"Those Shows"
I was at a meeting the other day to talk about writer training (at an institution outside the BBC). I was talking about why new writers sometimes failed when writing for the shows I worked for. I suggested that it might be because they didn't like them or even watch them when they got the gig. I may even have said "You need to love them to write them". A writer who was there came in (rather aggressively, I felt) with "Well we all know that writers on 'those shows' only write them to pay their mortgages."
A little while later in the same meeting, a former writing student was wheeled into the meeting to talk about their experiences since graduating their course. He told us how he'd completed a shadow scheme script for one of the BBC Continuing Dramas, but had been told that his services weren't required and that he hadn't "got" the show. He went on to say that he had only tried out for the show because his agent had told him it would make a good career move, and he didn't really watch it. Hmm, point proven I thought -though I didn't say anything, as the first writer had been quite scary.
It's completely fascinating to me that the suggestion that writers on Continuing Dramas write them because they love them arouses such bile in some people. Or that a high volume show like Holby should aspire to create intelligent drama, should provoke such ire, as it did on this blog a couple of weeks ago. Why so cross about it?
Anyway, my point this week is to say that if you're thinking about applying to the Writers Academy next month, you'd better start working up some passion and WATCH TELLY.
