The challenge for theatre

The protests at Birmingham Rep proved that playwrights still have the power to divide communities. But, asks David Edgar in The Guardian, how can they unite them?

Should the Birmingham Rep have entered into a conversation with the Sikh community that was misinterpreted as a negotiation over the play's content? How does a theatre that accepts the challenge of giving a public voice to invisible and often embattled communities fulfil that role without compromising the need to be open and truthful about the consequences of that invisibility and that embattlement? Does a theatre have a responsibility to balance dissident perspectives with more positive portrayals (as has happened, willy nilly, in plays about the African-Caribbean and Muslim communities)? Do extreme events in a fictional drama need to be provable, plausible or feasible?

John Logan - screenwriter

John Logan, one of Hollywood's hottest screenwriters, with credits including Gladiator and The Aviator, is profiled in The New York Times.

As well as showing the rewards of movie writing success ("Once a struggling playwright who only a decade ago paid his bills by shelving books at Northwestern University, Mr. Logan drives a Lexus convertible, vacations around the world...and takes meetings with some of the biggest stars and directors in Hollywood") the article also highlights a common Hollywood theme: disputes about writing credits.

Mr. Logan's handlers at the Creative Artists Agency also enhanced his status before he began writing "The Aviator" by building into his deal an unusual provision guaranteeing him sole screenplay credit, Charles Evans Jr., one of the film's producers, said in an interview. The guarantee blocked the producers, who included the normally hands-on filmmaker Michael Mann, and even Mr. Scorsese from hiring writers to revise Mr. Logan's work or from professing any part in the screenplay's authorship, whatever they may have contributed.

Asked whether he had such protection, Mr. Logan smiled. "I don't know," he said.

Arts Council funding cuts (update)

The Guild has received a reply to its letter accusing Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell of accepting a “cut in real terms” in funding for the arts.

Jowell didn’t reply in person, but asked civil servant Phil Clapp to write instead. Clapp writes: “it is true that the latest spending round was undoubtedly tough, but we believe that there is considerable flexibility . . . to maintain funding for arts organisations and artists in real terms.” He concedes: “As Tessa Jowell has publicly stated, the challenging settlement for the Department has not allowed us to put as much into the arts sector as we would like.”

Clapp says that Arts Council of England funding will increase in April 2005 by £45 million to £412 million per year. But it will stand still for the next two years, meaning a £30 million cut in real terms because inflation “will have to be absorbed”. He makes it clear that it is up to ACE how it slices up the limited funds available.

The Guild’s criticism focused on theatre funding, which sees no increase at all. The Guild has predicted closures of theatres and touring companies, fewer commissions of new work, more restrictions on cast numbers and production values.

Phil Clapp’s letter does not deal with this issue. He falls back on “further efficiency savings”; “re-shaping arts education spending to release funds” and “flexibility in existing budgets to make resources available”. The Writers’ Guild does not believe any of these phrases will translate into a single penny for theatre funding.

Guild General Secretary Bernie Corbett has written to the Chief Executive of Arts Council England, Peter Hewitt, enclosing a copy of Clapp’s letter and asking whether theatre funding will go up, or down, or remain the same both in cash terms and in real terms. Hewitt is also asked to explain whether new funding for large projects such as the South Bank Centre and Liverpool Capital of Culture will drawe funds away from existing theatres and companies all over the country.

José Rivera interiew

Screenwriter José Rivera, whose film The Motorcycle Diaries was one of the critical hits of 2004, is interviewed by Richard Stayton for the Writers Guild of America, west.

Some of the best collaborative work I have ever done with a director was with Walter [Salles] because he doesn't rewrite you. He makes very precise and interesting comments on everything you've written, and some of them yield new things. For example, I knew he wanted a certain atmosphere of Buenos Aires captured. And I remember writing a scene where he rides over a bridge and the motorcycle slithers through this traffic accident. Just little things like that where he would have an idea and I would come up with details.

Rape in soaps

While praising The Archers on Radio 4 for its recent rape storyline, David Aaronovitch in The Observer asks why rapists in soaps are almost never one of the central characters.

It seems to me that this is a very interesting psychological insight. Our sympathy with soap characters is based on identification. But while we can easily see ourselves as potential victims of rape or assault, we find it impossible to allow a connection with the rapist, the molester and the wife-beater. By making the rapist an outsider who leaves after the crime, the scriptwriters externalise evil for us. It is not within us or those who are close to us, but entirely contained within others. So the writers first frighten us with something real, and then reassure us with something unreal, which is the notion of our own essential and eternal correctness.

Honours for Guild members

Three of the UK's leading writers, and long-standing Writers' Guild members, were honoured in the New Years Honours list.

Alan Plater received a CBE. Guild President from 1991-95, Alan has worked in theatre, TV and film. An early contributor to Z-Cars, his credits include the The Beiderbecke Affair for ITV and the recent award-winning TV play, Last Of The Blonde Bombshells.

Ray Cooney, who has received an OBE, is one of Britain's most successful and popular playwrights. Best known for farces such as Run For Your Wife, he has, to date, had 17 plays produced in the West End.

John Sullivan, who has also been awarded an OBE, is best known for creating and writing the hugely successful sitcom, Only Fools And Horses. His impressive list of credits also includes creating the sitcoms Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends.

Parsons and Naylor (update)

It appears that the Guild's impression that Radio 4 comedy series Parsons and Naylor was not being recommissioned (see below) was false. Assurances have been given that it will return in 2005. The Guild was concerned about the loss of the show since it provides the only current opportunities for non-commissioned comedy writers on Radio 4.

Behzti (update)

Further to earlier reports on this blog, the Writers' Guild has set out its full position in support of the writer of Behzti, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti. The Guild has also signed the following letter written by Ben Payne, Associate Director of Birmingham Rep:

“We, the undersigned, deplore the violent events that have very regrettably led to the cancelling of the remaining performances of BEHZTI (DISHONOUR) by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti at Birmingham Repertory Theatre on grounds of the safety of the audience, performers and staff of the theatre.

“We all have the right to be protected from abuse on the grounds of our race or religion. We also have the right to peacefully protest if a work of art offends us. We do not have the right to use violence and intimidation to prevent that work of art from being seen by others.

“We particularly deplore the stance of those community and religious leaders of whatever faith who have condemned the production of this play, misrepresented it in clear ignorance of its intent and content, but have not condemned those who have used their faith as an excuse for hooliganism.

“To verbally and physically threaten a writer, audience members, performers and theatre staff is unacceptable. To attempt to censor a play because some incidents in it would thereby be rendered less offensive to some people if they were set elsewhere is unacceptable. To stop the production of a work of art by means of force and continued threats of force is unacceptable. To make death threats against a writer and a writer’s relatives is unacceptable.

“Doubtless, some will see the fact that the play’s production has been brought to an end by this campaign of intimidation as some kind of victory. The reality is we all lose by it. The violent abuse of power to silence the individual in a community is one of the main themes of this writer’s play. It is a sad irony therefore that the violent actions of some of the protestors on Saturday have actually only served to confirm the play’s relevance to us all.

“It is a legitimate function of art to provoke debate and sometimes to express controversial ideas. A genuinely free, pluralist society would celebrate this aspect of our culture. Those who use violent means to silence it must be vigorously opposed and challenged by all of us, whatever our faith, belief or opinions.”

