man who once rushed to the loo after a big shop, and on finding no toilet roll, used a slice of bread.

Although I’m not this bad, I am a dopey person myself, so I need my flat-mates to offset this. In fact, on a recent romantic trip with my girlfriend, I managed to book a hotel room Ted and Dougal would’ve been proud of. Two singles and a dividing wall anyone?

Josh's pick: Josh

Landlord Geoff (Jack Dee) with tenants Kate (Beattie Edmondson), Josh (Josh Widdicombe) and Owen (Elis James)

Josh: For the sake of this article I should say I am presuming I am coming into this flat as a replacement for the character of Josh, rather than dealing with the glitch-in-the-Matrix scenario of sharing a house with someone with my name, face and voice.

I actually believe I would cope better with this set up than any other on offer in this article (for a start, I would find living with or near Jennifer Aniston impossibly intimidating). In fact, often after a day of filming, Elis James (who plays Owen) and I would discuss how even pretending to be these people made us miss the time when you lived with your friends and had no responsibilities. I am a nostalgic person by nature and I worry now that doing this sitcom has just been my way of returning to a house-share for one final time.

Tom Craine and Josh Widdicombe co-wrote Josh.

Josh continues on Wednesday, 18 November at 10.30pm on BBC Three. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

How we brought River’s imagination to life

2015-10-13T16:22:39+00:00

We showed River’s series creator, Abi Morgan and lead director, Richard Laxton, this clip from their new BBC One drama to see how they reacted watching it back. Read on to find out what they had to say…

ABI: I think the character of Thomas Cream - a manifestation of a former Victorian serial killer – represents the darkest part of despair for John River. And for me he’s a marker for the opening of the series. He shows us that River is really in the darkest place. The tone of it was meant to feel like this is a man who’s trying to hold it together and failing. And Cream becomes the voice of the darkest part of his subconscious.

For me this is a sort of ‘out of reel’ moment. And yet it feels placed, because you’re just given a moment of it and then you take him away. So it’s just telling audiences this is going to be something slightly different, you haven’t seen it all yet. And it shows the range of what you can do with River and his imagination.

RICHARD: When I read the script, I believed this man was having these experiences. So as the director the first thing for me to do was to find a way to make this feel completely dramatic and authentic but also make it real for that character.

When I first read Cream’s character, I remember thinking: ‘I should find this really alienating as a device’, but I feel, in the writing, it’s incredibly engaging. And it’s also putting the audience in a very privileged position. River, who we are asking you to get to know and fall for, has these experiences and you must understand what that’s like. It’s communicating that emotional state and it’s from that philosophy that every decision falls out.

Eddie Marsan's character Cream must be 'exorcised' by River during the series

ABI: Cream was a really important character because he was the place to go to when you needed to screw the show up a bit and take it away from the convention of a cop show really. Eddie Marsan, as a performer, is so dangerous. You feel like he’s a grenade about to explode and it’s so incredibly useable to express River’s inner ticking time bomb.

Richard and I talked about how we were going to make this Victorian character exist and breathe in what is an inherently contemporary look of urban London and the City. So it had to be done very lightly, and somehow I think it really comes together.

RICHARD: We had to balance how Cream looked – we didn’t want a top-hatted, tail-coated Victorian man - but we wanted it to be obvious that he wasn’t dressed in jeans and a t-shirt.

But it was also Eddie’s performance. He viscerally played that character’s truth. He’s a clever actor, he knows what his character’s doing and he owned the character.

Abi Morgan also wrote The Hour and new film Suffragette

RICHARD: We did some work in post-production to create the voiceover, partly because – I have to take some responsibility – I’d protracted River’s walk through this corridor, the bowels of the building, and we wanted the audience to be clear about who Cream was.

ABI: Often your greatest artistic choices are just because you need clarity. We just needed to place him to feel like he comes out of the book that River’s been reading. He sort of steps out of the pages.

RICHARD: And what we did with him – actually with all the manifests – we took out the ambient sound. Just to bring that experience into River’s head. And I’m pleased with that, having watched it some time after. I still think it was the right thing.

