Science fiction studies

The University of Liverpool is launching the world's first website dedicated to science fiction research, reports The Guardian.The SF Hubutilises the University's Science Fiction library, the largest of its kind in Europe.

Amazon to become a publisher?

Sources say that over the last few months Amazon has quietly been making the rounds to agents, in search of authors to write short pieces Amazon could post for sale. According to one version of the plan, Amazon would charge $.49 per electronic download for short stories, journalism, essays and other work; the material would be exclusive to Amazon and would not appear in a book or any other form. Material would be in the 2,000-10,000 word range and could include such updates as alternative endings to novels. An audio component could also be in the works; the company is requesting audio rights.

The full story is in Publishers Weekly.

Saul Bellow dies

Saul Bellow, the Nobel laureate and self-proclaimed historian of society whose fictional heroes - and whose scathing, unrelenting and darkly comic examination of their struggle for meaning - gave new immediacy to the American novel in the second half of the 20th century, died yesterday at his home in Brookline, Mass. He was 89.

More coverage from the New York Times.

All his work, long and short, was written in a distinctive, immediately recognizable style that blended high and low, colloquial and mandarin, wisecrack and aphorism, as in the introduction of the poet Humboldt at the beginning of "Humboldt's Gift": "He was a wonderful talker, a hectic nonstop monologuist and improvisator, a champion detractor. To be loused up by Humboldt was really a kind of privilege. It was like being the subject of a two-nosed portrait by Picasso, or an eviscerated chicken by Soutine."

Sony Award nominations

Nominations have been announced for the Sony Awards, the biggest prizes in radio.

Drama award

• Banana Republic - BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4
  
• Laughter In The Dark - dramatised by Craig Higginson from the novel by Vladimir Nabokov (Catherine Bailey Productions for BBC Radio 3)
  
• Stan - by Neil Brand (BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4)
  
• The Grove - by Positive Impact, various writers (In conjunction with Angela Heslop for BBC Radio Merseyside)
  
• The Permanent Way - based on the play by David Hare (Catherine Bailey Productions for BBC Radio 3)
  

Comedy award

• Clare In The Community - by Harry Venning and David Ramsden (BBC Radio Entertainment for Radio 4)
  
• The 99p Challenge - by Kevin Cecil, Andy Riley, Jon Holmes and Tony Roche (Pozzitive Television for BBC Radio 4)
  
• The Complete and Utter History of the Mona Lisa - by Patrick Barlow (Above The Title Productions for BBC Radio 4)
  
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Episode 3 - by Douglas Adams (Above The Title Productions for BBC Radio 4)
  
• The Museum of Everything - by Danny Robins, Dan Tetsell and Marcus Brigstocke (BBC Radio Entertainment for Radio 4)

Sharman is new BBC children's controller

Jane Sharman has been appointed controller of the BBC's children's programming, reports Media Bulletin.

Sharman will take over the running of the BBC's two children's channels, the CBBC channel and CBeebies, from Dorothy Prior who last week moved become controller of production resources.

Sharman takes up her new role on June 20 and will be responsible for all editorial, commissioning and scheduling strategies, as well as overall responsibility for all children's production, children's acquisitions and CBBC

Sharman is currently controller of daytime programming, and does not have any previous experience of children's TV.

Northern Exposure Summer Shorts

The West Yorkshire Playhouse is accepting submissions of extracts from full-length plays in development for Summer Shorts 2005. Five writers will be invited on a ten day residency at West Yorkshire Playhouse and Theatre in the Mill 1 – 10 June during which time their plays will be developed and rehearsed. The 20 minute pieces will then be shown on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 June at Theatre in the Mill.

To be eligible to enter writers must be resident in the BBC Northern Exposure region (the North-West, North-East or Yorkshire and Humberside).

The deadline for submissions is 25 April 2005. Full details are on the West Yorkshire Playhouse website

DVD producers

With DVD takings now outstripping box office receipts, the producers of DVDs occupy are becoming increasingly powerful, says Christian Moerk in the New York Times.