Comedy Award for Dominic Minghella

Guild member Dominic Minghella emerged triumphant last night from the British Comedy Awards, after his series Doc Martin won Best TV Comedy Drama. The show, starring Martin Clunes and made by Buffalo TV, made its premiere this year and attracted both high ratings and critical praise.

The full list of Comedy Award winners can be found on BBC News.

Radio review of the year

Nick Smurthwaite in The Stage looks back on a good year for talk radio.

In a recent interview, Jenny Abramsky, the BBC’s director of radio and music, spoke of “the resilience of radio” and its ability to reinvent itself.

Because of the primacy of television in our mass culture, there have been Jeremiahs in the higher echelons of broadcasting, predicting the marginalisation of radio for some years. But the hands-on champions of radio, such as Abramsky and Melvyn Bragg, are dedicated to its survival as a force to be reckoned with.

As an example of its outreach

BBC Get Writing (update)

Our report earlier this month that the BBC's Get Writing website is to close has been confirmed by a Guild member, Chris Page, who spotted the announcement on the site itself.

Chris writes:

This week, posted on the BBC Get Writing Website, was a notice that Get Writing would be closing in April 05 due to funding, and a community of over two hundred thousand people will be scattered to the four winds. As you might imagine, we are not happy with this decision.

Get Writing is a very valuable home for published authors, authors who seek publication and other writers, whether they aspire to write for a living or scribble for a hobby. It is a place of like-minded individuals whose aims are to create written works ranging from short stories, non-fiction and other popular genres – it is our home in a very competitive world.

We like it here. Get Writing provides not only a platform for our own ideas, but also a support place for other writers and a lifeline for many of us that can’t work through disability and a chance to have some influence in a world that seems to have forgotten all about us. It is an essential place for those of us that have to create and bring enjoyment to others – a place of the ‘word’.

It is our understanding that the BBC’s mandate is to promote creativity – to push the mind along, after all the BBC are world famous for the training they give to their staff, so why on earth would you start moving backwards when you have twenty thousand creative minds trying to push the BBC into this century? We believe in Get Writing and believe that was should keep our voice – our creativity alive.

So please support our attempt to keep something truly magical alive, help us to write, to create, to be one community – we are your future, we are writers!

Download the Maltese Falcon

The Screenwriters' Store has a new selection of scripts available for download, including The Maltese Falcon.

Behzti dropped after protests

Violent protests by Sikhs in Birmingham have led the Birmingham Repertory Theatre to drop Gurpreet Kaur Bhatt's play Behtzi, reports BBC News. The theatre dropped Behzti, which depicts murder and sex abuse in a temple, on safety grounds after protesters clashed with police.

Neil Foster, of the Birmingham Stage Company, said the decision to cancel the play had been made by "cowards".

He said he was now looking at staging the performance at the Old Rep Theatre.

Mr Foster told BBC Radio 4's PM: "I think it's one of the blackest days for the arts in this country that I've ever experienced."

Update: The Guild has been busy defending the rights of writers (Gurpreet Kaur Bhatt has, reportedly, gone into hiding). Guild General Secretary Bernie Corbett, quoted in both The Independent and on BBC News, said that the decision to withdraw the play could lead to other theatres becoming reluctant to stage risky material.

"If you can get a big enough crowd, then you can suppress something. That's a terrible principle. Over the next months and years, it makes it less likely that they're going to take the plunge with anything slightly challenging or controversial, about any subject at all, where a mob might be whipped up."

Parsons and Naylor

News has reached the Writers' Guild that Radio 2's topical comedy show Parsons and Naylor is unlikely to be recommissioned. This means that, for the first time in 34 years, there are now no topical radio programmes open to new writers on the entire radio network.

Indeed there is only one programme that takes non-commissioned material, Radio 4's Bearded Ladies, which is not scheduled to return for several months, and only runs for six shows a year. BBC Radio comedy department is always trying to develop new formats, but attempts to bring on new programmes over the last few years have all ended in failure.

Guild General Secretary, Bernie Corbett, has written to the Controllers of Radio 2 and 4 complaining about the situation:

"It is worth pointing out that many of the most successful writers of the last 30 years began their careers on shows like Week Ending and News Huddlines, for example David Renwick (One Foot In The Grave, Jonathan Creek), Andy Hamilton & Guy Jenkin (Drop the Dead Donkey, Bedtime), Ade Edmondson (Bottom, Bad News), Andrew Marshall (2.4 Children), Ian Brown & James Hendrie (My Family), Mark Burton, Pete Sinclair & John O’Farrell (Spitting Image, Have I Got News For You).

The Writers’ Guild hopes you will give urgent attention to this and consider whether Radio 2 ought to introduce a new vehicle for topical comedy contributions by non-commissioned writers, before an already endangered species becomes an extinct one."

Update: Good news! It appears that the rumours were false and that Parsons and Naylor has in fact been re-commissioned. Apologies for the misinformation.

The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award 2005

The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award 2005 aims to help the development of emerging practitioners in the field of experimental theatre and, in general, to encourage the new generation of creative artists.

Support is aimed at assisting artists in the transition from fringe to studio spaces. A grant of up to £30,000 and a three week run at The Riverside Studios (Studio 3) in November 2005 will be awarded to an individual or company for a production of their choice. Bold, innovative and challenging projects will be favoured.

Full details are available on their website.

Menagerie competition for young writers

Menagerie Young Writers Development Programme is committed to opening up writing for the theatre to a diverse range of new young voices. Their aim is to discover, support and develop the best first time young writers from the eastern region of the UK and beyond.

They are looking for six first time writers for bursary places on a series of four interconnecting intensive weekend workshops over a period of two months, beginning in April 05.

These workshops will aid the development of a one act play from initial idea through to completed first draft. The plays will be given a script-in-hand performance to the general public alongside work being developed by established professionals at Menageries 'Heat' showcase at the beginning of June 05.

Full details of how to apply are on the BBC's Writers Room website.

Arts funding cuts (2)

The theatre world has been left reeling by the news (reported below) that funding for the Arts Council was being cut in real terms, reports The Stage.

“We knew it would be bad but not that bad” was the response from the performing arts to the news that government funding of Arts Council England is to be frozen at £412 million for the next three years - a cut of £30 million in real terms when inflation is taken into consideration.

Richard Pulford, joint chief executive of the Theatrical Management Association and the Society of London Theatre, warns that the cuts will be “keenly felt in the quality and range of productions"

“We know that the £25 million has worked. It has improved the quality of work, it has improved morale immeasurably. The improvement has begun to be felt in West End theatre and at the same time we have been able to do something to address the endemic problem of low pay in the theatre. It is deeply dismaying,” he said.

“I can’t see how the arts council can be safeguarded from the effects of this and the effects are going to be felt in the most devastating way. There is no question of making up this money from anywhere else. We can’t undo, and wouldn’t want to, the improvements in wages - there’s no question about that. That amount of money in Exchequer terms is the copper in the pocket of a rich man.”

Spooks credits

Spooks, the highly successful BBC 1 drama series, will no longer be quite such a mystery to viewers following an agreement between the Guild, the BBC and the independent producer Kudos.

