The art of screenwriting - Jack Thorne Jez Butterworth Russell T Davies - November 2019 - Royal Television Society
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
November 2019 The art of screenwriting Jack Thorne Jez Butterworth Russell T Davies
ScreenSkills develops and sustains a world-class
workforce for UK film, TV (high-end, children’s,
unscripted), animation, VFX and games
Do you want to share your industry
experience and boost your career?
Give back.
Become a mentor
Visit ScreenSkills.com/mentoring for
information on how you can help
shape the future of the industry
Peaky Blinders © BBC/Caryn Mandabach Production Ltd 2019/Robert Viglasky
Killing Eve 2 © Sid Gentle Productions
Doctor Who © BBC
Journal of The Royal Television Society
November 2019 l Volume 56/10
From the CEO
Elsewhere, all eyes This was followed by a Q&A with the broadcaster and political journalist
might be on the elec- series’ creators. It was great to see so and former Chair of the RTS Televi-
tion but, here at the many of the show’s dedicated fans at sion Journalism Awards; Seetha
RTS, we’ve continued this highly entertaining evening. Kumar, CEO of ScreenSkills; Andy
to roll out our autumn It is always a thrill to get out of Lon- Lucas, vice-president, global distribu-
events calendar. don and visit the nations and regions. tion technology, Universal Pictures
The early-evening Attending this year’s RTS Northern International; Kevin Lygo, ITV’s direc-
session on branded content was a Ireland Programme Awards, held in tor of television; Niall Sloane, ITV’s
sell-out. Huge thanks to everybody Belfast and hosted by Vogue Williams, director of sport; Jane Turton, CEO of
who made this such an informative was a real pleasure. All3Media; and Sally Woodward Gen-
and stimulating session. I am espe- Back in London, a stellar line-up of tle, CEO of Sid Gentle Films.
cially grateful to all of the panellists. television practitioners gave two days
The first two episodes of season 2 of RTS Student Masterclasses at the IET.
of Sky Atlantic’s high-concept drama Finally, congratulations to our eight
Britannia were shown at an exclusive new RTS Fellows: Kenton Allen, CEO
RTS screening at the Curzon Soho. of Big Talk Productions; Sue Inglish, Theresa Wise
Contents
4 Ranvir Singh’s TV Diary
Ranvir Singh puts practicalities before politics as she
braces for another Downing Street doorstep 18 An audience with a TV revolutionary
Russell T Davies explains to Gethin Jones why TV still
needs to get out of its straight, white rut. Matthew Bell
has a front-row seat
5 Ear Candy: RuPaul’s Drag Race UK
Can’t wait for your weekly fix? Kate Holman plugs
into the show’s podcast
20 Soccer’s moment of truth
It’s not only the fans who will be watching Amazon
Prime’s live Premier League kick-off next month, as
6 Working lives: Sustainability manager Ross Biddiscombe discovers
Richard Smith, BBC sustainability manager, is
interviewed by Roz Laws
22 Television’s biggest fan
Jane Turton, CEO of All3Media and the new Chair of the
8 Jack on the box RTS, tells Steve Clarke why she lives and breathes TV
Jack Thorne, writer of The Accident and adaptor of His
Dark Materials, is one of the UK’s most sought-after
screenwriters. He talks to Ben Dowell
25 Our Friend in Scotland
In an era of Netflix and Disney+, play to your strengths,
recommends Simon Pitts
11 Sky’s big spender
Jane Millichip, Sky Studios’ deal-maker extraordinaire and
supporter of Extinction Rebellion, tells Andrew Billen how
she came clean to her bosses about her left-wing views 27 TV’s tech pioneers
Anne Dawson looks at how the RTS Technology Bursary
Scheme encourages young women to consider careers
once seen as off limits to them
14 Message in the magic
Caroline Frost meets some of the producers of the
BBC’s latest natural history blockbuster, Seven Worlds,
One Planet 30 Brands boost budgets
Advertisers are increasingly stepping in to close
the funding gap, discovers Matthew Bell at an
RTS early-evening event
16 Britannia – ‘There’s no Jane Austen here’
Jez Butterworth and colleagues tell the RTS how his
‘gloriously bonkers’ historical saga repurposed the
English costume drama. Steve Clarke reports 32 RTS news and events listings
Reports of Society activities across the nations and
regions, and calendar of forthcoming public events
Editor Production, design, advertising Royal Television Society Subscription rates Printing Legal notice
Steve Clarke Gordon Jamieson 3 Dorset Rise UK £115 ISSN 0308-454X © Royal Television Society 2019.
smclarke_333@hotmail.com gordon.jamieson.01@gmail.com London EC4Y 8EN Overseas (surface) £146.11 Printer: FE Burman The views expressed in Television
News editor and writer Sub-editor T: 020 7822 2810 Overseas (airmail) £172.22 20 Crimscott Street are not necessarily those of the RTS.
Matthew Bell Sarah Bancroft E: info@rts.org.uk Enquiries: publication@rts.org.uk London SE1 5TP Registered Charity 313 728
bell127@btinternet.com smbancroft@me.com W: www.rts.org.uk
Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 3
TV diary
Ranvir Singh puts practicalities before
politics as she braces for another
Downing Street doorstep
M
y alarm has it easy to enjoy red-carpet events. him a lot, and the pressure and guilt
been almost Some people live for them. Not me. of being a single mum with an only
constantly set As I sit in make-up, 12 hours after I child who deserves my full, undivided
for 3:30am for woke up, I’m repeating to myself, attention. I’m pretty sure I’m doing
seven years “Enjoy this, enjoy this”. I get a photo both badly sometimes.
now. My with Harry Kane while I’m inside, feel
body is so humbled and inadequate hearing the ■ Saturday, and we watch the Rugby
attuned to it that I almost always stories, and flop into bed at midnight. World Cup final while out having
awake before it goes off. It’s now breakfast. I shed a tear over the
3:03am on Monday morning and I’m ■ It looks likely a snap election will South African captain and secretly
staring at my phone, having just been be passed by the Commons tonight. want them to win because it means
happily dreaming about glaciers. I’m at ITN to do the national evening so much more to them than just
I flew back late last night from four news. It still excites me every time I being a game. That’s not patriotic, I
magical days in Iceland marvelling at hear Big Ben’s “bongs” at the top of know, but it’s how I feel.
the power of Mother Earth. After a the show, and tonight’s is a big show.