Stellan Skarsgard and Lesley Manville film scenes under Richard Laxton's direction

ABI: When I wrote the first episode, I didn’t know who was going to play River. But as soon as Stellan Skarsgard came on board I really started to write for him. He’s an extraordinary actor in terms of his range, and my concern with River’s character was that an audience could be quite exhausted by it, because he’s in every single scene. And when you put an actor under that much scrutiny, like us all, you see the tricks. But Stellan somehow doesn’t have the tricks. I think it’s because he comes into every scene really fresh and ready to play with it.

RICHARD: Stellan as a man is incredibly compassionate, mischievous and opinionated, in the most lovely way. And I think that part of his nature means he can play that character. Because there’s no ego in that, he just wanted to do good work. He cared about it. But also his sound, and his look to a certain extent, he feels like someone who is different. And of course his character feels isolated. So storytelling-wise I think it’s a great thing.

ABI: I also think his casting is endemic of the fact that the piece is about interlopers. It’s about London, where everybody’s from somewhere else. So I felt quite comfortable about having him there. And as long as you place that in front of an audience and kind of say ‘we know he’s Swedish as well’ [laughs] then you will trust us and you’ll go with it. The plot in a way is about people who don’t quite fit.

Abi Morgan is the series creator and Richard Laxton is lead director on River.

River starts on Tuesday, 13 October at 9pm on BBC One. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

See Abi Morgan's interview with BBC Writersroom

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Top Coppers: From the minds of two men who 'played too much cops and robbers'

2015-08-19T13:46:05+00:00

As co-creators of new BBC Three comedy Top Coppers, Cein McGillicuddy and Andy Kinnear have spent the best part of a decade developing the fictional Justice City Police Department and it's two flame-haired cops, John Mahogany and Mitch Rust. As the series kicks off, the pair explain the show's back story and the many, many film and TV references you can expect to see in it...

So, Cein and Andy, tell us about how long you’ve been working on Top Coppers?

C: We started out with a 15-second film, which features a lot of young, fresh out of university students - us! It was 2007 and Raindance was holding this competition.

A: We came up with doing a whole cop show, but in 15 seconds.

C: We knew a guy who had really big ginger hair, and at the time Andy had much bigger hair…

A: I was much more ginger!

C: We wanted to do two ginger cops that were partners – we thought it would be fun. And then thought of the character names Mahogany and Rust and the title Top Coppers came to us and we thought: ‘Ah yeah!’

A: We wanted to hold off doing anything more until we were good enough to do it. Then in 2010 we self-funded six five-minute episodes. I was editing Facejacker for Channel 4 at the time, so I knew Kayvan Novak quite well, and we managed to convince him to come and play our villain. So he gave us a day’s filming for free and he was brilliant really. I think having him on board really helped.

C: It helped a lot afterwards, with him being attached people trust it that bit more. It really intrigued Shane Allen, and when he came to the BBC as Controller of Comedy Commissioning he got back in touch.

This external content is available at its source: The first 15-second Top Coppers video

What is it about the cop genre that you love so much?

C: I think it gives you what is a very typically masculine environment, and I think we’re happy to admit we’re not the most masculine of guys.

A: Well….

C: Well I mean you are butch, you are butch.

A: Exactly.

C: [Laughs] But yeah there is something nice in modern day men like Mahogany – he’s a lot more cerebral and sensitive. But the cop show era was the era when men were supposed to be men. So that contrast already is funny.

As a director, I loved that style that they shot things in back then. It’s like they’d just discovered zooms and went nuts. And they over-emphasised everything. So they’d have an object and think: ‘We need a close-up of that,’ and would have someone lift it in, really obviously, and then back out. And it was just that kind of camera language that I really loved, because it’s just visually funny.

A: It’s so rich as well, they are such big stories, they’re like mini-films and there’s just so much going on. Big characters and big villains, there’s just so much to get your teeth into. We wanted it to be what you remember cop shows were like, and everyone’s memories of those great shows, all bundled into ours.

Starsky and Hutch were the main influences behind Mahogany and Rust

Let’s talk about the shows and films that influenced Top Coppers…

C: People have been comparing it to Police Squad, The Naked Gun, and even Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace which are all absolute favourites of ours. But we didn’t want to do that same thing, so it’s not a parody of old cop shows, it’s like the embodiment of the imagination of two kids who have played too much cops and robbers.

The first cop show I saw was probably Starsky and Hutch. Their names, Mahogany and Rust are supposed to have a sort of phonetic similarity, just a rhythm to them that sounds the same. So I think Starsky and Hutch was the main influence.

Another big one is actually Mission Impossible, the series rather than the movies. The camera style is more true to that than to Starsky and Hutch – Mission Impossible really went for it with their camera work!

A: I think Starsky and Hutch was a lot more tongue-in-cheek than I think people remember. It was quite a knowing show really.

C: Yeah you can’t take the mickey out of it like it took itself seriously because it didn’t. They knew it was funny. But a lot of what we remember from when we were young is the more 80s and 90s-type movies.

A: Yeah we’ve got The Terminator references; there is a very subtle Jurassic Park reference… a not very subtle Face/Off reference…

C: …There’s a not very subtle Robocop reference too. Then The Shawshank Redemption, Speed…

Another major influence is Father Ted, which might surprise people, because how can Top Coppers be anything like three priests living in a parochial house on a small island off Ireland?! But it’s because of the warmth and the character comedy of Father Ted, combined with some outright just really silly jokes. And that’s sort of the model of what we’re trying to do.

Cein McGillicuddy and Andy Kinnear co-created Top Coppers.

Top Coppers starts on Wednesday, 19 August at 10pm on BBC Three. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Five shocking truths about life for women in Lady Worsley and Jane Austen’s era

2015-08-14T13:18:22+00:00

It’s hard to believe that Seymour, Lady Worsley, the woman at the centre of one of the Georgian era’s biggest scandals, was not only a contemporary of author Jane Austen, but also her neighbour in Hampshire. That means the social and legal rules that governed Lady Worsley’s life also underpinned the romantic relationships that Austen wrote about.

As a historian and the author of Lady Worsley’s Whim - the inspiration for BBC Two drama The Scandalous Lady W - here’s why happily-ever-afters like Elizabeth Bennett’s marriage to Mr Darcy were unlikely to have been the norm...

George (Aneurin Barnard) his lover Seymour (Natalie Dormer) and her husband Richard (Shaun Evans)

1. Women had to give up their fortunes

Austen’s characters talk obsessively about dowries and a woman’s worth. Although most women didn’t have dowries or only possessed small ones, heiresses like Lady Worsley had to relinquish their entire fortune to their husband upon marriage. As women weren’t legally allowed to own property in their own names, they had to defer to their husbands if they wanted access to their assets. In most cases, a woman was granted pin money by her husband but if he chose to withhold it there was little she could do.

Would Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy have been so happy in real life?

2. Women couldn’t always choose who they married

Technically a woman wasn’t free to choose the husband she wanted, she could only refuse those who approached her and who she (or her parents) didn’t deem suitable. If she didn’t fancy any of them, she would have been under a lot of pressure to choose among the least offensive of the lot. Think of poor Charlotte Lucas marrying Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice. Marriage and mothering were considered a woman’s sole purpose in the 18th century, and if she had failed to marry, she had failed in life.

Would Charlotte Lucas marry Mr Collins if she were free to find love?

3. No laws prevented violence in marriage

There were no laws in place that prevented a husband from physically or emotionally abusing his wife. Although society frowned on this behaviour, an angry and violent husband was within his rights to lock his wife in a room and to beat and torment her. Many women had no recourse other than to leave their marriages. Even then, the law did not prevent their husbands from stalking them.

4. If a woman left, it was unlikely she would see her children again

The law at the time granted a man absolute paternal control over his children. This meant that if a woman left her husband he had the right to prevent her from ever seeing her children again. If adultery was involved, the law stripped her of all of her maternal rights and forbade visitation. A woman like Lady Worsley, who could no longer bear the misery of her marriage and wished to escape with a man she loved, was forced to make a terrible choice between starting a new life and seeing her children.

Hallie introduces Lady Worsley's character on The Scandalous Lady W set

5. Women could not sue their husbands for separation, divorce or adultery

Even if the husband in question was a notorious rake. Men alone could bring legal suits, as the law considered women possessions, with no recognised rights. A woman could not vote, attend university or - heaven forbid - enter any of the professions: politics, law, the military or the church. The cards were stacked against women who sought to go-it-alone, and often those who were cut off from their families and lacking the resources to sustain themselves had no other choice but to become the mistress of another man – or to a succession of them.

But in spite of all of the warnings to the contrary, many women who fell from grace were able to lead contented and full lives outside of the conventions of society.