From now on credits will appear on digital repeats of Spooks, DVD releases, and the Spooks website. The BBC has promised never again to produce or commission drama series without a guarantee of writers’ credits.

For more than a year the Guild has been complaining that Spooks carries no writers’ credits – in contravention of the Guild’s agreements with the BBC and the independent producers’ trade body PACT. It is also an offence against the BBC’s internal producer guidelines.

The idea behind Spooks was that viewers should believe their TVs had been taken over by alien forces – and credits would have ruined that illusion. Guild General Secretary Bernie Corbett commented: “It was always rubbish to pretend that intelligent viewers regarded this as anything other than high-quality drama entertainment.”

As a settlement of the issue the following agreement has been reached:

1. After each episode has been broadcast on BBC One a preview of the following episode will be broadcast on BBC Three. The broadcast on BBC Three will have an end title sequence which will credit the writer (and other key contributors) of that episode in the usual way.

2. The “Spooks” website will continue to carry full credits information but the site will be reviewed to ensure better orientation to the credits as well as improved presentation of the credits on the site.

3. Subsequent DVD releases (from season two onwards) will include full credit information as per the website as an additional feature of the DVD. It has not proved feasible for technical reasons to include credits for viewers on digital platforms via their red button.

The following joint statement by the BBC, Writers’ Guild and Personal Managers Association, has been agreed:

“A disagreement between the BBC, Kudos Film and Television and the writers' representative organisations (the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and the Personal Managers Association) concerning the absence of the writers' credit on "Spooks" has been resolved by agreement on a package of measures in relation to this programme which address the concerns raised.

“During the discussions on this matter, the BBC acknowledged that the absence of credits on this specific programme had been the result of unique circumstances and established no precedent concerning the standard provisions dealing with the writers' entitlement to a credit.

“The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain said it had agreed to treat “Spooks” as a special case on the understanding that writers’ credits would appear on all future BBC productions and commissions.”

Guild protests against cut to arts funding

Writers' Guild General Secretary Bernie Corbett has written to the Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell to protest against the "standstill" in funding for the Arts Council that will amount, in real terms, to a £30m cut.

In his letter Corbett says that:

Only recently we were saluting the Government on its arts funding settlement, which enabled much-needed new funding to be agreed. While this left the UK far behind many other European countries, we could welcome a significant step in the right direction. In particular there was a shot in the arm for local and regional theatre (although the Writers’ Guild does not believe a fair share of the new money was ever spent on new writing).

Now, before the new spending has even had a chance to bed down, we are back into a depressing spiral of cuts. This will mean closures of theatres and companies, fewer commissions of new work, more restrictions on cast numbers and production values, etc., etc.

Bad sex prize for Wolfe

American author Tom Wolfe has received this year's Bad Sex Prize from the Literary Review, reports BBC News. The award recognises the worst descriptions of sex in literature.

Wolfe, 74, whose Bonfire of the Vanities epitomised 1980s power and excess, was nominated for three passages in his latest publication. One included the line: "...moan moan moan moan moan..."

Evening Standard Theatre Awards

Guild member Harold Pinter was honoured at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards today. The playwright, along with actress Judi Dench and the South Bank institution were each given Special Awards, honouring their unique contributions to the nation's cultural life and marking the Standard awards' own half-century.

Alan Bennett won Best Play with This History Boys and The Charles Wintour Bursary for New Playwriting, worth £30,000 went to Owen McCafferty for his play Scenes from the Big Picture, seen last year at the National Theatre.

Sylvia Plath's Ariel, revisited

A new edition of Sylvia Plath's collection of poems, Ariel, has been published, reports The Economist. Some have claimed that the original editor, Ted Hughes, made his selection "in ways which would favour his own reputation and manipulate hers," but on the basis of the newly published poems The Economist ses no evidence for this.

Plath left a manuscript of 40 poems in a black folder. Of those 40 poems, Hughes removed 13 and substituted others, many of which were written in an extraordinarily fertile month towards the very end of Plath's life. The poems which Hughes removed from the manuscript are, generally speaking, inferior to the new ones that he chose to include. They are slacker and more anecdotal, and their rhythms drive forward less compulsively. They are no less savage in their subject matter, but they lack the force and concentrated power of the ones that replace them. In these rejected poems, we feel that Plath is writing around a subject rather than emerging from deep inside it.

Away from the Plath-Hughes controversy, The Economist reminds us just how powerful the poems remain.

Can any poet have asked so many unanswerable questions of God, the self and a chilly, inhospitable world within the space of a single slim volume?

First books

In The Times, leading writers remember the excitement of their first published work. Margaret Attwood writes:

The book consisted of seven poems — short poems, luckily — for which I had won a university prize. It was printed in a cellar, on a flatbed press owned by a friend and colleague. Along with a fellow poet, I set the type. We had to do each poem separately, as there was a shortage of letter As.

Arts Council Wales to be run by Assembly

Arts Council Wales will soon disappear in all but name, following the decision by the Welsh Assembly to take on all of its important fucnctions, reports The Stage.

To oversee the future, the government is establishing a culture board to be chaired by the minister - currently Alun Pugh - with membership from the arts council, National Library, National Museums and Galleries, local government and the Welsh Books Council. The directly funded bodies will be the Welsh National Opera, BBC National Orchestra, Academi, Diversions, Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold and the Welsh language Theatr Genedlaethol.

No date has been set for the changeover, although it is thought that April 2006 is the most likely date since this is when the Welsh Development Agency undergoes a similar move.

Writing as therapy

Dan Harris goes back to his childhood in an article for the Writers Guild of America west's magazine, Written By.

As a writer, I think I've cleared one of the first major hurdles. I've written a film that is personal to me, and miraculously it's been made. I can only hope that my "therapy session" connects with other people. Life is hard, and it often pulls no punches. Sometimes when you think it cannot get any worse, it does. Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel dies just as you approach it. But sometimes there is healing in catastrophe. Sometimes people are given a second chance.

Movie Plot Generator

Movie Plot Generator, 27,000 plot possibilities in a single book. Fortunately it's tongue in cheek. I think.

Whether it’s “a single mom fighting crime with a wise-cracking robot” or the story of “an orphaned grizzly cub trying to lose his virginity to an all-star ‘80’s soundtrack,” your favorite combination is sure to be the next big blockbuster.

Writers Passage West Midlands - deadline reminder

The deadline for Writers Passage West Midlands is 17 December. The Script Factory and Screen West Midlands are looking for eight writers to take part in a nine-month development programme.

The programme is only open to writers who live or work within the West Midlands and have completed a first draft screenplay.

Full details are on the Script Factory website.

Plays struggle on Broadway

Only five new plays opened on Broadway this season, reports Jesse McKinley in The New York Times, as musicals continue to dominate the stage.

"The disappearance of the Broadway play poses a significant problem for anyone whose wants to make a living writing plays," said John Weidman, president of the Dramatists Guild, "which, by extension, poses a problem for anyone who cares about the future of the American theater."

With big-name musicals and star-studded, limited-run revivals considered the only relatively safe bets in a famously risky industry, the roster of those producing new plays has shrunk to a precious and wealthy few who are driven by artistic idealism, personal vanity or, very often, both.

It's a similar story in London. The opening of Mary Poppins means that for the first time in history there are now more musicals than plays in the West End.