few hours’ sleep, it’s time to get my There’s an electric, hyper-focused ■ I’ve been invited to watch Strictly
head back into the man-made fire- atmosphere in the newsroom. at Elstree Studios tonight. So, after
works of Westminster politics. It’s decided that we should take the handing my son over in Warwick
I’ll be out in the dark, freezing-cold programme out of the studio and on to services car park to my sister, I get
conditions of live TV outside Parlia- the platform erected in front of Parlia- ready and drive there with a friend.
ment and No 10, talking about Brexit ment. It’s my first OB for evening In the VIP tent we have to hand in
in the week we’re supposed to be news, and, for the first time in years, our phones – just like you do inside
leaving the EU. You’d assume that my I’m actually nervous.… By 7:00pm we Downing Street.
first thoughts of the morning/middle are done and I’m genuinely thrilled. We’re shown to our seats, and told
of the night would be about the latest they’ll give us water and a biscuit in
news lines, but it’s more important to ■ The next day, I’m in Sunderland about two hours to keep us going.
consider the correct thickness of for a family funeral. The following Even though I’ve worked in live TV
thermals, boots and coat for the day. day, after Good Morning Britain, which for years, it’s still exciting being here.
Get it wrong and brain freeze sets I do Monday to Thursday, I go to My hands hurt from all the clap-
in very quickly. Practicalities before the gym with my personal trainer. ping we have to do, sometimes to
politics, people. The evening is dedicated to spend- order for the edit. It’s bloody
ing time with my son – and making exhausting watching close-up how
■ Later on, it’s time to get ready for Halloween fun for him. fast the dancers’ bodies move. Wow.
the Pride of Britain Awards red carpet. The internal battle rages daily, Mike Bushell is saved again.
It’s the one big TV event that’s about sometimes minute to minute: pursu-
brilliant people, and I love meeting ing a career that needs a lot of atten- Ranvir Singh is Good Morning Brit-
them but, to be honest, I don’t find tion but which takes me away from ain’s political editor.
4
Ear candy
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK
BBC
Can’t wait for your weekly fix? Kate Holman
plugs into the show’s podcast
S
tart your engines! have included Downton Draggy and The duo discuss everything from who
RuPaul’s Drag Race has winning queens are awarded RuPeter slayed on the runway to the perfor-
finally made its way badges. And, each Thursday, drag mance of the week’s worst lip-sync.
across the pond for a legend RuPaul is joined by Michelle Scarlett and Baby are joined by an
UK makeover – and a Visage and an array of celebrity eclectic mix of special guests and
weekly podcast from guests, such as Alan Carr, Andrew celebrity fans. Drag king Kemah Bob
BBC Sounds for even Garfield and Cheryl. They judge the and Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan
more content about the nation’s drag queens on their talent, charisma have both appeared. There have also
favourite drag queens. and individuality in the search for the been visits from the latest queen to
After 11 series of the popular US next drag superstar. have sashayed away from the compe-
drag competition, diehard fans On Sundays, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK: tition for an exclusive tea-spilling
rejoiced when it was announced that The Podcast brings the show’s com- interview.
RuPaul’s Drag Race would be heading munity viewing experience to the Alongside the main podcast, BBC
to BBC Three for the first UK series. podcasting world. There’s a full Sounds offers a playlist created by the
While staying true to the US format, debrief of the latest episode from week’s eliminated queen to help get
the UK version has been sprinkled super-fan hosts Scarlett Moffatt and you through the Sunday-evening
with a touch of British flair. Tasks “punk-horror drag queen” Baby Lame. blues. n
Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 5
WORKING
LIVES
Sustainability
manager
R
ichard Smith has been department. I had no sustainability
the BBC’s sustainability training or qualifications, but I was
manager for 10 years. enthusiastic and understood TV
He was previously an production.
on-screen reporter for I think my two careers share some
BBC regional news pro- skill sets. You have to be relentlessly
grammes, including Midlands Today. As resilient and persuasive, and be able to
home affairs correspondent for BBC take a lot of complex information and
South East, he reported on drugs, asylum make it understandable.
seekers and homelessness, and won an I was taken on for six months to
RTS award. develop a carbon calculator for TV
Based at MediaCity UK in Salford, production. I’ve been here ever since.
Smith heads a team working to raise I have since trained with the Institute
awareness of environmental issues of Environmental Management and for a CBeebies programme. The pro-
within the television industry and Assessment to become a chartered ducer had asked me for advice on
reduce the carbon footprint of pro- environmentalist. conveying issues of climate change
gramme production. to toddlers, which is wonderful.
He devised the Albert carbon calcu- What does the job involve?
lator, which he shared with the rest It’s very varied, from writing the BBC’s How has the role and reactions to it
of the TV industry through Bafta. The sustainability strategy and reporting to changed in a decade?
scheme is now used by more than management at the highest levels, to Ten years ago, I had to explain much
500 production companies in the UK talking to a production company that’s more about environmental issues.
and beyond. not thought much about sustainability Now, everybody understands the
Programmes that complete the cer- before and is taking the first steps to phrase “climate change”.
tification can use the Albert Sustainable becoming greener. Things that seemed a challenge five
Production logo in their end credits. A vital part of the role is sharing our years ago are now commonplace, such
values with the rest of the industry, as as casts and crews using reusable
How did you get the job of sustain they can’t just stop at the BBC’s front water bottles rather than endless
ability manager? door. single-use plastic bottles.
It sounds idealistic, but I went into I am very involved in training. I TV programmes have really helped
journalism because I wanted to change co-founded a partnership between the to raise awareness. Now, it’s not just in
the world. After 14 years, I realised I’d BBC, ITV and others to create what we documentaries and on the news that
probably changed it as much as I could. think is the world’s first training course viewers learn about climate change.
My awareness of climate change was on climate change and environmental The issues were bubbling away in the
growing and I realised this was an area impacts specifically for the television background of the Russell T Davies
where I could achieve more. In 2008, I industry. It has been taught to hundreds drama Years and Years, bringing them
read about the BBC’s new environmen- of people. alive in a genre where you wouldn’t
tal strategy and contacted that This morning, I was checking a script expect the subject to be tackled.
6
Jukka Saarikorpi
Plastic pollution at Manta Point,
off the coast of Indonesia
How do carbon footprints vary in the per hour of output. That compares to 2027, we want the BBC to have made
TV industry and are they falling? the total annual carbon footprint of the world a better place environmen-
Studio-based programmes, such as three UK houses. I have no authority tally than if it had never existed.