The DVD production community has its own list of hits and misses - just as the feature film community does - which has less to do with the value of a director's original work than with what a producer has later done, or failed to do, to amplify it. "You would be surprised at the material coming out of good places," Mr. Bouzereau [who works on Steven Spielberg's films) said, politely referring to the copious amount of lesser DVD material being released.

How well does TV and film tackle disease?

An interesting article by Nick Triggle on BBC News about the way in which TV and film tends to portray illness.

The way Coronation Street handled the death of Alma Sedgewick in 2002 was typical of the way cancer is treated by scriptwriters, Cancer Research UK said.

The character, played by Amanda Barrie, died within a few months of being diagnosed and without contracting any of the symptoms.

"It happened too quickly," said Julia Frater, a cancer information nurse at the charity.

She said the problem was that writers almost always tried to fit the disease round the plot, rather than the plot round the disease.

"This does not really help us or people with cancer. I think if more effort was put in, drama could both entertain and inform."

Stuart Murphy interveiwed

BBC3 boss Stuart Murphy talks to Liz Thomas in The Stage.

“We are developing our drama strategy,” he explains. “We started out with half-hour impact dramas such as Burn It, before moving on to hour-long shows with greater character development like Bodies and Conviction. Now we want to bring more warmth to our drama, appealing to a wider audience. There will always be a real focus on new talent because I believe the more people bringing on new work the more interesting television will be. Casanova had a real attitude and is an example of the channel at its best.”

Teddington studios saved

Pinewood Shepperton have bought Teddington Studios for £2.6 million, reports Reuters.

Teddington, founded in 1912, had gone into administration last week after losing some key contracts.

Sony wants an 'iTunes' for movies

Sony is planning to make 500 films available online from next year, reports BBC News. The model, according to Michael Arrieta, senior vice president of Sony Pictures, would be Apple's iTunes music download site.

There remain big issues to giving people more access to films and other digital content anywhere, anytime.

Issues over protecting and controlling the distribution of content once it has been legally downloaded and moved to a portable device, for instance, still concern the movie industry.

But with the growing popularity of powerful portable entertainment devices, such as Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP), which can play movies and other multimedia content, it is becoming a pressing concern for the industry.

Westway axed

BBC World Service radio is planning to axe its twice-weekly serial, Westway, reports The Stage.

A spokesman for the Corporation said: “We are changing our English programme schedule. Weekdays will feature greater factual content, whereas arts will play more heavily at the weekend. We are not turning our back on drama.”

Tranter warns of BBC drama cutbacks

The head of BBC drama commissioning [Jane Tranter] has admitted she will have to start making shows on tighter budgets to meet director general Mark Thompson's 15% cost-saving target.

There's a full report of Tranter's comments in Media Guardian (free registration required).

"The new drama series commissions that come through will have to be made for less money. The cost per hour in some areas is going to go down. But it's not about working people harder to do the same amount of output. Yes, it is taxing, but for me it's about managing the mix of the drama portfolio," Ms Tranter added.

Self-published success

Inspiring stories in The Independent for anyone thinking of self-publishing. Non-fiction tends to do best - The Pocket Book of Patriotism has sold over 167,000 copies - but Dominic Prince's article also finds some fiction successes.

A guide to self-publishing was distributed with the New Year 2005 issue of the Guild's magazine, UK Writer. Additional copies are still available - free to Guild members, £3 for non-members.

Full details can be found on the Guild's website.

Nicola Shindler - Red Productions

Top independent TV producer, Nicola Shindler, is interviewed in The Stage. Having worked with Russell T Davies and Paul Abbott she knows all about good writing.

She is however, always on the look out for something new and original, particularly as feels really good screenwriters are few and far between. She confesses: “I think there are very few talented writers in the world, I really do. I actually believe calibre will out - so if someone is good enough and has written a script - as long as they send it somewhere it should get recognised at some point. In all honesty a lot of scripts that get sent in are terrible.”

Red Productions operates a policy where every script that gets sent to it is read and while Shindler acknowledges it is rare that something comes through this way, it does happen.

“If we get a script we like then we’ll get the writer in to talk to and we get some scripts in from agents. Reading everything is our way of giving something back and it is not that we necessarily want only new writers - it is important to give people access who might not get it anywhere else.”

