Blog posts by year and monthAugust 2011
Posts (8)
The Field Of Blood: Directing the drama
About five years ago Andrea Calderwood's company, Slate Films, sent me a book to read asking if I would be interested in adapting it. Set in Glasgow in 1982, and telling the story of Paddy Meehan - a young girl working in a newspaper office - The Field Of Blood was full of detail and charact...
I'm one of the scriptwriters for Torchwood: Miracle Day
I've been a writer for American TV shows for the last 20 years, and for a British one for about a year. It's like being young again. My name is Jane Espenson, and if you are a reader of TV "written by" credits, you might have seen that name on shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, The...
Harry's Arctic Heroes: My North Pole adventure
On completing a ski race I arrived back at the mountain lodge to publish the results on my blog and noticed an email from a friend, which was entitled "North Pole". My heartbeat raised and I became immediately excited. For the first time since my injury I knew without hesitation that this wa...
Hans Litten vs Adolf Hitler: To Stop A Tyrant
I'd finished a BBC film about Robespierre and the French revolutionary terror and was looking for another story about tyranny, but this time seen from the point of view of someone who opposed it. I'd always wanted to make a film about anti-fascists in Germany and Martin Davidson, the commiss...
Village SOS: I'm Honeystreet's Village Champion
What was it that attracted me to the Barge Inn community project in Honeystreet? Along with the parallels that could be drawn between a pub and my music and events background, it was the people. We had that immediate all-important chemistry, which I really needed because, in the beginning, t...
The Chilean Miners - 17 Days Buried Alive
The Chilean Miners - 17 Days Buried Alive was really conceived on day 18. The miners had just been found - though not actually rescued for another 52 days - and I was rung while on holiday by Guillermo Galdos, a colleague from Peru. He descended on the mine and has made two very good films ...
Who Do You Think You Are: Researching celebrities' family histories
The most exciting time for me on Who Do You Think You Are? is always the last days in the run up to transmission of the first episode. This year's 10-part series has taken over a year to make, so being able to see the finishing line is a moment to cherish and enjoy. As the executive producer...
Horizon: Do you see the same colours as me?
Back in April this year I was called to a brainstorm with the Horizon production team to discuss the science of colour. It seemed like such a fun and compelling idea and addresses the kind of questions we've all asked ourselves. Do you see the same colours that I see? What if what I see as y...