Getting published

The New Writing Partnership, a new literary arts organisation in East Anglia, ran its first programme of workshops and events this month for "emerging writers, publishing professionals and others in the literary world", reports Christina Patterson in The Independent. The aim of the event, according to its director, Trevor Davies, was to "create a new interface between writers and the writing world".

"Nobody should be publishing all these books," says Andrew Franklin, publisher of the mega-selling Eats, Shoots & Leaves. "I wish fewer people would write and fewer people would publish books." Others on the panel are less gloomy, but the fur flies when the discussion moves to money. Franklin calls agent David Godwin "a Thatcherite" and Godwin's cheeks go scarlet. Eyes shine with excitement. Next year, we agree, it should take place in a gladiatorial arena.

"Freedom" award for John Deery

Guild member John Deery is to be honoured by the US National Board of Review of Motion Pictures for his debut film Conspiracy of Silence.

Along with Farenheit 9/11 and The Passion of the Christ, Conspiracy of Silence, a film about corruption and abuse in the Irish Catholic church, will receive a "Special recognition of Films that Reflect the Freedom of Expression”.

John Deery was presented with the Hartley-Merrill International Screenwriting Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001. As a result of this he was invited to attend the Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab where he developed the story and raised finance to make the film.

Sate of Play - the movie

Writers' Guild member Paul Abbott's award-winning BBC drama series, State of Play, is set to be a mjor film, reports BBC News. The film rights were sold to Universal Pictures by Abbott, who will also be the executive producer on the film. "It's a blistering political thriller and we want to make an equally blistering movie," said US producer Andrew Hauptman.

Children's BAFTA winners

The winners of the 2004 Children’s BAFTA Awards have been announced. They include:

• Animation: Brush Head (Jonathan Boseley, Andy Williams, Dan Berlinka for Toon
• Disney/Dandy Productions/Disney Channel UK)
• Drama: Featherboy (Peter Tabern, Dermot Boyd for Childsplay/BBC1)
• Pre-school animation: Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto! (Christopher O'Hare, Tony Collingwood, Andrea Tran for Collingwood O'Hare Entertainment/CiTV
• School drama:The Illustrated Mum, based on the book by Jacqueline Wilson (Julia Ouston, Cilla Ware, Debbie Isitt) Granada/C4
• Writer (adapted): Debbie Isitt - The Illustrated Mum
• Writer (original): Tony Collingwood - Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!

Thompson announces BBC cuts

Around 3,000 jobs will go at the BBC, says Director General Mark Thompson. Most will be in professional services, including human resources, training, finances and legal services. In addition, several departments including Children's TV and Radio will move to a new home in Manchester.

BBC News has a good summary of the changes, while The Stage concentrates on a pledge that more money will now be spent on original programming.

Unforgiven analysed by John Truby

If you're a fan of screenplay analysis you will be interested in John Truby's analysis on Unforgiven on the Screenwriters Store website.

If you're like me, the opening of a new Western - our national genre - is news for rejoicing. When I heard that David People's script is thematically ambitious, I was even more excited to see this film. But all of that just made Unforgiven a bigger disappointment. Unforgiven is a textbook example of what happens when you don't track your theme through the structure.

You can also download a copy of the screenplay and judge for yourself.

Patrick Marber

As the film of his play Closer is released in America, British playwright Patrick Marber talks to the Writers Guild of America, west.

I was very open to how we were going to do it. There was one part of me that wanted to rip up the play and start again... and then there was another part of me that thought, well, this is an interesting shape and an interesting way of telling a story and it worked on stage so why shouldn't we make it work on film. Mike was of the latter view. He loved the play, and a lot of the time he was persuading me to keep stuff in that I wanted to cut. It was kind of the reverse of the cliché writer-director relationship. I was all for rewriting it and he was always trying to preserve stuff I wanted to cut. I did do a lot of rewriting with lots of new material in the screenplay that's not in the play, but it all stems from the play.

BBC Comedy Wales

BBC Wales Comedy department are looking for narrative comedy scripts for radio and television broadcast.

The brief
Writers are expected to be either Welsh, based in Wales or for the characters/situations to have a Welsh flavour. This does not mean they are looking for sitcoms about rugby, sheep or miners but are seeking situations that are funny and just happen to be set in Wales or that the main characters are Welsh. The overriding concern is that the scripts are funny.

The outcome
The department is looking to pilot six sit-coms for BBC Radio Wales early next year with two of the best being commissioned for a series on the station. BBC Wales are also looking to develop narrative TV comedy that has the potential to go network.

Contact
Please send scripts by post to:
BBC Wales Comedy Department
Room M1010, Ty Oldfield, Llandaff
Cardiff, CF5 2YQ

For more information, you can call the Comedy Department on 029 2032 3516

The bodging of the BBC

Another "circle of life" begins at the BBC with Mark Thompson's reign as Director General, but why is their no prospect of returning power to the programme makers, asks Peter Preston in Media Guardian (free registration required).

Sometimes, as you patrol the pavements outside the plastic-shrouded building site called Broadcasting House, the governance of Britain and the voice of Britain blend symbolically into one. One day the covers will come off. One day the blessed, beating heart of radio will return where it belongs. One day - and countless millions on - we'll be right back where we started from.

Caryl Churchill

Caryl Churchill, celebrated British playwright, profiled by Sarah Lyall in the New York Times.

If Ms. Churchill's plays have one signature, it is their highly stylized conceits. The works are as creative in form as they are varied in content, as if she wants to push the boundaries each time. They feature, in different instances, flashbacks, twisted chronologies, huge leaps of logic, elements of absurdity, overlapping dialogue, different actors playing the same character in different scenes, interjected songs and, in the case of "Serious Money," dialogue written almost entirely in verse. "She is a structuralist," said Max Stafford-Clark, director of the Out of Joint theater company and longtime director of Ms. Churchill's work. "It's not just the range of subject matter, but also the form which is continually surprising to critics and audiences."

History lessons

Why are British theatres neglecting the past, asks Michael Billington in The Guardian.

We have been taught, by a series of dreary, knee-jerk textbooks, that virtually nothing happened in British drama between 1945 and 1956. In fact, there were plays like John Whiting's Saint's Day, lately revived, that foresaw violent social disintegration. There were also intriguing post-war works on private dilemmas and our sexual hypocrisies: not least Emlyn Williams's Accolade, dealing with the double life of a famous writer who, on the eve of being knighted, is discovered to have had sex with a 14-year-old girl. And, at a time when the issue of whether Alexander the Great was gay is back in the news, it might be worth a second look at Terence Rattigan's Adventure Story, which drops heavy hints as to its Grecian hero's bisexuality.

Wood brings Acorn Antiques to the stage

Guild member Victoria Wood is bringing her Acorn Antiques sketch to the stage in a new musical, reports BBC News.

Speaking at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, in London, Wood said she first mooted the idea for a musical back in 2001.

"I wanted to write a musical and it was just like a brainwave," she said.

"I thought 'why not make it about Acorn Antiques?' It is something that people may recognise."

Jokingly described by Wood as a "modern morality tale", the musical is set in a small theatre in Sutton Coldfield where the director - played by Neil Morrissey - is hoping to rehearse his new work.

Acorn Antiques will open at London's Theatre Royal Haymarket in February 2005, directed by Trevor Nunn.

BBC will not back-track on digital services

BBC governors have said that No radical changes will be made to BBC digital TV and radio services, despite criticism from government-commissioned reviews, reports BBC News.

The reviews concluded that low viewing figures meant BBC Three and Four were poor value for money and needed to become more mainstream.

But BBC chairman Michael Grade said innovation was as important as improving audience reach.

Governors said digital services must be given more time to develop.

Tinniswood Award

The first Tinniswood Award for radio drama scripts, named after the late, great Peter Tinniswood, has been won by Christopher William Hill for his play Killing Maestros.

The Award, run by the Writers' Guild and The Society of Authors, was presented by Richard Eyre at a ceremony last month.

There's a full report by Guild Radio Committee Chair, Alan Drury, on the Guild's website.

Playwrights keeping it short and sweet

There is a growing trend among playwrights for short plays without intermissions, reports Charles Isherwood in the New York Times.

Oddly enough, as plays seem to have grown shorter, movies have ballooned. Hollywood doesn't appear to be heeding the conventional wisdom about the American population's decreasing attention span. Over the last couple of decades, the average running time of a movie seems to have inched upward from that appealing benchmark of 90 minutes. Now, even the most formulaic action pictures run a full two hours, if not more. Blame the auteur theory, if you like, which enshrined the director as the sole author of a movie and led to the consolidation of power in directors' hands.

Perhaps it's time theater producers began more aggressively exploiting this disparity. They could promote their shows' running time as a selling point. "Half as long as 'Alexander!' " "Guaranteed to be shorter than a Steven Spielberg movie!"

Verity Bargate winner

Matt Charman has won the prestigious Verity Bargate award with his first full-length play, reports The Stage.

The award, run by the Soho Theatre, aims to find and promote new talent from across the UK. Charman's play, A Night at the Dogs, was inspired by his time working in a crash repair shop in West Sussex.

“I had made scribblings before but it is my first full-length play. I was in pantomimes as a kid and always doing things in the back garden but then got to university and grew up and was more interested in producing and getting new stuff together. When I left university I worked with these guys at the garage one year and it occurred to me they were incredibly interesting people and I just wanted to get it down.”

BBC Get Writing site to close

MediaGuardian (free registration required) reports that staff have been told that the Get Writing site, which cost around £400,000 to launch with an attendant nationwide campaign of creative writing workshops, will close down just months after it was relaunched.

The site, aimed at adults who want to develop their creative writing skills, was launched in September 2003 and relaunched a year later as one of the centrepieces of the BBC's online learning strategy.

As we reported on this blog a few months ago, the site is aimed more at beginners than writers wanting to submit work to the BBC, but it was always rather unclear what it's relationship was with the BBC Writersroom.

Public service the key for BBC

The BBC should focus on public service broadcasting, an independent panel set up by the government has said. There's a full report from BBC News.

Value for audiences and consistent high quality programming were the priorities, it said.

The panel, headed by Lord Burns, has published a paper on the clarity of the BBC's public purposes and remit, and how it is funded.

It will be discussed on Friday in the last of a series of debates on how the BBC might be run and regulated in the future.

The debates have been held before an invited audience and broadcast over the internet.

There was general support among the panel for the continuation of the licence fee for the next few years.

Scriptapalooza

Entries are invited for the 2005 Scriptapalooza film writing contest. It's one of the best known competitions, and is endorsed by the Writers Guild of America, west. The closing date is 15 April 2005.

Technical problems

There were some pretty severe technical problems at Blogger.com yesterday, so apologies if you came to the blog. At the moment the last two days posts have been lost. Hopefully they will be recovered today.

BBC Writersroom

If you haven't discovered it yet, the BBC Writersroom is an excellent resource, particularly for writers looking to get their first commissions with the BBC.

The site tells you all you need to know about submitting scripts and even has a specially written formatting programme, Scriptsmart, that you can download for free.

There are also regular interviews with writers and producers in the Insight section - well worth checking out.

Mary Poppins

One of the most eagerly anticipated musicals of recent years opens in London this month, and, as The Oberserver reports, it's been a 25-year job to bring PL Travers's Mary Poppins to the stage.

The Observer also has an interview with Julian Fellowes who wrote the book for the musical.

Arthur Hailey dies

Best-selling novelist Arthur Hailey has died at the age of 84, reports BBC News.

Airport (1968) arguably remains Hailey's best-loved work and prompted the disaster movie genre. The thriller follows events in the sky, and on the ground at a snow-logged airport, when a terrorist boards an airplane with a bomb.

The book was adapted into a hit film in 1970, starring Burt Lancaster as the harassed airport manager and Dean Martin as a womanising pilot, alongside Jean Seberg and Jacqueline Bisset.

Making movies for all ages

The phenomenon of the family movie, examined by A.O. Scott in the New York Times.

As far as my eye could see, every adult in that queue was, like me, accompanied by at least one child. Now, the box-office tallies for movies like "Finding Nemo," "Shrek 2" and "The Incredibles" suggest that a lot of tickets are being sold to unsupervised grownups, but they also suggest that intergenerational moviegoing has become not just a common but a normative cultural experience.

John Whiting Award

The Arts Council is seeking entries for the 38th John Whiting Award, designed to help further the careers and enhance the reputations of British playwrights and to draw to public attention the importance of writers in contemporary theatre.

Unfortunately there is no information on the Arts Council website, so the following is taken from the BBC Writersroom.

The brief

A Panel of independent judges will take the decision to reward a writer whose play, in the judges' opinion, satisfies the following description:
- a play in which the writing is of special quality
- a play of relevance and importance to contemporary life
- a play of potential value to British theatre

The judges do not have regard to whether or not the play has received a production, or is likely to receive a production or publication. It must, however, have been written during the years 2002 and/or 2003. The judges reserve the right to advise the Arts Council that no script meets the required standards of the award and that therefore the Award should not be made.

The prize

The value of the award is £6,000. The judges' decision is final.

Eligibility

Any writer is eligible to apply if they have had one of the following in the calendar years 2003 or 2004:
- An offer of an award under the Arts Council
- A commission from one of those theatre companies in receipt of annual or revenue subsidy from the Arts Council
- A premiere production by a theatre company in receipt of annual subsidy from the Arts Council

No writer who has previously won the award may reapply, and no play that has previously been submitted for the Award is eligible. A play submitted for consideration must be an original work. Translations are not eligible.

How to apply

Contact the Arts Council Theatre Writing Section on 020 7973 6480 and an application form will be sent to you.

Return the form, along with three copies of the script you are entering and a copy of your CV, to the Arts Council no later than 10 January 2005.

The winner will be announced in October 2005.

Playwrights' Studio, Scotland

The Playwrights' Studio, Scotland has launched Evolve, a new development programme for non-produced and aspiring playwrights at the very start of their playwriting career. The programme is designed to give new writers their first professional development, to hone their skills and cultivate their voice.

Slightly confusingly, the take part in the Evolve programme you have to enter the Ignite competition. All the details are on their website.

Fears for the Old Vic

While most people have hailed Kevin Spacey as the saviour of the Old Vic, veteran director Alan Strachan, writing in The Independent, is worried that the theatre might be heading in the wrong direction.

That atmosphere of casual but friendly welcome, which used to stamp the Old Vic's character, seems to have changed utterly. Front-of-house and bar staff are now all gussied up in sombre formal black and seem to share a house-style manner of impersonal - not to say chilly - hauteur. Certainly it is one of the factors which fail to bear out the claim - palpably sincere, though it may be - by the company's producer, David Liddiment (an ex-television executive who "discovered" Cloaca) that: "We are trying to live up to the values of this building".

Lit Idol 2005

The London Book Fair has launched its second Lit Idol competition, inviting entrants to submit the opening 10,000 words of a crime/thriller novel that has the potential to be "the next big quality commercial bestseller".

Short-listed writers will have the chance to pitch their books to a panel at the Book Fair.

The closing date for entries is 14 January 2005. The bad news is that there is a £12 entrance fee.

Philip Pullman on adaptations

Philip Pullman, writing in The Guardian, explains why he enjoys stage adaptions of his work.

...when everything is working well, something mysterious happens between an audience and a play that isn't just the sum of the component parts. It can spring from the obviously fantastical and from the most minutely described realism: Rostand makes it happen, and so does Shaw. It happens with original plays, and it happens with adaptations. But something happens, and everything is transformed. We could use a scientific term like emergence for this process, or we could use an older word and call it sorcery; but whatever we call it, there's no point in trying to explain it to those who insist on a functional justification for everything, those who can only see value in an activity if it brings in money from tourists, or helps children with their GCSEs. They'll never understand. You have to find some other sort of language if you want to convince them.

But that strange and inexplicable thing is what the theatre is for. That's why we need it.

Dennis Potter at Christmas

While the BBC trumpets the news that it will be screening the first Harry Potter film this Christmas, the really exciting prospect for TV drama lovers is that the festive schedules will include an Arena documentary about Dennis Potter, and a selection of his plays on BBC Four.

Brits dominate International Emmys

It was a good night for British programmes at the International Emmy Awards in New York yesterday.

Among the winners were:
- Henry VIII (written by Peter Morgan)
- Waking The Dead (series created by Barbara Machin)
- The Illustrated Mum (written by Debbie Isitt and based on the book by Jacqueline Wilson)

Update: The writer of one of the two selected episodes of Waking The Dead was Guild member Stephen Davis. (Sadly, no mention of the episode writers in any of the publicity - including from the BBC.)

Screentalk magazine

You can now download back issues of the American Screentalk magazine.

The Screentalk website also has an excellent collection of screenplays to download, including a selection of Hitchcock films.

Writing animation - Steven Banks

Steven Banks and Robert and Michelle Lamoreaux, three of America's leading writers for animation discuss their work in an interview with Denis Faye for the Writers Guild of America, west.

What's the difference between writing for animation and writing for live-action?

ML - If you're comparing it to sitcom writing, for example, it's harder. The structure of the writing is harder, like a little feature. You're not just writing dialog, you're writing direction, you're almost like a writer and director. It's a lot closer to hour drama or screenwriting, I'd say.

Tinniswood Award

The Writers’ Guild and Society of Authors have joined forces to create an award in memory of Peter Tinniswood who died last year.

The first Tinniswood Award ceremony took place at the Foreign Press Association in London on 18 November 2004 with members of the Tinniswood family in attendance.

The award, for Best Radio Drama, went to Christopher William Hill for his script, ‘Killing Maestros’. He was nominated by his producer at the BBC, Liz Webb. The award was presented by Richard Eyre.

Radio on demand

Much of BBC Radio's content is now available online for a week after broadcast, and new figures published in Media Guardian (free registration required) show that the popularity of the service is growing.

The most popular programme so far has been the new series of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (written by Douglas Adams)with 653,636 "on demand" listeners. Drama claims second place in the list as well, with the Archers claiming 382,726 listeners. The Afternoon Play was the next most popular drama, in ninth place with 147,317 listeners.

Michaels Frayn and Blakemore

Democracy, Michael Frayn's most recent play, has opened to rave reviews in America. In an interview with the New York Times he talks about his long-standing working relationship with director Michael Blakemore.

How would the two men describe their long theatrical run and 35-year friendship? "A light charming comedy," responds Mr. Blakemore, elegant and well pressed in a shirt and jacket. "A buddy movie," says the slightly rumpled and scholarly Mr. Frayn.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark

Some writers get very touchy about actors improvising away from the script, but there are times when no one can argue with the results.

A prime example, writes Roger Clarke in The Independent, came with The Raiders Of The Lost Ark, written by George Lucas, Philip Kaufman and Lawrence Kasdan.

In one of the most famous scenes in the movie, an assassin dressed in black confronts Indiana in a souk in Cairo. Marion, played by Karen Allen, is about to be abducted after she unwisely hides in a convenient rattan basket. Indy hasn't much time. But the looming Arab swordsman has plenty of time. He loops his gleaming scimitar in skilful arcs of light. He is going to take great delight in showing his skill at killing this infidel American. Indy, on the other hand, doesn't even bother to reach for his bullwhip, his usual weapon of choice. Without the merest hint of fair play, he shoots the swordsman down with his pistol.

As it happens, the script had allowed for an extended period of choreographed fighting. But Harrison Ford had other things on his mind. He needed to use the lavatory. He had diarrhoea. This comically improvised scene proved such a hit with the director, he junked the written scene and left it in.

America South West Writers' Festival

The University of Warwick's "Warwick Writing Programme" is launching a new international partnership with one of the top creative writing schools in the United States - the Virginia Piper Centre for Creative Writing at Arizona State University - with a special three-day event.

It will bring four leading US writers to the University of Warwick for the American South West Writers' Festival at Warwick Arts Centre on 23rd to 25th November.

Four American writers - Ron Carlson, Jay Boyer, Jewell Parker Rhodes and Melissa Pritchard - will be giving readings and holding individual sessions with local writers.

Lost authors

How many once-respected authors are now out of print, their books almost impossible to get hold of? Tom Boncza-Tomaszewski in The Independent spent some time scouring the internet for once-familiar names.

I decide to speak to Stuart Kelly, author of The Book of Lost Books, due from Penguin next year. "Literary reputations are predictably precarious," he tells me. "Although one might remember that Iris Murdoch and Muriel Spark were both shortlisted for the inaugural Booker Prize in 1969, memory has been less kind to Barry England, GM Williams and even the first winner, PH Newby."

Reynolds quits ITV

Veteran Coronation Street executive producer Caroline Reynolds is leaving ITV to set up her own company, reports Media Guardian.

Ms Reynolds' move will prompt a restructuring at Granada's drama department in Manchester, with her executive producing responsibilities for Coronation Street split between the show's producer, Tony Wood, and John Whiston, Granada's director of drama, children's and arts programming.

Granada's head of drama in Manchester, Kieran Roberts, who has worked as a producer on Coronation Street and Emmerdale, will look after other drama projects Ms Reynolds had in development and pre-production.

Hollywood sues suspected pirates

The first cases against people accused of pirating feature films and sharing them on the internet have begun, reports The Washington Post.

The lawsuits, which could seek up to $150,000 in damages for each film illegally copied, are the first of their kind to be filed by the movie industry. Motion Picture Association of America President Dan Glickman first signaled the lawsuits two weeks ago when he said that the studios would sue approximately 200 people suspected of illegally trading movies online.