While the process of losing their place in respectable society, their homes and their families would have been excruciating, many such as Lady Worsley, Grace Dalrymple Elliott and Lady Ligonier were able to forge new, freer existences outside of their marriages.

A woman might choose her lovers, whereas she might not have had much choice over the man she married. If wealthy enough, she could travel on the continent and maintain her own home according to her own wishes.

As the late 18th century saw a rise in suits for separation, there were a number of dispossessed women of rank to befriend. In fact, many of them ended up entering the circle of the party-loving Prince of Wales and scaling the social heights.

Hallie Rubenhold is a historian and author of Lady Worsley's Whim.

The Scandalous Lady W is broadcast on Monday, 17 August at 9pm on BBC Two and will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Read David Eldridge's post on adapting Hallie's book for TV on BBC Writersroom.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Greg James loves radio so much, he made a comedy about it!

2015-07-13T11:42:41+00:00

Most people know him as a Radio 1 DJ and television presenter, but Greg James is shaking things up by starring in a self-penned new comedy short, Dead Air, exclusive to BBC iPlayer. So is his character, late-night radio host Jake Cross, anything like the real Greg James?

The release of Dead Air makes me feel like I’m about to send my child to school and I’ve got to leave them at the school gates. I’m like a worried parent at the window… I’ll be giving them a thumbs up all day going: “It’s OK, it’ll be OK.” But it’s been a long time coming really. I’m relieved people will finally be able to see it and I hope somebody will like it.

The storyline is entirely fictional. But obviously I’m in the radio world and I’m on BBC Radio 1 so there are lots of bits that are inspired by the things that happened or by conversations that I’ve had.

My character Jake is a cool late night DJ which is nothing like me. It was much more fun to play someone that is a bit more credible in the music world. He’s a well-respected DJ with a small but very loyal fan base and his big dilemma is whether to take the big coveted breakfast show slot.

I met Tom Davis when I did a taster tape for Murder in Successville and it was the most fun I’ve ever had in front of the camera. I really loved improvising and being able to flex those muscles again. I’ve always performed - I’ve got a drama degree - and hadn’t done it for a while so remembered how much I loved doing it. As soon as I started writing ‘Dead Air’, I realised that Tom would be perfect to play my mean spirited agent.

There’s a Big Shane in all of us I think. He’s the guy who doesn’t worry about anything, and is really obnoxious and no one really likes him but he thinks everyone does. He’s just a classic villain that you really love.

I love a pun. One of the most fun bits of this was coming up with the radio jingles and the phone in that Big Shane does when he’s coming up with pizza puns. We really loved doing it and all that stuff does happen in radio – it’s great to parody those sorts of worlds. I’ve done phone-ins like that, and I do silly voices on my show - all that kinds of stuff that Jake hates!

I’m happy doing my show and I have the best hours in the whole world. I don’t want to leave Radio 1. But there is something inside my belly that makes me want to write and do some more acting and writing.

My heroes are Steve Coogan and Ricky Gervais. I think they are the finest of all time. Ricky Gervais’ writing inspired me because he sort of created a new genre with The Office. A genre where it was OK not to have a laughter track and OK for something to be real and for people to question things.

One of the first things I ever watched was Fawlty Towers. It was made 10 years before I was born. I just loved it and thought it was incredible.

Greg James hosts his Radio 1 show at 4pm on weekdays, and co-wrote Dead Air.

Dead Air is available to watch and download from Monday, 13 July at 11pm in BBC iPlayer as part of Comedy Feeds.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

How drama My Jihad got its name

2015-06-29T14:30:08+00:00

Throughout the entire process the title has always been My Jihad. At no point was any other title in contention.

Maybe there was a hint of mischief when I made the choice, but My Jihad always felt like a very obvious title to me, and luckily, nobody ever questioned it, because I wouldn't have even entertained anything else.

There may have been a sense of wanting a title that was dramatic and caught people’s attention. But ultimately, it was the title's thematic resonance to the story that made it perfect.

Fahmida and Nazir finally go on their first date...

First and foremost the title refers to a Muslim’s inner struggle to live out the Muslim faith as well as possible by marrying a woman of the same faith, providing for her and bringing up their children. It is less a quest of discovery and more a battle to make oneself a more rounded, productive, merciful and compassionate human being. To make oneself whole.

So often in our lives, the most transformative moments are not hugely thrilling or accompanied by dramatic music and explosions. Despite this, we change and develop, and this is the essence of drama. So if the writing is any good, the Nazir and Fahmida we have at the end of the series will be different to the Nazir and Fahmida we started with in episode one.

Will love blossom for the pair?

Nobody who watches the films can argue that the title is not appropriate, and I feel like the series speaks for itself. As for audience takeaway, it's impossible to second-guess that reaction. For my part, if a viewer decides to watch the films because of the title, makes it to the end, smiles, and does not feel like he or she has wasted their time, I'll be happy.

I believe that most people out there know the nuances regarding the meaning of 'jihad'. It does have a military meaning but it also relates to many other things that are just pushed out of the discussion altogether. Linguistically it relates to exerting oneself. For many people it only conjures images of warfare and brutality, but jihad is also ridding oneself of ugly traits like envy, gluttony, pride, arrogance and conceit. And in the modern era, I think we could all do with a little bit of that!

Shakeel Ahmed wrote My Jihad.

Episode one of My Jihad is available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Three new episodes will be available to watch in BBC iPlayer from Sunday, 28 June.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Women Who Spit: Five spoken word poets speak for themselves

2015-04-30T16:59:07+00:00

Inspired by the #AskHerMore movement, which debates the questions actresses are typically asked on the red carpet, we asked the five upcoming British artists who contributed exclusive performances to the BBC iPlayer Women Who Spit short film collection to pose themselves one perfect question which they'd love to be asked.

What was your process when writing this poem, or when writing in general?

I don’t really have a process, that’s the honest answer. In my day to day life, I’m constantly observing little things or having thoughts which I type into my phone or scribble on something, and when I get to sit down and write, it’s kind of about pulling it together. I like finding the meaning, the beauty, or the surprising in the everyday.

For Women Who Spit, I had a brief to work to, so the writing process was slightly different. I knew I wanted to explore mental health. So it involved a lot of walking around and sitting on tubes and busses and thinking of ways to represent this with words.

The feeling I get when I’ve finished something that I’m proud of, where I believe I’ve achieved what I wanted to say, is completely incomparable to anything else. I live for those moments. Seeing things making sense on a page and knowing you achieved that. That’s why I write really.

Watch Cecilia Knapp's Why I Write

What is your desire for change?

I would like to see our society fall back in love with itself. To stop abusing itself and to redefine home as a place of peace for all who reside within it. For the fridge to be open and full, so to speak. Mi casa su casa.

Our feelings and responsibility towards home could extend past our front doors and into the streets - we could reimagine space as something we have the power to shape. We have the potential to realise this earth as our home and to love it.

Watch Deanna Rodger's Spikes

Who are your role models and why are they important to you?

My role models are women I encounter every day, such as my university lecturers at King’s College London who are incomparably inspiring. They are brilliant at their jobs, dedicated to their students and juggle all the pleasures and pressures of family life, gender inequality in the workplace and being a woman in the 21st century.

I aspire to become an academic and I am lucky enough to be surrounded daily by successful women in the field I wish to pursue. They are physical embodiments of a potentially smashed glass ceiling!

I am also encouraged amazingly by the women on our screens and airwaves at the BBC and beyond, such as Mary Beard, Lauren Laverne, Jane Garvey, Bonnie Greer, Kirsty Wark and Kirsty Young, who inspire, enlighten and enliven. The more their voices (and more like them) are heard, the better.

Watch Megan Beech's Broader Broadcasting Corporation

Your poem is very much about your own experiences, what would you like other people to take from it?

I’d love it if the piece gave young women confidence that your relationship with your body can get easier and that self-acceptance is achievable.

I’d also love for it to be a reminder to everyone that your relationship with your body is your own business, not anybody else’s. And that, although I really wish that it wasn’t, it’s normal to feel insecure about the way you look.

We live in a society where women are valued first and foremost for their looks. I guess I want young women to understand that although I am a committed feminist, who grows her body hair, I still worry sometimes that my stomach isn’t flat enough.

Watch Jemima Foxtrot's Mirror

Why did you write this piece?

Anger and struggle is an important and inevitable part of feminism but I wanted to do a piece with a celebratory feeling. I know so many amazing women who have inspired me in all manner of ways and I guess this poem is partly a dedication to them.

