Ahead of 大象传媒 Writersroom's launch in Wales with a one day festival on 24th March 2017, we caught up with the great Welsh writer Russell T Davies (Doctor Who, Years & Years, A Very English Scandal, Queer as Folk, Torchwood, The Grand, Bob & Rose, Casanova, Cucumber, Banana) from our 2016 TV Drama Writers' Festival. It's packed with great advice for other writers...
What鈥檚 the best piece of advice about writing you鈥檝e ever been given?
The best piece of advice I鈥檝e ever had about writing was essentially not to be so serious. You can be talking about the most serious thing in the world but people aren鈥檛 necessarily serious all day long. You can be at a funeral and have a laugh, you can be discussing the worse topics in the world and a sense of humour will rise up. When I was younger someone said to me 鈥榳hy don鈥檛 you write like you talk?鈥� because I do have a bit of a laugh when I talk. That was a great piece of advice.
And what was the worst?
The worst piece of advice I think was that old classic 鈥榢ill your children鈥�, they always say that to writers 鈥榢ill your children鈥� which means get rid of your favourite lines. Who kills their children? What a stupid piece of advice! Murderers do that. If you鈥檝e got a favourite line it鈥檚 probably brilliant. Do the opposite, cling to those lines at the expense of any other line.
What advice would you give to a writer who wants to step up to being a showrunner?
The best advice is to learn your trade and basically don鈥檛 be nuts! A lot of writers can be temperamental, a lot of people become writers because they live in their own world, they type in their bedroom or in their attic, they can be very anti-social creatures, living in their own imagination. That鈥檚 fine, that makes a great writer, but once you set foot on a TV or film set all that鈥檚 gone out of the window, then you鈥檝e got to be professional and sensible, focussed and precise in what you do. You have to learn to do the job by being on set, you鈥檝e got to be with actors, you鈥檝e got to be with designers, you鈥檝e got to be with directors. You also have to ask for that opportunity as not all producers will give it to you automatically, in fact there are some producers that fight against it, so you and your agent and your behaviour have got to allow it. It鈥檚 worth fighting for, it鈥檚 the one thing that will get you somewhere and make you not necessarily a showrunner, but at least a producer on your own work.
If there was one thing in the UK TV industry that you could get rid of what would it be?
In terms of drama I think every soap should cut themselves down to 3 episodes a week 鈥� no one is planning for 20 years time in soap operas. They are watching their viewing figures go from 6 million to 5 million to 4 million 鈥� 2 or 3 million is in sight now 鈥� you鈥檝e got to look at where we鈥檒l be in 20 years time. You should go 3 times a week with each of them 鈥� 3 great episodes a week 鈥� fill those other 2 spaces a week with new sitcoms, stuff that makes us laugh! Get teams of writers writing different shows in those slots. Just vary it across the week because not varying it isn鈥檛 working.
What鈥檚 the most common error you see made by new writers?
The most constant, profound error that I see in script after script after script is not to write the story. What I mean is (and I can鈥檛 go into too much detail as I don鈥檛 want to name specific scripts) but for example I'll get sent a script which is about a nursery school 鈥� a drama series about a nursery school 鈥� and you鈥檒l find for example that the script will have given one of the nursery school teachers a really interesting mother who is in trouble with the law and whose kitchen needs to be rebuilt. You鈥檒l find that they鈥檝e written about everything except the nursery school. There鈥檚 a nursery school there, it鈥檚 in the script but the story is all about something else.
I recently read a script about a couple, they should have been a fascinating couple but the script was about everything except the couple. They all had funny mums and daft dads and funny things happened and eccentric things and dramatic things but the central couple were a blank. It鈥檚 amazing how often that happens 鈥� someone will say their script is about ABC and they actually write a script about XY and Z. If you promise a script about nurses and the script is actually about a house share then the house share drama may be good but it isn鈥檛 about nurses. Make it a drama about a house share or make it a series about nurses but write the story you鈥檝e promised us you鈥檙e going to write. Lots of writers will fill in the margins - they have a wandering eye 鈥� but you must keep the focus on the centre of your script, on the central people of your script and on the central story that you want to tell.
The other thing that people get wrong is that they think of themselves as a character writer or a plot writer. "Character writers" sit back as if they don鈥檛 need to invent a plot 鈥� and use examples like or or and describe it as 鈥榡ust observational comedy鈥�, just characters chatting in living rooms or pubs. It鈥檚 not. I watched an episode of The Royle Family the other day and it鈥檚 full of plot 鈥� it was the episode where Antony wants to go to London and it was a brutal examination of a family bullying its youngest child into conforming and not getting ideas above his station. It was story, story, story.
There鈥檚 no such thing as simply writing character. If you say you鈥檙e a character writer and you just write character what you鈥檙e actually writing is a pub bore! If you鈥檙e just a character writer you are writing boring people. Story and character are indivisible, they are the same thing and you only discover a character when they鈥檝e got a story to go through.
US TV versus UK TV in a boxing match, who wins?
It鈥檚 a draw. They鈥檝e got great stuff, we鈥檝e got great stuff, they鈥檝e got rubbish we鈥檝e got rubbish it鈥檚 as simple as that. There鈥檚 nothing on US TV that can touch the skin of , equally if you鈥檙e watching at its finest we can鈥檛 produce a thriller like that and we鈥檙e not producing a thriller like that. It鈥檚 a great competition!
Read a Doctor Who script by Russell T Davies in our online script library