Book reviews reviewed

Criticising the critics, at Beatrix(USA).

How did this season's hot books generate their heat? And why do other novels surrounded by buzz turn into duds? Beatrix openly speculates about these questions in the form of a "book review review." I'll watch the major book reviewers to discern patterns of taste and/or critical strategy, and sometimes I'll follow a book through the review matrix to see how opinions coalesce or wildly diverge.

Footballers' Wives

The return of Footballers' Wives for a fourth series prompts praise from Mark Lawson in The Guardian.

Last year, I heard Zöe Lucker (who plays Tanya Turner, the fatal female of the series) being interviewed on radio. When she spoke glowingly of the show, the host put her down with: "It's not exactly Shakespeare, is it?" But this comment is at least half-wrong. While even an aficionado has to acknowledge that the dialogue rarely matches that of the Stratford dramatist - "I was pissed and she was rat-arsed" is a representative line from the series four opener - the plots are firmly in the classical tradition: all double weddings, mistaken identities and, to start off the new series, swapped babies.

Copyright dispute hangs over blockbuster

American author James Reston Jr is claiming that the forthcoming Hollywood film Kingdom of Heaven, directed by Ridley Scott, has violated American and international copyright law by using "events, characters, scenes, descriptions and character tensions" in the film that were "strikingly similar" to his narrative history Warriors of God: Richard The Lionheart And Saladin In The Third Crusade.

The studio releasing the film, 20th Century Fox, have rejected the claim but, according to the New York Times, the dispute looks set to run and run.

Mr. Reston insists that his history of the Third Crusade, when Richard the Lionheart tried to wrest control of Jerusalem from the Muslim conqueror Saladin, fleshed out many obscure details from the period and brought to life minor historical characters who turn up in Kingdom of Heaven. The book, published a few months before 9/11, has sold about 100,000 copies worldwide.

BBC Last Laugh - updated

You can now download all the scripts for the BBC's Last Laugh sitcom writing competition. To enter the competition you need to complete one of 8 original sitcoms that have been written by established comedy writers. The first 20 minutes of a half hour sitcom has been written - you have to write the final 10.

The closing date for entries is 6 May 2005.

Andrew Davies on Bleak House

King of the adapters Andrew Davies talks about tackling his biggest project to date - BBC1’s forthcoming epic 16-part serial of Bleak House - and admits Dickens’ labyrinthine plotting has almost got the better of him.

There's a full interview by Rob Driscoll in The Stage.

“On the plus side, Dickens gives you such strong lines of dialogue and there are all these wonderful, grotesque characters you can really run with,” says Cardiff-born Davies.

“But plot-wise it’s a nightmare, because it is so convoluted and keeps spinning off into sub-plots. Your main concern is to keep focused on the central plot, that the whole audience can follow. In truth, when you get down to the finest detail, quite a bit of the plot doesn’t work, so you have to straighten things out. But every problem is an opportunity in disguise and I think we’ve cracked it.”

Fincham to head BBC One

Peter Fincham has been confirmed as the new Controller of BBC One, reports BBC News.

Mr Fincham is credited with the smooth merger of independent production companies Talkback and Thames under the banner Talkback Thames, in 2003. He left the company in January.

He said that his new job had a "clear focus", and his appointment represented a change within the BBC.

"Appointing me, as an outsider, who has never worked at the BBC is a sign of an outwardly facing BBC," he said.

ITV staff to strike

Production staff at ITV have voted to strike over pay, leaving shows such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale facing possible disruption.
Broadcasting union Bectu said 55% of its members voted in favour of walkouts over a below-inflation pay offer.

Staff were angry that executives were being awarded large share bonuses, said Bectu assistant general secretary Gerry Morrissey.

The union expects to announce dates for strikes after Easter.

More details from BBC News

British Council - New Writing Anthology

Submissions are being accepted for New Writing 14, published by the British Council.

Writers from the UK and the Commonwealth are encouraged to submit short stories, poetry, essays or extracts from work in progress. The deadline for submissions is 30 June 2005.