I want women to watch the piece and breathe a sigh of relief – I think for a lot of people feminism can sometimes feel like a test you are constantly failing! We are humans before we are feminists and that means we have flaws and contradictions. It's more important that we care for and listen to each other rather than tear each other down.

Watch Vanessa Kisuule's Take Up Space

Cecilia, Deanna, Megan, Jemima and Vanessa each created a short film as part of Women Who Spit.

The Women Who Spit short film collection is available to watch on BBC iPlayer from Monday, 4 May.

Find out more about the #AskHerMore movement.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Don’t be sad - Poldark will return! Here’s the writer on what you can expect in series two

2015-04-23T08:30:36+00:00

I don't think any of us in the production team were prepared for the way Poldark has continued to generate a buzz across social media and in the press throughout its entire run. It's always great to be talked about but this has gone beyond what any of us ever imagined!

The fact that Poldark has been mentioned in connection with anything and everything from the general election...

This external content is available at its source: Why am I only finding out now there's a petition to have #Poldark run in the General election?

to manscaping...

This external content is available at its source: Ah, yes. Monday seems made for media coverage on manscaping. 'Where has #Poldark's chest hair gone?'

hair products...

This external content is available at its source: Tbh I would marry Poldark purely for the hair products, it's doing his curls wonders

toy figures...

This external content is available at its source: A topless Playmobil version of Rodd Poldark bathing in the sea

and scything as a fitness regime...

This external content is available at its source: #Poldark starts a fitness craze. Is 'scything' the next big workout craze?

Poldark seems to be everywhere.

The cast and characters seem to have captured the public's imagination - and we've no complaints about that!

In series two, several exciting new key characters will appear, and there will continue to be turmoil and strife in Ross' business ventures and plenty of challenges to his and Demelza's domestic and family harmony. Across the series there will be catastrophic losses, significant triumphs, and some major shocks.

Ross will again be involved in several activities which work up a sweat. Scything - an integral part of 18th century farming - may be one of them!

The good news is you don’t have to imagine what might happen to Ross and Demelza between now and series two: Winston Graham is very clear about what happens in the interim.

Since series two is based on his books Jeremy Poldark and Warleggan, the key narrative incidents and characters will be similar to those covered in these works.

So those of you who want to be surprised can just tune in for episode one of series two when it returns, and those who can't wait just need to read the beginning of the third book, Jeremy Poldark, and all will be revealed!

Debbie Horsfield is writer and executive producer of Poldark for BBC One.

The final episode of Poldark, series one will be broadcast on Sunday 26 April at 9pm on BBC One and will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

More on Poldark

Aidan Turner: Five things I learned filming Poldark
Are you Team Elizabeth or Demelza?
Read Debbie Horsfield's blog on BBC Writersroom

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Spiral: Showrunner Anne Landois answers your questions

2015-02-14T15:58:13+00:00

This post is for people who have seen the last episode of series five of Spiral. Watch the double bill finale first to avoid spoilers!

After losing Pierre Clement midway through the series it was hard to imagine where the inscrutable Josephine Karlsson, our tenacious Captain Berthaud and Judge Roban would end up. The gripping double bill finale of series five left us reeling once again but luckily Anne Landois, writer and the showrunner of Spiral, joined us from France to answer your questions afterwards.

Here is a taster of some of your questions and Anne's replies. To read the rest of Anne's replies please see the Editors' Picks below.

MoXYZ (#137) asks: "It seems that as Laure becomes more and more vulnerable, Josephine becomes darker and darker. Do you consciously create this contrast or has it simply grown with each wonderful series?"

Anne replies:

Barbara Murray (#328) asks: "It's a brilliant series, but so sad at the end. No hope of some happiness?"

Anne replies:

Joyce (#36) asks: "I thought the father of the baby had been killed in the bomb explosion. Who's the man Gilout phoned? Is it Laure's ex-boyfriend? Is he the real father? Where's he been all these weeks?"

Anne replies:

Thank you to everyone who joined us. The Q&A with Anne is now over but you can still comment below.

Spiral is on Saturday, 14 February at 9pm on BBC Four and BBC Four HD. The series five double bill finale is available to watch on BBC iPlayer until 9.45pm on Monday, 16 March.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

That Day We Sang: It began in my bedsit

2014-12-23T08:45:41+00:00

In 1975, when I was 22 and on the dole in a bedsit (happy days!), I saw a documentary about the Manchester Children’s Choir who made a record of Nymphs and Shepherds in 1929. The programme featured a reunion of former choir members, now middle-aged, talking about that wonderful day when they had sung with the Hallé orchestra.