"The future of our industry, and of the hundreds of thousands of jobs it supports, must be protected from this kind of outright theft using all available means," Glickman said in a release issued today.

4 and Five will not merge

Channels 4 and Five have called off merger talks, reports BBC News, because of the complexity of combining a public and commercial stations.

Discussions were started under the former [Channel 4] chief executive Mark Thompson, who has since left to become director general of the BBC.

He was replaced by Andy Duncan who had been the director of marketing at the BBC.

Mr Duncan said: "With concerns being raised about our future funding it was legitimate for Channel 4 to explore this merger, but we've concluded that protecting and strengthening Channel 4's public service role isn't compatible with the full merger that was proposed."

Penguin's Christmas fears

Penguin books, still struggling with a new distribution system, might not be able to meet Christmas demand for its titles, reports Publishing News.

“Reps are acknowledging that Christmas will be terrible,” said one senior figure, “but they are fearful of admitting it.” Said another: “They’ll have the new Jamie Oliver on the van, but not core fiction.”

Adams moves to Basingstoke

Paines Plough co-founder John Adams has been appointed as artistic director of the Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke, reports The Stage.

Speaking of his decision to accept the role of artistic director, after more than ten years freelancing, he said: “I went to Basingstoke as a guest director and fell in love with the theatre. It’s such a warm place. It has a loyal and committed audience and I will serve that audience but at the same time I want to expand their horizons.”

The triumph of animation

With the new Disney/Pixar film The Incredibles smashing box office records, the onward march of animated features seems unstoppable, reports David Eimer in The Times.

In fact, the recipe for a successful animated feature or cartoon hasn’t changed since Mickey Mouse first appeared in Steamboat Willie (1928). “It’s all about the story and characters,” points out John Lasseter, the co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and the director of Toy Story. “That’s what we put our effort into. And just look at our track record.”

Philip Pullman

Award-winning novelist Philip Pullman is interviewed by Christina Patterson in The Independent ahead of publication of his new book, The Scarecrow and His Servant.

Contrary to his image as some kind of genius who sprang into the literary landscape from nowhere, he has been writing all his life. Northern Lights was just the culmination of an extraordinary range of storytelling skills that he had been honing in a variety of contexts for years: in his work as a teacher, where he would read the children fairy tales and write plays for them to perform, and in a range of books for younger readers.

Unicorn Theatre appeals for cash

The Unicorn Theatre, the UK's first purpose-built children's theatre has launched an appeal to raise the £1.6m it needs to meet its budget for a new buidling, reports BBC News. The Unicorn Theatre's new £12.6m home in Southwark is due to be completed in autumn 2005.

Romantic comedies

With the new Bridget Jones film opening today, BBC News has an enjoyable analysis of what makes romantic comedies tick.

Film endings

Great endings should be unpredictable, but satisfying to the audience, says Bonnie Orr on Screentalk. She lists her top 10 endings of all time:

1. The Usual Suspects
2. The Sixth Sense
3. Thelma And Louise
4. High Noon
5. It's A Wonderful Life
6. Casablanca
7. Whale Rider
8. Chinatown
9. Shawshank Redemption
10. The Green Mile

Tess Ross takes over Channel 4 drama

Channel 4 is to merge its TV drama and film departments, putting Tessa Ross in overall charge following head of drama John Yorke's return to the BBC, reports Media Guardian.

Ross oversaw the drama department before she was appointed of head of films at the end of 2002.

British Comedy Awards

Nominations have been announced for this year's British Comedy Awards. They include:

Best TV comedy
Little Britain (written by Matt Lucas and David Walliams)
Nighty Night (Julia Davis)
The Office - Christmas Special (Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant)

Best TV comedy drama
Doc Martin (Dominic Minghella)
Jonathan Creek (David Renwick)
Shameless (Paul Abbott)

The Awards will be presented on 22 December.

John Yorke returns to the BBC

As widely predicted, John Yorke is leaving his post at Channel 4 to return to the BBC, along with his assistant Lucy Richer, reports Media Guardian (free registration required).

Mr Yorke, the drama chief behind hit shows Shameless and No Angels and a former executive producer on EastEnders, will take charge of BBC1's biggest drama series, including Holby City, Casualty and EastEnders.

He will share the job of commissioning independent productions with Ms Richer, but will not have responsibility for returning drama series such as Waking the Dead and Judge John Deed, which are being merged into the in-house drama department.

LA Screenwriting Expo

Clutching crib notes, fighting butterflies and wearing the stricken look of cattle being led to slaughter, aspiring screenwriters from Ireland to Australia awaited their once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity to pitch The Great Idea to a battery of Hollywood producers, agents and managers.

The New York Times reports on the LA Screenwriting Expo, where writers pay $60 to attend and $25 per pitch.

What every writer is hoping for, of course, is the mega deal. Troy Duffy sold his first script to Miramax for $1 million, as documented in a new film about him, Overnight, reviewed in the New York Times.

There is something both infuriating and sad about the way Mr. Duffy mistakes money and entertainment-industry curiosity for real power and actual achievement. His stubborn refusal to heed good advice is matched by an angry belief, born out of unacknowledged impotence, that studio and record-company big shots are secretly afraid of him. He has fallen into the fallacy, endemic among aspirants to post-modern show business glory, that a contract or a big advance means at least as much as a good album or an interesting movie.

The Independent Book Group

The Indpendent runs an online book group with a different title every month.

The latest is Being Alive, a collection of poetry edited by Neil Astley. The idea is that you buy the book and then post comments in the online forum.

Whitbread Book Awards

The shortlists have been announced for the Whitbread Book Awards 2004.

Novel Award shortlist
Kate Atkinson - Case Histories
Louis de Bernières - Birds Without Wings
Alan Hollinghurst - The Line of Beauty
Andrea Levy - Small Island

First Novel Award shortlist
Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Richard Collins - The Land as Viewed from the Sea
Susan Fletcher - Eve Green
Panos Karnezis - The Maze

Biography Award shortlist
John Guy - My Heart is my Own:The Life of Mary Queen of Scots
David McKie - Jabez: The Rise and Fall of a Victorian Rogue
John Sutherland - Stephen Spender
Jeremy Treglown - V.S. Pritchett: A Life

Poetry Award shortlist
Leontia Flynn - These Days
John Fuller - Ghosts
Matthew Hollis - Ground Water
Michael Symmons Roberts - Corpus

Children’s Book Award shortlist
Anne Cassidy - Looking for JJ
Geraldine McCaughrean - Not the End of the World
Meg Rosoff - How I Live Now
Ann Turnbull - No Shame, No Fear

Winners in the five categories, who each receive £5,000, will be announced on Wednesday 6th January 2005. The overall winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year will receive £25,000 and will be selected and announced at the Whitbread Book Awards ceremony in central London on Tuesday 25th January 2005.

Geoffrey Lancashire

Geoffrey Lancashire, one of the early writers of Coronation Street, has died at the age of 71.

Lancashire also created two comedy series, The Cuckoo Waltz and Foxy Lady, and wrote numerous episodes of other series including All Creatures Great and Small.

There's an obituary in The Guardian.

Page Turners

After the success of the BBC's Big Read, and Richard and Judy's Book Club, get ready for Page Turners, due to come to BBC Daytime next year.