The work must be unpublished and not be due for publication until at the earliest January 2007, and the author should be willing to give the British Council electronic rights for 2 years following publication, plus translation rights and other sub-rights to be confirmed. There is no limit on the length of pieces, but constraints of space mean that longer items will stand less chance of acceptance. Submissions should be sent in triplicate, clearly typed, double-spaced, page numbered and with name and address on each piece to:
New Writing
Film and Literature Department
British Council
10 Spring Gardens
London SW1A 2BN

There's been some controversy in recent days about comments made by Toby Litt and Ali Smith, the editors of New Writing 13, criticising the standard of submissions, particularly by women writers. There's some response on today's Guardian and a letter from Litt and Smith themselves.

Playwright slams

Theatre and Beyond and Chichester Festival Theatre are looking for writers who want to play and experiment with their work for their Playwrights Slams 2005.

You can find full details on the BBC Writersroom website.

Unions give BBC strike ballot deadline

The three biggest broadcasting unions, Bectu, Amicus and the NUJ, have told the BBC to issue a three-month moratorium on redundancy plans or face a strike ballot on 4 April, reports BBC News.

"There is a strong feeling of anger among staff over these job losses," said Gerry Morrissey, assistant general secretary of Bectu.

"They believe the director general has lost touch with what should happen at the BBC.

"A lot of these decisions appear to be politically motivated and the director general, chairman and BBC governors have decided to beat themselves up before the government does so."

Unions have warned the BBC could face "severe" industrial unrest over the massive job cuts announced last December and earlier this week.

BBC to cut 2,000 programme jobs

The BBC is to cut more than 2,000 jobs in its programme-making divisions, reports BBC News. Among the job cuts is a reduction of 150 in "drama entertainment and children's by 2008", but a lot of the details are still sketchy. The National Union of Journalists say that the cuts will "rip the heart out" of the Corporation.

Monday's announcement of 2,050 losses comes after news earlier this month that 1,730 jobs would go in support services such as finance and personnel. The 3,780 represents 19% of the workforce.

The latest cuts will be made across the production divisions from TV and radio to news and new media.

[Mark] Thompson [Director General of the BBC] said it was "a difficult and painful process but necessary". The cuts and savings will be made over the next three years.

Money saved would go back into programmes, including drama, news and local output, he said.

Alan Plater night on BBC Four

This Saturday, 26 March, is Alan Plater night on BBC Four. The long-standing Guild member, CBE recipient, and doyen of British TV writers, will be celebrated with the screening of a special documentary and plays/films including Last of the Blonde Bombshells and The Land of Green Ginger.

Arts Council England announces funding strategy

Arts Council England (ACE) has announced a three-year funding strategy, reports The Stage. Following a funding freeze from Government, ACE have told 121 organisations that they will no longer receive funding.

Announcing the cuts, acting chief executive of ACE Kim Evans said organisations facing reductions were those that received less than £20,000 annually from the funding body or, in cases such as Arts & Business, had the resources to make up the difference from elsewhere.

“We have had to make choices and these choices mean that some organisations have had to fall out. The policy decision to look at those on less than £20,000 would have been done anyway but not all of them and not necessarily now,” she said. “If you received less [than £20,000] it is not the best way to fund you.”

However, 60% of organisations currently funded will receive increases, some in excess of inflation.

Law attacks NYMT funding cuts

Jude Law has written to The Times protesting about the failure of the Arts Council to award a £100,000 grant to the National Youth Music Theatre, reports BBC News.

[NYMT]chairman Maggie Semple said an Arts Council-commissioned review initially recommended a "substantial" award for the company.

"They encouraged us to go through this lengthy process," she said. "They commissioned this report, and at the end of all that, 14 months later, they're now saying 'no'."

"If they had told us nine or even six months ago we wouldn't have made the plans that we have," Ms Semple added. "They have irresponsibly led us along."

The power behind the mini-series

From Media Guardian (free registration required)

This Easter ITV's drama blockbuster is Colditz [written by Peter Morgan], and at first sight the glossy mini-series about Europe's most haunting war prison seems to have "Granada classic" stamped all over it. Damian Lewis, of Band of Brothers, The Forsyte Saga and Jeffrey Archer: The Truth, stars as the first escapee from Colditz. Andy Harries, of Cold Feet, Life Begins and Dirty Filthy Love is executive producer. But at the screening Harries was overshadowed by Justin Bodle, 44, the co-producer, whose little-known London-based company, Power, contributed 40% of the £6m budget.

