Critic turns soap writer

Guardian (free registration required) TV critic Rupert Smith was challenged by Mal Young to write an episode of Doctors. The result can be seen tomorrow...

Understanding the mechanics of TV drama doesn't mean I've become a more charitable critic. If anything, it's made me less inclined to stomach some of the drivel I'm obliged to sit through in my day job. Producers set themselves very high standards, and if those apply to a daytime show like Doctors, they must be doubly important to primetime material. Internal consistency, economy of character, situation and dialogue, the sense of an ending - they're the qualities the Greeks were keen on, and they still rule today. There's a lot of awful TV drama out there that might be improved considerably, if only it didn't trample so gaily over the lot of them.