Editor's Note: Character Invasion Day took place on Saturday 29th March on BBC Radio 4 and at BBC venues across the UK where Drama is produced. Find out more about Character Invasion Day
As part of the BBC Writersroom's events for Character Invasion Day we ran a live webchat with two highly experienced writers, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Sebastian Baczkiewicz. They answered questions about developing ideas and characters, their inspiration, their careers and offered help and advice.
Read a transcript of the full webchat on Storify.com
Rebecca is an award-winning writer who, in 2008, was the first living female playwright to have her work produced on the Olivier Stage at the Royal National Theatre, London. Rebecca is currently under commission to the Out of Joint Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, and the Royal National Theatre. Rebecca's screenplay IDA, co-written with Pawel Pawlikowksi, was recently awarded Best Film at this year’s London, Warsaw and Gdynia Film Festivals as well as picking up two Golden Lions at the Gdynia Film Festival, the Ecumenical Jury Award at Warsaw and the International Critics’ Prize for Special Presentations at Toronto’s International Film Festival.
Rebecca's work for Radio 3 and Radio 4 includes Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, The Eumenides, Dracula, Burning Up, Sarah and Ken (Special commendation for Tinniswood Prize) and The Man in the Suit (Nominated for Prix Italia).
See Rebecca's full biography and a list of her writing for TV & Screen, Radio and Theatre
Sebastian Baczkiewicz writes for theatre, radio and television. He has written over 40 plays for Radio 4 since being their first writer in residence in 2000 as well as co-commissions with Somethin’ Else, CBC Canada, World Service and Radio 3.
His long-running series for Radio 4, Pilgrim, drawing on the myth and folkore of the British Isles and starring Paul Hilton as the immortal protagonist, was nominated for the Prix Italia and awarded silver at the Prix Europa 2012. (Listen to Pilgrim clips)
Other recent work includes a four-part adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo featuring Iain Glen, Toby Jones, and Jane Lapotaire. Baczkiewicz has written many plays for Radio 4 since being their first writer in residence in 2000 as well as co-commissions with Somethin’ Else, CBC Canada, World Service and Radio 3. His work for theatre which includes The Lives of the Saints, Hello Paris, The Man Who Shot the Tiger and Dancing Under the Bridge, has been presented in London, Rotterdam and Warsaw.
Sebastian trained at Drama Centre London as an actor.
See Sebastian's full biography and CV including a list of his writing for TV and Radio
More About Rebecca and Sebastian
We asked the two writers a few initial questions to get some insight into their backgrounds ahead of the webchat. Here's what they had to say:
Do you remember any characters you read about or heard about when you were a child? Any particular ones which inspired you?
Rebecca: I was very struck by Joan of Arc as a child. And by Gwynplaine, in The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo. He had a permanent smile cut across his face and this haunted me. I loved Jane Eyre and Scarlett O'Hara. Me and my sister Alice both had copies of Gone With the Wind and raced each other to read them. Alice won. My mother was addicted to Anne of Green Gables as a child and I inherited that love. I had a copy of The Little Princess which I coveted. And Edna O'Brien's The Country Girls with Kitty and Ba became a sort of teenage bible. My father bought me Classics Illustrated so I read them avidly. Frankenstein too I loved, the monster not the scientist and I told my dad when I was about six that when I grew up I would marry the monster. I suppose I loved outsiders more than people who fitted in. Renegades.
Sebastian: As a child I was fascinated by adventurers like Doctor Who and James Bond. I was as much taken by them as I was by the other worlds they visited which seemed impossibly glamorous and dangerous to a kid from West London. I was also fascinated by characters from Hammer Horror films like Dracula and Frankenstein. The films themselves were way too scary for me but again the strangeness of the worlds they inhabited intrigued me beyond measure. I even had a book about Hammer films long before I ever saw one.
Were there any particular writers you admired that influenced your writing?
Rebecca: I loved Charlotte Bronte. And Dickens. And Dostoevsky. And Salinger. And Plath. And Pinter. I loved Yeats and Leonard Cohen too. I expect they all sank into my psyche. I don't know who influenced my writing though. A reviewer wrote that my work was a derivative of Chekov which I chose to take as a compliment rather than the whiplash he intended.
Sebastian: There are so many writers that have influenced me, and continue to do so today. Everyone from Dashiell Hammet to Samuel Beckett. I was, and am, most influenced by writers who can vividly transport me to a new and startling world, especially if they write with rhythm and passion.
How did you start writing professionally?
Rebecca: I wrote a stage play about a group of table dancers when I was twenty two. I chucked it into a drawer and forgot about it. I leant it to a friend who wanted to read it. She lost the only copy (it was typed.. pre computers...) in her toilet. Seven years later she found it and gave it back to me. We did a reading of it at the RSC Fringe and took it up to Edinburgh then Israel then it was the first play at the Arcola. I was fascinated by the whole process and as soon as that play finished (I was in it) and I was temping again I started writing my second play. So I started writing because somebody had put my play under lino, if there had been recycling then it would have been in that green bin quick as...
Sebastian: I wrote my first play in my teens. At that time I had no idea that it would be the start of my writing career, but I just carried on which seemed to be the most natural thing for me to do. No matter what else I did I always seemed to gravitate back to writing.
In terms of what you have written for radio - what are you most proud of?
Rebecca: I can't choose ...
Sebastian: It’s hard to single things out. Pilgrim, of course, which is now in its sixth season. The Count of Monte Cristo was amazing to work on and adapt. I’m also very proud and lucky to have worked with the late Claire Grove at the beginning of my radio writing career and I am still very fond of the plays we worked on together.
Read the full live writers' webchat for Character Invasion Day on Storify.com