Mastermind, make several programmes to tell anybody what to do. I’m not in It’s a huge challenge but it’s possible,
a day and are very efficient. High-end the business of preaching, but there through practical steps such as plant-
drama and documentaries have a are things we can all do to be more ing trees and improving our biodiver-
higher carbon footprint as it takes much sustainable. sity and the volume and wealth of
longer to produce footage and it might You could sign up to a renewable natural organisms. For example, we
involve foreign travel. energy supplier, use low-energy light- have beehives on the roof here at
Natural history documentaries have ing in a studio and switch off equip- MediaCity UK.
a high carbon footprint but that is ment when not in use. Turn the When I give them the statistics, peo-
more than outweighed by the powerful thermostat down and wear a jumper. ple are shocked by the severity of the
effect TV can have. The global impact Think about your travel, about not environmental problem, but part of my
of Sir David Attenborough talking flying if possible, and using public job is getting them out of a sense of
about plastic waste in our oceans on transport. If you must drive, pack the despair and suggesting what we can
Blue Planet II was incredible. car with people. Reuse existing sets do about it.
Awareness of climate change has and hire props and costumes instead I hope I can inspire them because
never been higher but, unfortunately, of buying new ones. I am full of hope for the future.
the size of carbon footprints isn’t fall- Everyone can play a part, even down If I felt I was wasting my time, I
ing yet. That’s our big challenge. to thinking before printing something wouldn’t be doing this job. I feel like
or printing on both sides of the paper. this is what I was born to do and I’m
What can we do to reduce our carbon not going to stop. n
footprint? Are you hopeful about the environ
The average carbon footprint across mental future of the planet? Richard Smith, BBC sustainability man-
the TV industry is 13 tonnes of carbon By the end of the BBC’s Charter, in ager, was interviewed by Roz Laws.
Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 7
Jack
on the
box
Screenwriting
Jack Thorne, writer of
The Accident and
adaptor of His Dark
Materials, is one of the
UK’s most sought-after
screenwriters. He talks
to Ben Dowell
Jack Thorne
Sky
‘R
achel doesn’t let me Pullman’s His Dark Materials has blazed producers of his stage adaptation of
cycle,” laughs writer on to BBC One. And there’s the devas- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (so, no
Jack Thorne as I am tatingly powerful four-parter The Acci- prizes for guessing on which day of the
leaving his north Lon- dent, which ends his Channel 4 state- week Elliott was born).
don home following of-the-nation trilogy. First was National Thorne is worried that all this looks
our interview. Rachel Treasure, starring Robbie Coltrane as a like he’s a bit of a show-off. In fact, he
is his wife, a comedy agent and keen comedian accused of historical sex is a nervous character who agrees that
cyclist herself, who laughs back: “Yes, abuse. This was followed by the Sarah he needs reminding that all his labours
he’d just be cycling along and have a Lancashire-fronted Kiri, focusing on do bear fruit.
script idea and that would be that.” race and the child protection system, The 40-year-old (he turns 41 in
They obviously know there’s nothing as it told the story of the death of a December) returns to his home office
funny about cycling accidents, but the young black girl in foster care. straight after dropping off his son at
point is that Thorne is a man so teem- The space where all this is made nursery. He doesn’t take long walks for
ing with ideas he should probably not possible is a large room in the middle inspiration, he says – he thrashes away
don the Lycra. Ever. A self-confessed of Thorne’s tall Islington townhouse, at his computer even when inspiration
“obsessive”, he says he needs to have which positively radiates with work: dries up.
two projects on the go at any one time books, scripts and memorabilia cover The first episode of His Dark Materials
to help contain his fertile imagination most of the surfaces. The walls are underwent 46 drafts before he hit the
and a rigorous work ethic. bedecked with posters of his shows, right note, having gone down what
Before fatherhood, this saw him including the underrated supernatural he describes as “a number of wrong
work 14-hour days, sometimes drama The Fades and the sublimely directions”. His job, he modestly main-
ploughing on through the night. Now funny, poignant, profound and nostal- tains, was simply to transpose the
that he’s a dad (son Elliott, named after gic This is England sequence of dramas. brilliance of Philip Pullman’s book to
the ET hero, is three), this has changed There’s also a framed Harry Potter the screen. “When you’re given perfec-
a bit, but not by much. babygrow emblazoned with “Thurs- tion, it’s scary as shit,” he laughs.
This month, he has had two major day’s Child” – a reminder that Jack But does he ever rest? And would he
projects on air. The first series of his Thorne is an accomplished theatre describe himself as, how shall I put it, a
magisterial adaptation of Philip writer, too. It was a present from the workaholic? “No, that’s totally fair,” he
8
His Dark Materials
BBC
says. “There’s always something to do,
and I don’t really have much down- ‘SEX, RACE, own rules, which screwed me up. I
think I got a tiny bit pretentious as a
time, but we’re good at holidays.” CLASS, GUILT, writer. Which isn’t to say that it’s the
And then he stops, noting that, with
two shows due in August, that wasn’t INNOCENCE, worst thing I have ever made. It’s a
piece I’m totally proud of. This trilogy
quite true this summer. “When Elliott JUSTICE ARE is really important to me: it was my
was napping I would work and disap-
pear for an afternoon, but Rachel is WHAT opportunity to do something that was
so personal and so important, which I
understanding of it all,” he laughs again.
What clearly drives him is his intense
INTEREST ME’ may never get again.”
The Accident, as we have just seen,
passion, which is evident in the way he also starred Lancashire (whose talents
talks – short sentences, punctuated Thorne greatly admires) and is the sear-
with the refrain, “Do you know what I made absolutely the right choice and ing study of the impact of a devastating
mean?”. This passion also shows when that’s how the criminal justice system accident on a small Welsh town.
he discusses the Channel 4 trilogy. He works: ‘Guilty people aren’t found While National Treasure explores cul-
still wakes up in the middle of the guilty, that’s all you’re saying there.’ But pability and guilt in the sexual sphere
night fretting about the ending to Kiri. that thing of not providing people with and Kiri looks at racial injustice in the
It concluded with the wrong man closure… I think I did rush it and I was world of mixed-race adoption, The
(Kiri’s biological father) being impris- speeding towards the end. Accident, he says, is firmly concerned
oned for killing Kiri while the perpe- “So whatever decision we’d made with class.
trator, Kiri’s foster father (played by about the way it should have ended, we The Grenfell tragedy was the inspi-
Steven Mackintosh), sits at his kitchen probably didn’t do it confidently enough ration for this piece. As he discusses
table, seemingly free from the conse- and we probably didn’t do it quite well the failures heaped on the residents of
quences of his crime. For the US ver- enough. I’m really proud of the show, the west London tower block, he gets
sion, Thorne thought about adding a but I’m annoyed with myself for the very emotional.
blue-light, police-car effect, and still ending. If I had my time again I would They were let down, he believes, not
wonders if he should have done so. probably do something very different. squarely because of their race (most of
“My sister said the other day that we “I think I fell too in love with my the victims were non-white), but �
Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 9
Channel 4
The Accident
� because they “were working class
and easily dismissed”. ‘WHEN YOU The writer continues to follow the
inquiry into Grenfell Tower closely.