The Manchester Children's Choir performance reimagined for That Day We Sang

When I was approached by the Manchester International Festival about writing a stage piece for them, the story of that choir came into my head as a possible basis for a play.

As I started to write, the memory of that 1975 documentary grew a little stronger and the play became a musical about the reunion, and the memories of the middle-aged people whose lives had perhaps not matched up to that marvellous day.

The musical I created, That Day We Sang, had 10 performances as part of the 2011 festival at the Opera House in Manchester, but I wanted it to have a further life, and I was really lucky to be supported in that wish by Ben Stephenson at the BBC, who commissioned it as a 90-minute film.

Most people know musicals are not written, they are re-written, and it was great to have a second chance at exploring the story. I was able to write another number for my main female character Enid - which takes place in an exercise class, in her bedroom, on a bus and along a street - something which would have been hard to pull off on the stage.

Scared of life, scared of sheep, scared of thunder: Enid reflects on her timid life

And I was able to weave in extra elements of the story, for example, I expanded the character of Mr Kirkby. He is the gruff religious choir organiser, wounded in the First World War, and he develops a friendship with our boy hero Jimmy. It’s an undemonstrative relationship, but brought to life by Daniel Rigby it’s a very touching performance.

At first it’s very liberating to take something from stage to film - you can cut so easily between the two periods, the 20s and the 60s, and you can nip about from place to place without all the scene changing and prop setting of the theatre.

And then you are faced with the cold hard facts of the budget and the constraints of filming anything that is not contemporary. My story is set in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester - in the 60s this was an ornamental gardens with flowers and shrubs and benches for office workers to have their lunch.

Now it is unrecognisable and not somewhere you would rush to have your butties.

The perfect civic space for Tubby and Enid's Fred and Ginger sequence

The children of the 1929 choir made their record in the Free Trade Hall. That hall was bombed in the Manchester Blitz and even the post-war rebuilt version has now gone, replaced by a hotel. Terraced streets tend to have replacement windows and satellite dishes now, and most streets are lined with parked cars.

But somehow, with the help of the producer Paul Frift and the imagination of the designer Tom Burton - you come up with solutions that will enhance the story without breaking the bank.

We found a lovely square in Liverpool that housed not only a perfect office for Enid to work in and a bit of pavement for Tubby to walk by on, but a cobbled area where they could meet for lunch and even sing and dance.

Tubby (Michael Ball) and Enid (Imelda Staunton) do a turn

We wanted Michael and Imelda to sing live wherever possible, and so Liverpool office workers on their own lunch breaks were treated to the sight of Michael Ball up a ladder serenading someone they couldn’t see, to an orchestral accompaniment that only Michael could hear.

But it’s a great way to record vocals if you can manage it - it gives a spontaneity and freshness and reality you don’t get when actors are lip-syncing to something they recorded weeks before.

The whole thing was a great privilege to work on and I really hope people enjoy it!

Victoria Wood is the writer and director of That Day We Sang.

That Day We Sang is available to watch in BBC iPlayer until Saturday, 19 September 2015 at 10.30pm.

It was first broadcast on BBC Two on Friday, 26 December 2015.

More on That Day We Sang
Life of Wylie: Q&A with Victoria Wood, Imelda Staunton and Michael Ball

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

On Angel Wings: Telling the Christmas story in a different way

2014-12-19T16:43:56+00:00

Children's author Michael Morpurgo shares the vision behind the animated adaptation of his Christmas story, On Angel Wings.

The Christmas story is a story one knows so well, almost too well because very often it’s so familiar that we have stopped listening. So I thought, tell it in a different way, bringing new life to the story but keeping to the spirit and above all, the integrity of it.

Amos (voiced by Oliver Walsh), is greeted by Angel Gabriel (Dominic Cooper)

Traditional stories are the foundation of all storytelling. I love them because they have lasted through the centuries and love the idea that stories listened to 2000 years ago are as compelling now as they were then.

I think children in the company of adults, particularly a child alone often feels overwhelmed with busy lives and by conversations going on of which they don’t seem to be a part. So that fitted perfectly with my idea to create a shepherd boy who was simply left behind to guard the sheep while everyone else went off to have a good time.