Maggie Brown's article looks at the success of Bodle, and his criteria for an international hit mini-series.

Laura Mackie, the BBC's deputy drama controller, says Bodle is more than just a financier: "Power's primary creative input is in the casting, mainly because they need internationally recognised names to sell their shows in as many countries as possible. They have some involvement in scripts, and the vision of the piece. So far it has worked well."

Book trade consolidation

THE NEXT 10 years will see the number of major players in the book trade reduce to three or four, according to Tim Hely Hutchinson, Chief Executive of Hachette Livre UK. He was speaking at the London Book Fair session Publishing – The Next Decade, organised by Jacks Thomas of Midas and London Book Fair (LBF) Director Alistair Burtenshaw, and probably the most well-attended event of the LBF.

Hely Hutchinson sees further consolidation as inevitable to increase publishing bargaining power in a tight market. “Trade publishers feel squeezed competing for authors and retail space,” he said. “Increased publishing strength in relation to retailers will redress the balance of power. I see the number of major players becoming fewer over the next few years, down to about three or four.”

From Publishing News.

Reel Talent Award

Writer/directors, in partnership with a producer, can enter The Smirnoff Experience Reel Talent Award

Entrants must submit a script and story board for a 5-minute short film and can also send a show reel of up to two other short films. There are three first prizes worth more than £10,000 each.

The deadline for entries is 22 April 2005.

NewsRevue

NewsRevue, "The World's Longest Running Live Comedy Show" is accepting submissions from non-commissioned writers. According to the BBC Writers Room, "NewsRevue are looking for new writers to produce song parodies and sketches on all topical subjects on a non-commissioned basis from now until July 2005."

Sketches should be sent to mail@newsrevue.com

NewsRevue

NewsRevue, "The World's Longest Running Live Comedy Show" is accepting submissions from non-commissioned writers. According to the BBC Writers Room, "NewsRevue are looking for new writers to produce song parodies and sketches on all topical subjects on a non-commissioned basis from now until July 2005."

Sketches should be sent to mail@newsrevue.com

Shed-loads of cash

The four founders of Shed Productions are set to pocket £5.5m each when shares in the company begin trading tomorrow, reports Media Guardian.

Shed's founders include the chief executive, Eileen Gallagher, and managing director Brian Park, who earned the nickname "the axeman" in a former incarnation as Coronation Street producer in the late 90s.

The other two beneficiaries of tomorrow's float will be creative directors Ann McManus and Maureen Chadwick, who worked with Park on Coronation Street before they hooked up to launch Shed in 1998.

Shed will place 25.5 million ordinary shares at 88p each on AIM, London's alternative investment market, valuing the company at £44m, which is at the top end of the predicted price range.

The company's four co-founders are each selling just over half their 25% stake in the company, meaning they will each net around £5.5m in cash.

Film tax relief

Yesterday's Budget saw more tweaks to the tax credits available for British films. The headline is that tax credits have been extended to bigger budget films, but the details are quite complicated so if you're interested (i.e. if you're a producer) have a look at BBC News :-)

Shoot the writers

Guild member Colin Bennett is putting together a second series of his late night comedy writing talent show Shoot The Writers.

There's no payment if your stuff gets used, but the idea is that it is a competition and your prize is the chance to get your work showcased. The closing date for entries is 30 April 2005.

Treble triumph for Abbott

Paul Abbott's mantelpiece, already creaking after numerous competition wins for the his series Shameless, will need reinforcing after a treble triumph at the Royal Television Society Awards this week.

Shameless won the Best Drama Series award, and was described by the judges as "Exciting, intelligent, mucky, poignant, raw, amusing, involving and always entertaining."

Abbott also won the award for Best Drama Writer, as well as the special Judges Award:

Tonight's recipient of the Judges’ Award has been working in television for the past 21 years and has already brought more than a hundred hours of drama to our screen. He is known for his high voltage energy, youthful disrespect for the obvious and a bravura ability to speak the unspeakable.

