This year the ever-popular TV Drama Writers’ Festival headed to East London and set up shop in Stratford Circus Arts Centre.
Way back in January we had settled on June 8th as a good date for the event – a date we felt wouldn’t clash with anything else important… and then the Prime Minister called a General Election! However, despite all the political excitement, our loyal writers came out in strong numbers to spend a fascinating day in discussion and debate about the matters of interest to their industry.
The festival began with Charlotte Moore (Director of Content, BBC Television) interviewed by Danny Brocklehurst.
One of the great joys of the Writers’ Festival is that established writers get to ask the questions that we would all like to ask to the most powerful voices in our industry. The question of what the BBC was looking for in new writing terms came up. Charlotte told us that: “It’s not about my particular taste… there’s an extraordinary range across the networks, that’s the joy of the BBC”. She also noted that “we want a diversity of the broadest voices in the truest sense” and reassured writers that as long as their idea is a great one, viewing figures would not be a driving factor.
After this opening session, the Festival’s writers had a choice of several different sessions to attend throughout the venue with some delegates complaining that there was just too much choice! And, despite the political manoeuvres of the day, writers travelled from all over the UK to attend the sessions. Silent Witness writer Tim Prager was so keen to attend that he flew straight to the Festival from his play-opening in New York; and we were delighted to see him:
Despite the jet-lag, Tim spoke passionately at the session on underrepresented voices in drama along with guests Sophie Petzal, Vinay Patel and Paul McKenzie.
Indeed, Paul McKenzie had a particularly busy day, running straight to that panel from a fascinating discussion about comedy-drama, chaired by BBC Comedy Commissioning Executive, Claire McCarthy:
They were joined by Sian Harries (pictured above between Paul and Claire) as well as Uncle writers Oliver Refson and Lilah Vandenburgh.
As well as very popular sessions that included Daytime Drama, Children’s Drama, Film and Digital Storytelling, we had some fascinating one-to-one interviews. Here’s BBC Studios Exec, Richard Stokes, chatting to Jed Mercurio about his writing and showrunning experiences.
BBC Blue Room were also in attendance, demonstrating new technology and associated content.
In her blog for About the BBC, Hannah Khalil recalls some gems from the session – well worth a read!
Writer Emma Reeves chats with Sarah Muller (Head of Children’s for Channel 5) about Children’s Drama.
Rachelle Constant (BBC Writersroom) interviews Beth Pattinson (BBC Films) about writing feature films.
Producer Ceri Meyrick hosted the Daytime Panel…
…with guest writers Colette Kane, Sally Abbott, Jude Tindall and Rachel Flowerday
The festival ended with a captivating ‘in conversation’ session, chaired by CEO of Buccaneer Media, Tony Wood.
Industry legend, Hans Rosenfeldt, who is best known in the UK as the creator of the Scandi noir The Bridge was brilliant and entertaining, sharing many secrets about the development and evolution of the show.
Hans discussed the Swedish model of script development and offered some lovely insights into creation and collaboration.
Thanks to everyone involved in the event – organisers, panellists, volunteers, audience members and those who joined in via Twitter. And don’t forget to check out Hannah’s report on the 2017 TV Drama Writers’ Festival in her 'About the BBC' blog!
Read about our recent writers' festivals in Scotland and Wales
