The Radio Times interview doesn't seem to be online, but Poliakoff's comments are widely quoted elsewhere, including in The Guardian.
"It's difficult enough writing drama without being given suggestions and rules devised by Kafkaesque committees, and what's more it's completely unnecessary. I've always felt audiences are far more intelligent than they're given credit for, and are quite capable of realising that when real events are compressed for drama, certain liberties have to be taken...
It's very important that writers in television tackle unfamiliar stories rather than being made to recycle the same ones endlessly. They can't do this if they are artificially restricted. There's a danger we are going to regress into a much safer world and I'm not sure the audience want that."
He's right, there is a danger we are going to regress into a much safer world. But isn't the bigger problem that bureaucrats are trying to foist simplistic rules onto experienced writers, and in doing so are threatening the individuality of voice and the depth and nuance that makes great drama?
ReplyDeleteAgreed. And I think there's also a danger that writers become self-censoring - even at the stage of pitching ideas.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and also the fact that writers are being forced into "one size fits all."
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