It’s been announced that Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City, Sensitive Skin) will star in a BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Witness for the Prosecution. The killer cast also includes Toby Jones (Marvellous, Dad’s Army) and Andrea Riseborough (Welcome to the Punch). But we’re more excited by the fact it’s adapted by Sarah Phelps who wrote the screenplay for the BBC’s 2015 version of the Christie classic, And Then There Were None.
Sarah’s previous credits include creating and writing The Crimson Field, adaptations of Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy and she’s also written for Being Human and Dickensian along with several of Eastenders’ most celebrated episodes. So, fair to say she knows what she’s doing!
We caught up with Sarah at the recent TV Drama Writers’ Festival and asked her about many aspects of writing. In the first of our excerpts from the interview (above) she discusses characters’ physicality, offering a fascinating insight into understanding our protagonists and antagonists on a more visceral and effective level.
Want more? We also interviewed Kay Mellor at the festival – take a look at what she said about using anger in your writing and the ‘importance of place’ in dramas.
