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At 9pm on 7th March, Life and Death in the Warehouse – a factual drama by the BAFTA winning team who created Killed by My Debt and The Left Behind – will air on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Three, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales and ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer. It’s a beautiful, touching, shocking film about a group of young people working in a fulfilment centre. But one of the most surprising things about it for me is the fact that I wrote it. I mean I’m relatively new to TV writing, so how on earth did I get a gig like this?

Well here’s a thing.

Just over four years ago, I’d never written a script at all. I was a happy novelist churning out my books who thought there was something mystical and magical about writing for telly - definitely not for someone like me. Until one day I did write a script for a bit of fun. Galaxy, a coming of age story about a girl in care in the late eighties who discovers sex, drugs and acid house. I might have taken 'write what you know' a bit too literally. I showed it to a mate who said it was ‘interesting’ and that I should look out for competitions on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Writersroom. And there as luck would have it was one being run by new indie Kudos North in conjunction with ´óÏó´«Ã½ Writersroom.

I didn’t lie and say I’d written on everything from Casualty to Corrie, I just didn’t let on I hadn’t written for TV before, figuring that my script wouldn’t make it through the first round anyway. I did think about fessing up when it got long listed. And again when it got short listed. And when I was invited along with a handful of others to go to Media City in Salford and pitch my show in person, I knew I was on borrowed time. I planned a big speech about being Very Very Sorry. Sadly though, I went out on a bender for my cousin’s birthday the weekend before and ended up deaf from the sound system, limping (you’re never too old to dance on a table but the trouble comes when you fall off it) and full of a stinking cold. My apology, when I gave it, was less grand than intended but fortunately everyone saw the funny side.

A month or so later, Laura Conway, head of development at Kudos North called me to say that along with two other writers I’d only gone and bloody won.

´óÏó´«Ã½ Writersroom blog on the announcement of the 2018 Kudos North Writers' Awards winners.

Her big piece of advice was not to let anyone try to dilute my voice. Oh and get a good agent. She recommended Frances Arnold, who I signed with on the spot recognising someone who would be able to help me with my career and save me from myself. From there, Frances arranged for me to meet a lot of producers. And I mean a lot. I smiled. I drank tea. I told the story of the deaf, limping, sneezing pitch at Media City. I suppose I could have tried to be more sleek, more ‘professional’ but decided that I’d struggle to pull that off in the long run. I’m a loud, sweary, full on, working class northerner, whatcha gonna do?

One of those meetings was with and at and yeah, their cabinet full of silver ware was a bit daunting, but they were not. They asked me if I’d like to create a legal show with them. Something that married my legal experiences (I used to be a solicitor) and their background in factual drama. The end result was an idea called Defender and it was absolutely banging. Funny, authentic, a real warts and all take on the Criminal Justice System with a story of the week ripped from the headlines. Of course no one picked it up. But Aysha was pleased with what I did and said she was putting together another factual drama with director and would I like to meet him. And that’s when over a brew in St Pancras Station he told me the years of research he and the team had been doing about fulfilment centres. I told him about family members who worked in them and what I thought of the way they operated. I also went on (and on and on) about the lack of working class characters and stories on telly generally. An hour later I was on the team.

A few months later, the film was commissioned by and we had a tight deadline to get the script ready, with filming scheduled for mid 2020, barring disaster.

Hello Covid 19.

Well 2020 came and went, with each new attempt at production thwarted and the already small pot of money we had, now having to cover a huge raft of Covid protocols. Not gonna lie, I was beginning to think it wouldn’t happen, until Aysha mailed me to say we were shooting in October 2021. And that’s how I found myself in Cardiff watching and say some lines I wrote about timing workers when they go to the bogs (trust me they somehow make it both funny and horrifying).

So ´óÏó´«Ã½ Writersroom. Great resource. Great people. Great opportunities.

Hope you like the film (and if anyone wants to pick up Defender – it’s still banging).

Watch Life and Death in the Warehouse on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Three at 9pm on Monday 7th March and on ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer.