If you’d told me a few months ago that I would be in a room full of screenwriters discussing A, B and C story lines for the BBC One Scotland show River City I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But in mid-June 2017, that’s exactly what I was doing. I come from a theatre background and work as a professional playwright so when I was asked to take part in a three-day River City writers' residential I jumped at the chance to gain insight into a world about which I knew almost nothing.
The River City residential was made up of three days. On Monday, we visited the set in Dumbarton and met the team who make the show possible. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we spoke about story structure, storylines and met writers who work on the programme. Gradually the world of writing for continuing drama was demystified.
Guiding us through our week was River City’s executive producer Kieran Hannigan and producer / writer Martin McCardie. Martin has also come from a theatre background and I am always inspired by people who make the jump from stage to screen but never lose their love of theatre. You don’t need me to tell you they are two very different mediums and continuing drama has its own unique parameters.
Beat sheets? A-B-C story lines? Commissioning documents? All these phrases were new to me and at points I certainly felt like (and was) the least experienced screenwriter in the room. I thought I would mention a few things (and there are many) that struck me about writing for River City compared with working in the theatre.
First of all, you have a cast of 23 actors which everyone kept on saying had its limitations, but for most stage writers a cast of this size is unimaginable. What is interesting though is that you are essentially writing for someone else’s characters that you then have to care about and create dialogue for as if they were your own. Not an easy task, but there are also huge amounts of fun to be had in writing for such distinct and different voices.
There is also very little room for poetic writing in continuing drama – it’s important to get to the heart of things quickly and so much is done by what people don’t say. If you’re interested in writing a five-page monologue I think it’s safe to say that this isn’t the medium for you. Taking notes and being aware that there are many people (most of whom know better than you) that ensure each episode works is also part of the process. Linked to this is the fact that things move very quickly, from getting a commission to them shooting the script can be as little as ten weeks with parameters, storylines and deadlines always subject to change. For example, this series an actor hurt their leg and whole storylines had to be rewritten in days… which is a rather frightening prospect!
But for all the differences there are two things which remain the same: good writing for both stage and screen takes hard work and heart. Both were personified by the final guest of the residency – writer Johnny McKnight. He has made a (very) successful leap from stage to screen and has become a key writer for the series. His passion and dedication to writing for River City was utterly intoxicating. It was the perfect ending to three very intense days. It was hard work, I learnt a hell of a lot and have huge respect for every single person who works on this show. There is still and always will be much more to learn, but I had a thrilling time dipping my toe into the world of River City.
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