The script of the first episode of Ashes to Ashes, written by Matthew Graham, is now available for you to read in our Script Archive.
And if you want to compare and contrast, we've got the first episode of Life on Mars in there too. Same fella.
All part of the service.
The DVD copy of my Casualty episode that was transmitted last Saturday has just landed on the doormat. How I wish I’d had it earlier. This process must get easier, by the time you’ve penned your millionth episode of a Continuing Drama series I’ll bet you don’t even bother to tune in..
The trepidation comes in part from not knowing ‘what they’ve done with your story’. They being “casting”, “director” and to a lesser extent “costume”, “props” and “location”. All highly skilled Creatives no doubt, but this is MY episode we’re talking about and darn it, they’d have better got it right.
Being exposed to my episode on the TV is a very disquieting experience. It’s a familiar scene, dialogue - I’ve gone over and over it many drafts in many re-writes and yet somehow it’s spookily different seeing it through someone else’s (the director’s) eyes.
Collaboration.
What you hope for is your vision to be elevated to the sublime, for the many creative hands to raise the humble story to a BAFTA winning visual feast. The only thing my script can offer is potential, somebody else has to realise that potential for me.
My sister in Liverpool had tuned to last weeks Casualty in order to get some backstory (not being a regular viewer) so impressed was she with Mark Catley’s diary episode, she was thinking of making Casualty a regular slot.. no pressure then.
So - feeling helpless, I sat down to watch Casualty at 8.50 last Saturday, with my 10 yr old and her friend who had come for a sleepover, my teen hovering about the kitchen, my partner was away. I was the only adult and I had to give a semblance of a woman in control, not a gibbering wreck hiding behind a cushion.
The first viewing left me breathless. I was aware I didn’t clock watch, my 10 yr old was captivated, the characters were all kids - she had been bored by the diary episode last week. My teen who thinks anything that isn’t Skins or the Mighty Boosh isn’t worth a look in, said it was OK. Obviously not edgy/gritty enough for her.
The second viewing - with my partner, a few days later was a much more pleasant affair. I could sit back and enjoy the story, and enjoy him enjoying the story .. wait for it .. yes .. he chuckled! Ah good…
My first draft had stipulated that Fifi the dog was a huge Alsatian, in contrast to Molly the little 10 yr old. I’d got a note back - “Couldn’t do Alsatian for scheduling reasons, would I consider a Pomeranian?” Curious, I Googled Pomeranian … oh dear Lord, well at least it’s not a clipped Poodle.
A few drafts later, “Can’t get you a Pomeranian, we’re going with a Poodle.”
Now in retrospect, I should have named the poodle Fang or Butch or somesuch, but Fifi she remained - and she was marvellous.
The overarching slog in this episode when writing it was fine-tuning the Harry Harper strand. I was asked to ‘big up’ Harry’s involvement in the diary shenanigans a fair bit more that was stipulated in the story document. The Harry Harper story involving the kids was my B story. Poor Joanne giving birth on the pub floor with only Toby for assistance, was my A story. Still, this ended up feeling like Harry’s episode. I had in fact proposed calling the episode “Harry Harper, Beastmaster” but it was not to be.
I was very impressed with the birthing scenes, delighted they’d used a real baby! Didn’t wheel out the prosthetic one this time!
My partner said he’d enjoyed the postmodern filmic reference - I was confused. It was a werewolf story yes, plenty of them about - what did he mean. It was the fact that the landlady answered the phone to the paramedics and said ‘Hello, Slaughtered Lamb.’
I looked at him blankly.
Well, apparently that was the name of the pub in “An American Werewolf In London.”
Cor Blimey! Isn’t it amazing what useless info your brain will retain - I hadn’t seen that film for about 10 years.
I’ll have to wait until May to go through this birthing process again when my Holby is aired. Thankfully, the Holby notes dried up - I’ve gone to Shooting Script and unless something cataclysmic happens ..
Some news bites for you.
Lenny Henry says production companies are full of white middle class people in the Guardian. He's not wrong.
The three-month-long Writers Guild of America strike is over.
Thanks to the kindnesses of Tony Jordan and those nice folks at EastEnders, we now have the script for Dot's Monologue (PDF) available from our script archive.
The episode is actually called Pretty Baby, although you never see the title on screen.
I read it in the office earlier when it came through and had a little cry at the sad bits. But it's OK. I don't think anyone noticed.
It feels like I have many fingers in many pies at the moment and the work/work balance is just about holding up. The work/life balance is not, balanced. This is due in part to having a life partner who is out on the road touring in a show (with a company on which the Arts Council have just practiced euthanasia). I am insisting my daughter reconsider her GCSE options - don’t do drama, please drop dance, if you want a home life of sorts when you’re reaching middle age, a nice 9 to 5 in a reputable firm with your own desk and no threats of funding withdrawal, would be the best option.
I’m still finding time to craft and make muffins - how? I bought a dishwasher. A perk of having a regular BBC wage as a writer and not freelance dribs and drabs. My carbon footprint may have nudged up a size, however I don’t drive - so there’s a semblance of balance there.
I sit down to my dog-eared Holby script with that Groundhog Day feeling. It’s not right yet and time is running out.
When I sent off the last draft, for the executive producer's eyes, I had that niggling feeling - the type that says ‘hey, did you leave the gas on this morning’ as you get on the tube. I then had a few days of relative calm whilst it was scrutinised (exec producer was abroad, probably reading it on plane somewhere, all very romantic). I pottered about in a haze of ignorant anticipation and read a shed load of Eastenders documents that had come through.
Soap overload. I cannot explain the size of the hangover that an afternoon of sheer cliff-hanger gluttony can give you. Half a year of Eastenders trauma condensed into a couple of days is tantamount to some sort serious drug overdose. The only antidote was reading the dishwasher instruction manual.
Finally My Holby notes came through with a warning from my script editor - ‘this may look like a lot, but don’t fret…’ the printer spat out another page, then another, the low ink light was flashing..
Reading notes from Mr McHale is akin to having a conversation with him - he writes notes like he speaks - passionately - his voice was clear as a bell in my head as I reached page 10 and beyond. Expletives and all. It made me smile. I wondered if like Mission Impossible, the notes would self destruct after I read them - I was being given a mission to knock my episode into shape. Failure was not an option.
I looked at my wall chart. I had just had a commissioning meeting for my next Eastenders ep and was about to start writing, I was due at a Casualty storylining Conference in Bristol in a couple of days. Feast or famine, my work life has always been like this. But unlike some 9 to 5 jobs I’ve had, what I love about writing episodes for TV (or previously designing shows for theatre), is that there is always an end point, always closure. The episode has to be aired, the show must go on. At some point all this will stop! …. Then start again if you’re lucky.
My Holby script is not home and dry yet and I’ll have to work on it this weekend. There’s a lot of ‘honing’ to do, taking out superfluous bits that are repetitive or woolly and stand in the way of telling the story succinctly. The art is to leave enough of my original storytelling voice to make it recognisable as an Abi script and get the serial across.
Talking of which - Saturday 16th Feb is my Casualty debut!
We’ve had the dramatic suicide bid, the retrospective diary special (tonight - and do read Mark Catley’s Writersroom interview) - the Radio Times is bristling with praise for these edgy episodes of everybody’s favourite Medical drama. Casualty is a corker once more!
Yeah Abi, like … follow that.
I haven’t seen a DVD copy of my episode yet, but I have to say it was one of my favourite scripts to write. My next blog entry can be a compare and contrast exercise, how I felt the script translated to the screen.
