Phil Redmond, The Master

Available for over a year

Phil Redmond is the creator of such ground-breaking series as Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks. His new autobiography charts his journey from a Liverpool working class lad to one of the most influential producers and screenwriters in modern TV history. Redmond tells Philip Dodd how growing up on a council estate in a suburb of Liverpool, his schooling in one of the first Comprehensives and an early career as a Quantity Surveyor, fed into TV work. Freddie Quell is an alcoholic and disturbed World War II veteran. He returns from service unsettled and apprehensive of his future but meets the charismatic Master of a cult known as The Cause who offers him salvation. Paul Thomas Anderson's new film The Master won the Best Film award at the Venice Film Festival and both its stars - Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix - have been tipped for Oscar nominations. Nigel Floyd and Michael Goldfarb review.