The official launch for the programme was held last Friday, when representatives from major publishing houses were briefed on the programme’s format and content. Page Turners will consist of eight weekly programmes, each featuring three books. Each book will have a celebrity advocate, and there will also be audience participation. The programmes will be presented by Jeremy Vine. Each publishing house may submit up to five titles for consideration, before the 3 December deadline.

Peter Whitbread - actor and scriptwriter

Actor and writer Peter Whitbread has died after a car accident near his Norfolk home, reports The Stage.

In recent years Whitbread had concentrated mostly on writing for the theatre, but his greatest success came in 1974 when his drama Mr Axelford’s Angel won the Emmy Award for Best Television Play. He also wrote many scripts for Emmerdale Farm.

Blackpool

Behind the scenes of Peter Bowker's new drama in The Times.

Russell T Davies

The force behind the new series of Doctor Who, due to start next year, and an original series, Mine All Mine, coming to ITV, Russell T Davies is a writer in demand.

Interviewed by Nick Duerden in The Observer, he talks about his new work and the the media frenzy surrounding his first major series, Queer As Folk.

"So there I was, having to defend myself against all manner of idiotic shock jocks on the radio and some very stern journalists, as well as the people of Gay Land who were horrified that I chose to depict homosexuals as people who liked drinking and shagging. I remember thinking I could either sink or be brilliant in this situation..." Davies, shameless self-dramatist that he is, pauses, and allows the pause to become pregnant. "I chose to be brilliant."

Paterson on Pinter

Poet Don Paterson caused a stir this week by using the TS Eliot lecture to attack Harold Pinter, reports The Guardian.

"To take a risk in a poem is not to write a big sweary outburst about how crap the war in Iraq is, even if you are the world's greatest living playwright. Because anyone can do that."

He also stuck the knife into amateur poets.

"Many people feel that, armed with a beermat, a pencil, and a recent mildly traumatic experience, they are entitled to send 100 pages of handwritten drivel into Faber or Cape."

Some lively correspondence ensued.

Piracy crackdown (updated)

Hollywood film studios are to sue people who swap pirated copies of films over the internet, reports BBC News.

Updated: They also have a very useful Q&A about online film piracy.

Free TV scripts

The Screenwriters Store has some new TV scripts available to download, including episodes of The Simpsons, The X-Files and Taxi.

National Theatre of Scotland

THE first director of the National Theatre of Scotland takes the helm of the £3.5 million-a-year company [this week] with only one staff member and a rented office in Glasgow.

Small beginnings, perhaps, for Vicky Featherstone is tasked with building the new organisation into one that is big and bold enough to fulfil the aspirations that led to its creation in the first place.

The full story is in The Scotsman.

Writers' Passage - West Midlands

Screen West Midlands and The Script Factory are looking to recruit eight writers (or writing teams) for the second intake of the Writers' Passage programme.

Writers selected for the programme will have the opportunity to workshop their scripts with actors, get expert teaching on story structure and screenwriting craft, be inspired by masterclasses at the screenwriting festival, SCENE, and work one-to-one with a script editor through three re-drafts. The aim of this course is to prepare all participants to be launched as professional writers within the UK film industry.

At the end of the programme each writer will receive valuable feedback on their project from some of the most respected individuals currently working in film. Entry is only open to writers who live or work within the West Midlands and have completed a first draft screenplay.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 17 December 2004.

Full details are available from The Script Factory.

Robert McKee

Love him or loathe him, it's hard to escape the screenwriting guru, Robert McKee, author of Story. The Screenwriters Store has an interview from CNN.

CNN: A cliché in Hollywood is "She was so dumb she slept with the screenwriter" -- they're at the bottom of the totem pole. Do you think that's still true?

MCKEE: If I were a young actress trying to get ahead today, I would sleep with a television writer (laughs), because what's happened in Hollywood is that the very best writers have abandoned screenwriting and they've all gone over to TV. We're now in a golden age of television writing.

American Guild's close to settlement

The Negotiating Committee for the Writers Guild of America, west and East has reached tentative agreement on a new three-year, $58-million contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, ABC, CBS, FBC, and NBC covering writers in the film, broadcast and cable industries.

"It's been a long five months since we walked away from negotiations without a contract on June 2nd," said Daniel Petrie Jr., President of the WGAw, "but it has been well worth the wait. This tentative agreement is projected to be worth almost $58 million by the end of its term, nearly double what the producers offered us on June 1st. The new agreement will fully address the needs of our health plan, ensuring us a six-month reserve at the current level of benefits by the end of the contract in 2007. We consider this a major victory that was critical to protect the health benefits of writers and their families. What's more, the companies have also agreed to recommend to the pension fund directors that they increase pensions."

There's a full report on the WGA website.

Oscar Moore Screen-Writing Prize 2004

The Oscar Moore Foundation was established in 1997 as a charitable foundation administered by film trade Screen International, in memory of its former editor-in-chief Oscar Moore (also Guardian columnist and novelist ) who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1996.

The aim of the Foundation, whose patron is the Oscar-winning screenwriter Emma Thompson, is to foster new European screen-writing talent by awarding an annual prize of £10,000 to the best first draft screenplay in a genre which changes each year. The genre for 2004 is Thriller.

The deadline for submissions has been extended to 5pm, 6th December 2004.

Read the full details on screendaily.com

Horror films

A post-Halloween treat for horror lovers, with this state of the genre survey by Terrence Rafferty in the New York Times.

Are we actually more frightened, as the Puritans were, of what's inside us than of what's out there in the wilderness? Maybe. In any event, the internal terrors are infinitely harder to laugh at, or to beat back with overwhelming force, or to turn into a lucrative, teen-friendly franchise.

Top 10 Fantasy novels

A selection by Jonathan Stroud, author of the Bartimaeus trilogy, in The Guardian:

1. Grettir's Saga by Anon, 1320s (trans. Fox and Palsson 1974)
2. Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-en, 16th century (trans. Arthur Waley 1942)
3. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, 1726
4. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, 1908
5. War in Heaven by Charles Williams, 1930
6. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, 1937
7. Titus Groan/Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake, 1946/1950
8. The Dying Earth by Jack Vance, 1950
9. The Ogre Downstairs by Diana Wynne Jones, 1974
10. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, 1979

Neil LaBute

The American playwright and film-maker is turning his hand to fiction with his first collection of short stories, Seconds of Pleasure. He tallks to Jonathan Romney in The Independent.

The stories depict little epiphanies of perdition, in which people blow their chances of redemption on the slimmest gratifications. Hence Seconds of Pleasure: such ruination, and in exchange for what? An orgasm, or the relief of making a catty remark. The title came from a song by Elvis Costello, to whom the book is dedicated. LaBute borrowed it because "it reinforced that notion of what people were longing for, and willing to throw everything away for."

Drama dominates ITV3

Launced today, ITV3 will use a mix of drama premieres and classic repeats to target veiwers over-35.

ITV3 will be available on the following channels:ntl 8 & 118, Telewest 116, Freeview 34.

To watch ITV3 on FREEVIEW from 1 November you might need to retune your digital box. Some boxes will retune automatically, however with some boxes you will need to press "Menu" or "Setup" on your remote control and follow the on-screen or printed instructions. Depending on the language your equipment uses, choose "update", "retune" or "store".