'You can't be a shepherd and afraid of the dark!'

The book was illustrated wonderfully by Quentin Blake, pictures and text simply complementing one another. The film is a different thing, as is a play. And adaptation to a new medium is essential to giving the story a new and a different life.

Quentin Blake’s signature style helped bring the story to life on the page

I’ve worked with Juliet Stevenson a lot in the past and have always found her characterisation of the parts she plays utterly compelling whether on stage or on film. She and Michael Gambon make a wonderful cast for this story and Julian Nott’s music is thrilling and wonderfully atmospheric.

In the film, there is a moment when the baby reaches out and grabs the shepherd boy’s finger and holds it. For me, that is a most wonderful moment to be able to witness.

Michael Morpurgo wrote On Angel Wings.

On Angel Wings is on Christmas Eve at 4.15pm on BBC One and BBC One HD. For further programme times, please see the upcoming broadcasts page.

More on On Angel Wings
Radio Times: Do kids know the true meaning of Christmas?

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Remember Me: I’d only written the first episode when Michael Palin signed up

2014-11-28T12:08:46+00:00

Remember Me writer Gwyneth Hughes tells us what attracted her to setting a ghostly tale in a Yorkshire seaside town, and why she’s always been drawn to mystery.

I live in Yorkshire, so naturally I tend to want to set my stories here. But particularly for Remember Me, the big skies and deserted landscapes seemed very suitable! I love spending time in Scarborough, so once I had the idea that the song Scarborough Fair might play a part in the drama, it was a no-brainer to go to the seaside for filming.

As a viewer, I always get really annoyed if actors' accents are all over the place, which is reason enough to cast northern actors for Remember Me. But it's also great to get people who really understand the landscape and the way of life here, so that the film stands a chance of being really true to itself, and can offer a real sense of place.

Jodie Comer, Mark Addy and Michael Palin star in this spooky drama

I didn’t have anybody in mind to play the central character of Tom Parfitt. But the minute Michael Palin's name came up, I was dancing round the house shouting down the phone: "Yes! Yes!"

Michael signed up to play Tom on the strength of reading the first episode - I hadn't then written the others! So my initial joy was soon followed up by anxiety about what I was going to put in the next two episodes.

I always like to have a very wide range of characters in my stories. Old and young, male and female, English and Asian. And this project is no different. The care home came into the story because I wanted Tom to decide to leave his own home to get away from his memories. It was the natural place to send him, and give him a brief sense of safety.

Michael Palin and Mina Anwar film scenes in Yorkshire

I was brought up on the Brothers Grimm, so a good scary story has always held my attention. But in our family life, too, there were scary mysteries. My Dad was from Snowdonia, and he used to drive us all up in his motorbike and sidecar. His brother and sisters had never married, and they all lived together in a mad house full of weird and wonderful artefacts and almost no lighting. Plus none of them spoke English. For my little brother and me, this was a treasure house of spooky experiences and we grew up loving the rollercoaster ride of mild fear!

All ghost stories have to emerge from a sense of loss and loneliness, I think, and all these characters have lost something very precious. Remember Me has a contemporary setting, and the emotional and family relationships I explore come very much from our own world. So I think I've been trying to marry an old-fashioned ghost story with a very contemporary drama of character.

The song Scarborough Fair becomes a supernatural symbol

I can't really cope with stories where nobody dies, because I can't work out why it's important. I really don't much like films where everyone sits about and talks and nothing much happens! I like the stakes to be high in a story.

A lot of crime drama can be thin on characterisation and unnecessarily brutal, and I can't be doing with that kind of thing. But a good mystery, whether crime or otherwise, really holds your attention and takes your mind off your own troubles. It’s the best kind of escapism, to me.

Gwyneth Hughes wrote Remember Me.

Remember Me continues on Sunday, 30 November at 9pm on BBC One and BBC One HD. For further programme times, please see the episode guide.

Read Gwyneth’s advice on becoming a writer on the Writersroom blog.

More on Remember Me
BBC Writersroom: Read Gwyneth Hughes' Remember Me scripts
The Telegraph: Michael Palin's memorable return
Express: Michael Palin returns to drama after 20 years
BBC News: Mark Addy on starring in two BBC dramas
YouTube: Gwyneth Hughes talks to the University of Huddersfield

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.