However, the Bristol-born writer ARE GIVEN He reveals that he has received three
(whose family later moved to Luton)
firmly resists the label working class PERFECTION separate offers to write a drama about
the tragedy but felt unable to.
for himself: “I’m from a middle-class [TO ADAPT], IT’S He is hopeful that one day some-
family. I went to a comprehensive
school. We didn’t have a shit tonne of SCARY AS SHIT’ one will write it, “when things are a
bit clearer about what’s to be said”.
money – we had some and my parents “TV is good at this stuff,” he adds.
were both white-collar workers. My “TV’s good at spotlights”
dad was a town planner, my mother This allowed him to find his feet as I also notice that he has a copy of
was a teacher, who became a carer for a writer. Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities
adults with learning difficulties. From there, he “grabbed whatever on the floor by his desk. Is that in the
“Sex, race, class, guilt, innocence, training I could”, including on a Royal offing, too? “It might be in the near
justice are what interest me,” he says, Court young writer’s programme future,” he laughs. “It’s sitting on top
before explaining why he believes and work experience with the Harry of some Buffy scripts and I’m not
class has sometimes been overlooked Potter producer Heyday Films (which redoing Buffy.”
in today’s diversity-conscious TV land- spawned a good relationship – he has As to the future of TV in the
scape. “Class is fundamentally about just written an upcoming movie adap streamer-rampant space, he still feels
access. And theatre’s not doing well tation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s optimistic: “I don’t know what the
on that any more – there was a time The Secret Garden for the company). future will hold but I think Peter
when theatre was really good at it. He then got a job in development Kosminsky is right when he recently
“It is a complicated time, and it’s with the acclaimed director Paweł said that the danger is that local sto-
complicated because nobody has any Pawlikowski before writing for such ries might not be told in the stream-
money. Outreach is the first thing that shows as Shameless and Skins prior to ing world.
gets forgotten, and telly isn’t very penning his own triumphs. But then, one of the biggest dramas
good at it. But people are trying.” Thorne intends to continue riding of the last year was an incredibly local
After graduating from Pembroke his success. He was mired in writing story – Chernobyl.
College, Cambridge, just before the series 2 of His Dark Materials when we “I think the landscape is constantly
turn of the millennium, Thorne first met. He is also working on a new evolving but, at the moment, it feels
wanted to be an actor or politician. four-part drama for the BBC, Best Inter- like good drama is being made and I
But he remains forever grateful to ests, which recounts how the parents dearly hope that continues.”
his brother, who let him live in his of a seriously ill daughter fight to keep With him still plugging away – and
flat for a mere £150 a month for six their child alive despite doctors insist- staying off his bike - you can bet that
years when he first came to London. ing she should be allowed to die. it’s got more than a fair chance. n
10Sky
Sky’s big spender
The Billen profile
Jane Millichip, Sky Studios’ deal-maker extraordinaire and
supporter of Extinction Rebellion, tells Andrew Billen how
she came clean to her bosses about her left-wing views
W
hen Jane fell off his chair laughing,” she says. print revolution and everything that
Millichip got “It was just that I would never want to has happened in the 30-plus years
her job as embarrass Sky.” since contain the lesson that the
Managing Is it true, I ask, that her current boss, media must always evolve. Neverthe-
Director of Sky Studio’s CEO, Gary Davey, once less, her core politics have not changed
Sky Vision in said she was really not too bad for a much. Having voted Labour all her life,
2013, she felt she should confess all to commie? She smiles. “It wasn’t quite she is “struggling with”, but has not
her boss – after all, the broadcaster that. He joked about the fact that, ruled out, voting for Jeremy Corbyn on
was still almost half-owned by despite my socialist leanings, he rather 12 December. Much more dangerously,
Rupert Murdoch. The thing was, liked me.” she leads a militant Facebook group
when she was 21, she had stood on That’s sounds like a careful para- known as Archers against Brexit,
the picket line at Murdoch’s Wapping phrase, I say. “Well, it’s a source of great whose rallying cries are “We believe
plant in solidarity with the printers he humour between us, but I’m a massive Ambridge can deliver, where West-
had just fired. advocate of Sky as an employer.” minster has failed” and “Joe Grundy
“My boss at the time, Rob Webster, She now believes that the Wapping says no thank you, Theresa May”. �
Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 11� Millichip’s main home is in the Cots
wolds, where she and her husband raise
a modest number of livestock. It is at the
Sky Central café in unpastoral Osterley,
west London, that we meet, however.
She has this year been promoted to
chief commercial officer of Sky Studios,
Sky’s beefed-up production arm. The
company’s new owner, Comcast, this
summer pledged an unprecedented
£1bn for productions over the next five
years. Already, 52 shows are in develop-
ment, led by an HBO co-production
starring Jude Law about an island of
disturbing atavism off the British coast.
“It’s kind of barking,” she promises of
The Third Day.
Has she ever had so much money to
spend? “I know. It’s extraordinary. If
you’d asked me six years ago if I would
be managing that kind of risk at such a
big player, I couldn’t have conceived it.
“I don’t know whether it’s something
about the way we work at Sky but,
although you feel absolutely responsi-
ble for that money, there’s a bravery
around risk management, a sense of Sky Vision show Riviera
commitment. It’s not a blame culture.”
The thrill of her job, she says, is find-
ing the deals to green-light a project. will jealously hoard home-made multifaceted business, able to draw on
“It’s amazing when you come up with content while they launch their own different revenue models, but the fact
a solution. It’s very enabling.” direct-to-consumer services (although, is that we’re premium pay.
Has she ever had to say no to some- under a new deal, Sky will still have “At the top of every decision is: ‘Is
thing the creatives wanted to do? “We first dibs on HBO shows). this content worth paying for?’ It’s a
rarely end up saying no, because those “Well, it’s not like we all woke up very simple notion and we often
‘nos’ will be weeded out along the way and thought, ‘Oh fuck, the SVoDs are remind ourselves of it in the meetings
as part of the development process. taking over’. I mean, when I joined Sky when we’re having an argument about
No, we haven’t so far under Studios.” six and a half years ago, Jeremy Dar- something: ‘Is this going to be content
Inevitably, a turkey will peck its way roch [Sky’s CEO] – even then – was worth paying for?’
into the line-up eventually. But she saying, ‘I don’t want to rent content for “I certainly also believe that what
claims that Sky Vision, the distribution the rest of Sky’s life. I want us to own we’re not doing is adding to that kind
arm that she ran until her promotion, our own content, be in charge of it, of mass-produced gorge that is hap-
was not responsible for a turkey on own our own destiny, build our own pening in the wider marketplace.”
her watch. creative story.’” Is there too much telly right now?
It depends how one categorises At this stage in our chat, Millichip “There probably is too much telly
poultry, I suggest. The second season becomes the latest of many Sky exec- around. And there probably is too
of Fortitude froze out many of those utives over the decades to try to explain much mediocre telly.”
who had stayed with the first. to me Sky’s commissioning strategy for Growing up in Worcestershire in the
She assures me that the shivery noir drama. In recent times, the company 1960s and 1970s, she likely watched
fantasy recovered its investment. “It’s has been building on “ensemble-cast plenty of mediocrity on her parents’
sold very well around the world and I multi-season series”, she says. black-and-white set. They were a
was keen for us to do a season 3, even Yet that does not seem to describe working-class family, her father a
though the sales, though still going the two dramas that have brought Sky carpenter, her mother a dinner lady.
well, were starting to tail off. its perception-changing accolades, The home had no car or phone, which
“We knew that we couldn’t go to four Patrick Melrose and Chernobyl. “I was just may explain, she thinks, her techno-
or five seasons. But we felt, for the hard- about to say, in the last couple of years, logical incompetence (at a TV sales
core fans, we needed to close the story. we’ve also given ourselves a licence to conference she once tried to load a
I couldn’t bear leaving it at the end of do closed-ended, big minis, but what VHS tape by aiming her calculator at
season 2, so we did a short season 3.” you need is a whole portfolio of the player).
She says that Sky was on the path to returning series before you go to those. She went to Sheffield Polytechnic to
doing more of its own productions long “I think there is a real respect for study languages and political science
before Comcast bought the company quality here but also a kind of respect and was studying in Verona when the
last year. That, I suggest, must be for popular television, wholeheartedly real Chernobyl happened in 1986.
because behemoths such as Disney commercial television. Sky works as a “Leafy veg was taken out of
12supermarkets all over Italy because the
cloud was blowing our way,” she recalls.
been to Sheffield Poly at exactly the
same time as her (spooky or what?). ‘SKY IS, BY
Having been intent on journalism He loved life on Auckland’s north A COUNTRY
from a young age (All the President’s Men
came out when she was 11), she left
shore, but she felt disconnected. “I felt
really weird living somewhere that was MILE, THE BEST
Sheffield to join Haymarket’s maga- quite irrelevant.” EMPLOYER
zines training scheme. Her first pub-
lished article was on in-car air
After three years, they returned to
the UK, where Freedman now runs an I HAVE EVER
fresheners for Car and Industry Trader, a
three-page triumph. She began to
upmarket picture-framing business for
the likes of Tracey Emin. Their main
COME ACROSS’
report on the media and became fasci- home, the one with the animals, is now
nated by the “innards” of that world in Stroud, an epicentre of climate-
– so fascinated that merely writing change protest. Not only does she
about it turned out not to be enough. know the Extinction Rebellion
As editor, next, of TV World, she pub- co-founder Gail Bradbrook, but extinc-
lished a cover story on the Australian tion rebels have stayed in her flat dur-
children’s show Bananas in Pyjamas. ing the London protests.
“That was my nadir. That was when Does she join Bradbrook in her naked
I thought, ‘I’ve got to get out of this. dances beneath full moons? “I do not.”
Anthropomorphic bananas in striped Perhaps she is too busy. In 2007,
pyjamas is not Woodward and
Bernstein.’”
Millichip became chief operating
officer of at RDF Right and then MD
Jane’s journey
She found a job in sales at Intel, a of Zodiak Rights, before embarking
now defunct distributor. But straight on her biggest adventure of all, at Sky Jane Helen Millichip, chief commer-
selling was not her thing, either. She Vision. There, in six years, she took cial officer, Sky Studios
went to Living TV, then owned by revenues from £8m to £240m.
Flextech, as a commissioning editor, First, however, there was that own- Lives A smallholding in Stroud,
Sky
and it was there she viewed a pilot for ing up to do. She told Rob Webster plus a flat in London and a home in
Most Haunted and realised – although that, back in the 1990s, she had organ- Cornwall (‘It’s like indoors camping’)
she would never have bought the show ised strikes for the NUJ when the Married To Paul Freedman; two
on the basis of a written pitch – that its union was derecognised by magazine sons
makers were on to something. publishers across London. And, what Born 17 August 1965 in Bewdley,
What was it really about, these peo- was more, as a student, had joined the Worcestershire, daughter of Brian
ple stumbling round old buildings at picket line at Wapping a couple of Millichip and Kathleen Lloyd
the dead of night, intent on scaring times. (“It was very rainy.”) Educated Bewdley High School and
themselves? The power of suggestion? “I actually never had any problem Sheffield Polytechnic (BA in modern
“No, it was about ghost hunting.” coming to Sky and I’d say that it’s very languages and politics)
Were there ghosts? “We had a scien- old-school thinking to [even] consider
tist and a historian on hand….” that you might. I know you’ll think this 1989 Journalist, Haymarket
So there was no cheating? “No. Not is fluff, but it’s not: Sky is, by a country 1992 Editor, TV World
by me anyway. We had orbs. We always mile, the best employer I have ever 2001 Senior commissioner, Living TV
had orbs.” come across. The work practices here 2005 MD, South Pacific Pictures,
Orbs? “They’re kind of balls of light are better than at any other. The rigour New Zealand
that look a little bit like camera flare with which we adopt proper work 2007 COO, RDF Rights
– but, obviously, aren’t.” practices by doing the right thing by the 2010 MD, Zodiak Rights
There was a bit of a hoo-ha with staff, setting up networks for women, 2013 MD, Sky Vision
Ofcom, which banned ITV from making LGBT+, multiculturalism, parents, net-
a copycat version, citing its public ser- works for the staff by the staff, the Greatest achievement Turbocharg-
vice obligations. Happily free of these, whole Sky Ocean Rescue campaign.…” ing Sky Vision revenues
Living persuaded the regulator that its Receiving a lifetime achievement Most dubious move Commission-
show was entertainment, not religion. award at a ceremony in Cannes in ing Most Haunted
Living went on to buy in a seance with October, the glamorously dressed Hobbies Cocktail mixing, surfing,
Diana, Princess of Wales. Millichip looks Millichip berated the TV industry for keeping pigs and sheep
less convinced about that one. handing out “crap and pointless cor- Watching Succession, His Dark
Out of the blue, she was offered the porate gifts” at markets and festivals Materials, Sex Education (with
“great adventure” of a job as Managing that harm the environment. her sons)
Director of a production company in Webster, now Managing Director of Reading William Boyd’s
New Zealand. Upon arrival, she dis- Sky Sports, messaged: “Love this Jane, Sweet Caress
covered Most Haunted was shown even just love it.” They say ‘She’s a content visionary’
there. “I thought, ‘This damn thing is Now that she explains it, her journey (Content Innovation Awards 2019)
following me around the planet.’” from Wapping to Osterley no longer She says ‘We’re not here to make
By now, she had two very young looks quite so convoluted. Jane Milli- shows that make us feel good
sons with her husband, businessman chip is one of those people who make about ourselves’
Paul Freedman, who, it turned out, had their own way through life. n
Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 13Message in
the magic
Natural history
Caroline Frost meets
some of the producers of
the BBC’s latest natural
history blockbuster, Seven
Worlds, One Planet
F
rom the opening moments marvels at his colleague’s continuing divided the narrative into continents.
of Seven Worlds, One Planet enthusiasm. “He was extraordinary Keeling believes this helps bring home
we know that we’re in safe then, he’s phenomenal now. We took the planet’s diversity and makes it more
hands. Orchestral strings him on two trips for this series, to personal for viewers (“We all belong to
soar as a deserted, sun- Iceland for that opening scene, then to one of them”), but the advances in film-
dappled beach comes into Kenya for the summing up. We’d spent ing technology are more striking.
view. Sir David Attenborough strides a few years going back and forth with Drone cameras have come such a
out across the sand, a big, warm coat clips, and he was getting more and long way in the past decade that they
the only concession to his 93 years. more engaged. He still just wants to have transformed how producers
With his unique authority, he intro- make a really good story.” approach their subjects. “We can fly
duces a montage of images drawn Around this broadcasting totem, further, quieter, longer,” explains Keel-
from seven continents to give us hints much else has changed. Keeling is ing. “We’ve been able to take them
of the emotion-stirring, jaw-dropping being modest when he explains: “We’re through a volcano at night, over oceans,
stories to come. It is immediately clear not reinventing anything, you can’t through jungles, and get a completely
that, once again, both Sir David and the change this kind of television dramati- fresh perspective.”
BBC’s Natural History Unit have cally, but we’ve taken steps and moved Arguably most revolutionary, though,
excelled themselves. it on a bit. We’ve become more sophis- is the message about the importance of
Executive producer Jonny Keeling ticated in how we tell our stories.” conservation, one that runs throughout
first worked with Attenborough two That evolution includes the way the series rather than being tacked on
decades ago on Life of Mammals and that, for the first time, producers have at the end. Just as Blue Planet II brought
14Seven Worlds, One engage on the topic with a mainstream logistics. “We try to keep people in the
Planet presenter audience. “We’ve been talking about same time zone,” says Alexander, “other
Sir David Attenborough conservation for 30 years or more, but wise, nobody would ever get any sleep.”
filming in Iceland now there’s an awareness, people For Napper, the Australia gig meant
wanting to be told more. the chance to film lots of animals that
“I think we’ve struggled in the past weren’t really known, while Asia
because TV commissioners don’t want involved “a third of the land mass of
people to feel sad. And if you say a lot the world, with just 60 minutes to say
of negative things on the same subject, something sensible”.
there’s a danger of just creating white Despite the long days, weeks and
noise. years spent waiting for an elusive crea-
“But this show is about the diversity, ture to appear and behave according
beauty and personality of each conti- to script, it’s clear that the whole team
nent – so, when you do give that con- retains a sense of wonder for all that
servation message, it’s not just that they have witnessed. And each has
everything is sad and you should feel a favourite moment that they still
mildly guilty, but that, while things are hold dear.
wrong, we can change. We want to Keeling remembers his time in Aus-
empower viewers.” tralia, filming dingoes hunting kanga-
For Keeling, Attenborough puts it roos: “It took us two years to find the
best in the film. “He asks us, ‘The natu- right place, six weeks with multiple
ral world is critical, but every breath cameras to get the sequence, so that
we take, every mouthful of food, is felt like a personal triumph – if not for
dependent on it, so why wouldn’t we the poor kangaroo.”
take care of it?’ I find that really pow- For Alexander, it was the big cats of
erful and important.” South America. “The puma is [a] big,
Seven Worlds is a massive enterprise: beautiful cat, and we had a mother
four years in the making, 1,500 people with three cubs. We’d been there many
working across 41 countries on 92 shoots times, but never caught her hunting,
across 1,794 days to create more than and we’d already stayed for six weeks.
2,200 hours of film. The talents of the I rolled the dice, we stayed an extra
BBC’s Natural History Unit were boosted week and that’s when it happened, as
by the deep pockets of co-producers in is often the way with nature.”
France, Germany, China and the US. And Napper holds close to her heart
Keeling explains the careful line he the fact she managed to get on film the
BBC
had to walk in “making sure that those golden snub-nosed monkeys native to
producers are happy, but that the British western China’s snow forests, a breed
home the perils of single-use plastics, audience gets a quality programme, too”. that Attenborough had been wanting to
this series contains powerful stories of For Alexander, the “most important film since the 1960s but never managed
climate change, both sad and uplifting. things we wanted were to find new until then.
Whether it’s the triumphant come- stories. That was the biggest demand “It was tricky to get access to them,”
back of whales since the international we made of all the researchers and she says. “People knew there was
ban on commercial hunting in 1986, producers – as much new stuff as they something there, but they weren’t sure
or the way that melting glaciers have could get their hands on.” what – it’s where the story of the yeti
affected animal behaviour, the mes- How does one go and discover new came from. They walk on their hind
sage is fully integrated into the narra- nature? “We rely heavily on the scien- legs and are incredibly striking-looking.
tive, and all the more effective for it. tific community,” he says. “But it can The adults are perhaps a bit ugly, but
“You just can’t ignore it any more,” come from anywhere. I saw a picture the babies are super cute.”
reflects series producer Scott Alexan- of a hamster in a magazine, and I She adds: “That’s the amazing thing
der. “There is an appetite for it now. I thought, ‘Hamsters are in Europe?’ It about the natural world. People think
think that, if we’d made this film and was just a moment of curiosity, and we must have run out of stories by
not included any conservation, we’d that’s ended up in the show.” now, but we rely heavily on scientists,
have been shot down in flames.” After a year in the office spent carv- on research, new behaviours, new
Emma Napper, one of the team’s ing out themes and storylines, planning locations. And when you find them, it’s
producers, who had the formidable and making choices about what to hard, hard work, but, my goodness, it’s
task of helming the Australia and Asia leave out, the producers were generally good if you can find something even
episodes, welcomes the chance to allotted two shows each, depending on David doesn’t know about.” n
Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 15Britannia – ‘There’s
no Jane Austen here’
Druid Mackenzie Crook in Britannia
P
eriod dramas come in episodes of Britannia season 2, followed
Sky
Drama myriad forms. Latterly, by a panel Q&A session, the overwhel
few have been as high ming impression from Butterworth, his
Jez Butterworth and concept as Jez Butter-
worth’s bloody and
brother Tom (a writer on the series) and
producer James Richardson was of the
colleagues tell the RTS somewhat bewildering fun the trio had in conceiving and
saga, Britannia, set roughly 2,000 years executing what one reviewer described
how his ‘gloriously ago as the invading Romans attempt as a “gloriously bonkers” show.
bonkers’ historical saga to “civilise” an island of warring
Celtic tribes.
Richardson, who founded Britannia’s
maker, Vertigo Films, back in 2002,
repurposed the English Co-produced by Sky Atlantic and claimed that the series was dreamed up
Amazon Prime Video, the skill of the “over lots of bottles of red wine”. Judged
costume drama. make-up department alone is worth by some of the more trippy sequences
Steve Clarke reports tuning in for. The prosthetic work
done to Mackenzie Crook, who plays
featuring what looks like a druid rave,
and the clever use of music from the
druid mystic Veran, is extraordinary. psychedelic 1960s (especially Donovan’s
At an RTS screening of the first two Season of the Witch), you wonder if the
16wine had been spiked with something Romans did, about 20% of what the who plays Amena, (queen-in-waiting of
a tad more mind-altering. Celts did and we know nothing about the Cantii tribe) and Eleanor Worthing-
“Jez and I had never made any TV,” what the druids did. So you can do ton-Cox, cast as Cait, a young woman
explained Richardson. “We knew noth- what you want.’ from the Cantii tribe due to undergo an
ing about how it worked. We’re used “Even the bit that the Romans wrote initiation into womanhood on the eve
to film. Tom had done TV. He was the was written later and it was written of the solstice. The procedure was
expert who helped us steer Britannia.” from the perspective of how brilliant knocked off schedule by the invading
Butterworth, the brilliant playwright they were.” Roman hordes.
responsible for Jerusalem and The Ferry- Bloody rituals, full-on violence and Scholey said she was attracted to the
man, admitted that, for the first nine series because its female characters
episodes that comprised series 1, he were all strong, independent women.
was learning on the job. She added that she wouldn’t have
This might have been so, but his been interested in playing Amena had
name on the credits was enough to the part required her to be “a bod-
secure such A-list actors as David ice-ripping prop for a man. That’s not
Morrissey and Zoë Wanamaker, who why I became an actor. She’s equal to
respectively play Roman general Aulus, the men, if not greater.”
and Celtic queen Antedia. Worthington-Cox was 14 years old
So, did Butterworth have to learn to when she began working on Britannia.
use a different muscle as he switched She is the youngest recipient of a Lau-
from the stage to TV drama, asked the rence Olivier Award, won when she
evening’s chair, journalist Caroline was just 10 for her performance in the
Frost? “Spending 10 or 20 hours with lead role in Matilda the Musical.
one character.… My plays are pretty Three years ago, she played Janet
long but they’re not that long. That Paul Hampartsoumian Hodgson in Sky’s The Enfield Haunting,
chance to pick up something and nominated for a Bafta supporting
make it run and run is something I’d actress award.
never attempted. She said: “I feel so lucky because I
“In film, it’s over before it’s even started out on this when I was 14.… To
Jez Butterworth
begun. It’s like a haiku, filming keep be honest, it’s been an absolute roller
getting shorter. When I started out, they coaster.… From day one, Nikolaj [the
took 120 days, now they’re 90. TV is
completely different, all the rules are ‘IT IS ABOUT actor Nikolaj Lie Kaas, who plays Divis,
an outcast druid] and I got on like a
different.” ONE RELIGION house on fire. He is insane and so am I.
How did they get it past Sky, whose
most successful drama, Game of
DYING OUT AND I don’t think I could have worked with
anyone better.… With this guy, there
Thrones, has been compared to Britan- ANOTHER ONE isn’t a dull moment.”
nia? “Bizarrely, when I said, ‘Let’s do
druids, Celts and the Roman invasion
COMING ALONG’ She added: “I can say on behalf of all
of the women in this series that we feel
of Britain, they madly went, ‘That we’ve been treated as equals.”
sounds cool’,” replied Richardson. Scholey told the RTS that she par-
“They were massively supportive of cod mysticism aside, Britannia does ticularly enjoyed the show’s salty lan-
the idea: ‘Let’s just dive into this world engage with a topic that down the ages guage and dry humour: “The scripts
that we know nothing about.’ has been a recurring preoccupation for were so refreshing. You’re in a big
“They were very good about us not human societies. “In all seriousness, period dress and to have the freedom
making a particularly historically it is about one religion dying out and of speaking quite colloquial, hilarious
accurate show.” another one coming along,” said But- dialogue is brilliant.
With scant historical knowledge of terworth. “There are massive tectonic “The juxtaposition is not what you’d
Britain in 43CE and no novels on which shifts in faith around this time, as one expect. There is no Jane Austen here.”
to draw (Game of Thrones is, of course, set of gods bully the other lot off the You can say that again. And for the
based on George RR Martin’s best- ball. That was the reason for me want- record, Jez Butterworth claims he has
sellers), the imaginations of Britannia’s ing to do it. never seen a single episode of Game of
creators were free to go into overdrive. “To have characters who were under Thrones. n
“As you can see, it’s quite an ambi- those kind of pressures, where their
tious show. The three of us were liter- entire world of belief is crumbling and The RTS screening of Britannia season 2
ally sitting round a table going, ‘What under threat – that is the reason for and panel discussion was held at the Cur-
can we make all these people do choosing the period.” zon Soho, Shaftesbury Avenue, London,
now?’” recalled Richardson. “The his- Charismatic female characters are on 29 October. The chair was journalist
torical accuracy was never part of that an essential element of “historical” and broadcaster Caroline Frost. It was
process. The historical advisor actually fantasy TV. Britannia is no exception. On produced by the RTS in conjunction with
said: ‘We know about 40% of what the the panel were two: Annabel Scholey, Vertigo Films.
Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 17An audience with a
TV revolutionary
Screenwriting
Russell T Davies
explains to Gethin Jones
why TV still needs to get
out of its straight, white
rut. Matthew Bell has
a front-row seat
I
n just 20 years, Russell T Davies Peter presenter, he was running a Doctor department. He tried his hand at
has left an indelible mark on Who monster competition. Jones went directing, editing, dubbing and much
British television. From Queer as on to appear on the show twice him- else, recalling that, in children’s TV,
Folk, via Doctor Who, to this year’s self, albeit as a couple of villainous “the budgets are small so you get
dystopian chiller Years and Years, extras – a Dalek and a Cyberman. thrown into these areas.… After a few
Davies has written unforgettable Davies told his compatriots that he years, you’ve learnt an awful lot more
drama. His work – like the writer in grew up in “a very bookish house”, than you would if you were in a role as
person – is opinionated and loud, but which boasted a full set of the Encyclo- a One Show researcher.”
also warm and human. paedia Britannica. His parents were the Davies produced children’s shows,
The Swansea-born writer was in “first in their families to go university”, including CITV’s Children’s Ward, before
expansive mood as he discussed his he said, but added that they “revered graduating to adult telly, storylining
career with Gethin Jones at a sold-out television almost as much as they ITV’s Coronation Street and writing
event in late October at the Royal revered books”. scripts for the same channel’s period
Welsh College of Music and Drama Davies was a talented artist – he soap The Grand.
to mark the 60th anniversary of RTS turned down a job as a football cartoon His breakthrough came with the
Cymru Wales. ist on the Sunday Sport – but settled on a groundbreaking 1999 Channel 4 drama
The TV broadcaster had first met career in television, moving to Man- Queer as Folk, set in Manchester’s gay
Davies 15 years earlier when, as a Blue chester to work in the BBC’s children’s scene. TV had seen nothing like it
18and eclectic career, which has seen the “Right now, especially.” On Boys, he
writer move seamlessly between fam- continued, there were “up to 40 or
ily (Doctor Who), children’s (The Sarah 45 gay characters, all played by gay
Jane Adventures) adult (Cucumber) and actors.… I’ve cast trans people: Bethany
even period (Casanova) drama. Black, in Cucumber.
Throughout, he has unapologetically “I think television is astonishingly…
chronicled the lives of gay people. white and straight – and straightfor-
A boyhood fan of Doctor Who, Davies ward, as well. It’s 2019 now, and you’ve
persuaded the BBC to regenerate the got to get with it.” n
sci-fi series in 2003. Filming started
the following year in Cardiff. The RTS Cymru Wales event ‘In conversa-
When the show aired in March 2005, tion with Russell T Davies’ was held at the
with Davies as lead writer and execu- Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
tive producer, it proved a huge ratings in Cardiff on 28 October and produced by
and critical hit – and a shot in the arm Edward Russell.
for TV production in South Wales,
especially when two spin-offs, Torch-
wood and The Sarah Jane Adventures,
followed.
Davies on…
“I remember a time when a lot of my
friends in the TV industry were strug- … The confidence to sell a drama
gling for work, and then Doctor Who ‘That’s a lifelong battle.… You have
happened and they worked for a long to summon up the nerve to go
time. You brought the industry, that we into a room to pitch to people. You
have now, to Wales,” said Jones. don’t get any written treatments
Davies’s much-garlanded 2018 drama off me… but I can talk pretty well.…
for BBC One, A Very English Scandal, told I will sit in a room and sell it. You
the story of Liberal Party leader Jeremy have to – it’s my job.’
Thorpe’s affair with Norman Scott and
his attempt to murder him. … Casting Welsh actors
“It’s a story that had never been told ‘As I get more power… I try to put
by a gay man. It is from a very brilliant Welsh characters into everything.
book by John Preston. The tone, wit When I was young, there were no
Aaron Lowe Photography
and style of [the drama] is from the Welsh characters on television at
book – he’s a brilliant writer. But he is all, and that’s a fact. I remember
Russell T Davies with a straight man writing the story,” said my dad calling us in from the street
Gethin Jones (right) and Davies. “For 40 years, it has been a when [Swansea-born actor] Mar-
Judith Winnan (left), who
mystery why these men behaved as garet John was in an episode of
presented him with his
RTS Fellowship they [did]. Frankly, it’s the story of a Z Cars.’
middle-aged gay man falling in love
with a beautiful gay man who takes … Writing for TV
before – an honest portrayal of the too much drink and drugs. I under- ‘When I was young, there were
lives of young gay men, sex and all. stand that.” three channels, two soap operas
“It was hard filming a gay drama Earlier this year, BBC One’s Years and Casualty – and that was it.
on certain streets of Manchester,” said and Years offered a nightmare vision It was hard to be a writer then,
Davies. One scene near a pub in a of a near-future Great Britain. “It wasn’t frankly.… If you’re out of work as
rough part of town was particularly a ratings success, but I’m genuinely a writer and you’re not generat-
hairy: “They very much objected to a immensely proud of it,” said Davies. “I ing your own YouTube material,
drama called Queer as Folk filming near think it’s one of my favourite things in whether it’s sketches or dramas…
them, so they attacked the crew with my whole career.” then what are you doing? There are
machetes.” Davies’s next project is Boys, a drama a million outlets now to find your
“Queer as Folk was a blast of life for about Aids in the 1980s, which is set to expression in stuff. I know it’s still
me – it was the first time I’d been air on Channel 4 next October. One of hard but it’s not as hard as it was.…
taken out of children’s [drama] and its stars, Welsh actor Callum Scott ‘Read lots… the BBC Writers
soap opera,” he added. Howells, was in the hall. Room has thousands of scripts.
The success of Queer as Folk, with two Responding to a question from the Read film scripts, read plays,
more well-received series, Bob & Rose audience on whether gay and trans- because that’s the way to learn
and The Second Coming, following in its gender actors should be cast in gay how to do it.’
wake, spawned a hugely successful and transgender roles, Davies replied:
Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 19You can also read