He started his career in Coronation Street in 1984, seamlessly combining high comedy with sharp and sometimes painful emotional truths and produced the second series of Cracker. He moved on to write the bewitching and compelling Reckless and Touching Evil - a series that explored the darker recesses of life.

Clocking Off in 1999 brilliantly demonstrated his compassion, rage and humorous ability to comment on the nature of the human condition, and with Linda Green, he made an ordinary life feel aspirational and inspirational. State of Play was a simply unmissable television event both entertaining and intriguing.

To top it all, last year, he created and wrote Shameless - one of his most personal, audacious, celebratory and downright dirty pieces of work to date. He was involved with every aspect of the production and it shows - from its style, pace and bravura casting to its emotional truth, social politics and comedy.

Treble triumph for Abbott

Paul Abbott's mantelpiece, already creaking after numerous competition wins for the his series Shameless, will need reinforcing after a treble triumph at the Royal Television Society Awards this week.

Shameless won the Best Drama Series award, and was described by the judges as "Exciting, intelligent, mucky, poignant, raw, amusing, involving and always entertaining."

Abbott also won the award for Best Drama Writer, as well as the special Judges Award:

Tonight's recipient of the Judges’ Award has been working in television for the past 21 years and has already brought more than a hundred hours of drama to our screen. He is known for his high voltage energy, youthful disrespect for the obvious and a bravura ability to speak the unspeakable.

He started his career in Coronation Street in 1984, seamlessly combining high comedy with sharp and sometimes painful emotional truths and produced the second series of Cracker. He moved on to write the bewitching and compelling Reckless and Touching Evil - a series that explored the darker recesses of life.

Clocking Off in 1999 brilliantly demonstrated his compassion, rage and humorous ability to comment on the nature of the human condition, and with Linda Green, he made an ordinary life feel aspirational and inspirational. State of Play was a simply unmissable television event both entertaining and intriguing.

To top it all, last year, he created and wrote Shameless - one of his most personal, audacious, celebratory and downright dirty pieces of work to date. He was involved with every aspect of the production and it shows - from its style, pace and bravura casting to its emotional truth, social politics and comedy.

BAFTA TV Awards

The nominations for the 2005 BAFTA TV Awards were announced today. There are too many nominees to list here, but notably absent from the Continuing Drama short-list is EastEnders, while stablemates Doctors and Holby City are both in the running.

The Awards ceremony will take place on 17 April.

The man behind Million Dollar Baby

Wile Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman bathed in the Oscar limelight last month, the man who wrote Million Dollar Baby was largely overlooked.

Not that screenwriter Paul Haggis is likely to be complaining too much. With his writer/director debut, Crash, just around the corner and Steven Spielberg lined up as his next producer, Haggis is, says The New York Times, one of the hottest writers in Hollywood.

Abi Brown wins Children's Award

Guild member Abi Brown has won the Arts Council's Children's Award with her very first play, Hey There Boy With The Bebop.

The play premiered at the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon in February 2004.

McCaughrean to write Peter Pan sequel

Geraldine McCaughrean has been chosen to write the sequel to JM Barrie's Peter Pan, reports BBC News.

Great Ormond Street hospital, which holds the Peter Pan copyright, invited authors to put themselves forward for the chance to write the sequel, with a panel of experts selecting the winner.

Londoner McCaughrean, 53, has won the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year three times for reinterpreting classics such as Noah's Ark, Moby Dick and The Canterbury Tales for younger readers.

Tom Hadaway

Tyneside playwright Tom Hadaway has died at the age of 81. There's an affectionate obituary in The Guardian by Alan Plater.

Throughout his career, Tom clung fast to Cecil Taylor's ad vice to "write from your own backyard", but there was nothing parochial about his vision. In his play Seafarers (1993), there is a wonderful account (based on a true story) of Jim Slater, a South Shields man who later became a leading seamens' union official, being arrested in Florida because the authorities, hearing his Geordie accent, assumed he must be a Russian spy. What emerged from this piece, a sweet-and-sour analysis of hilarious misunderstanding, was Tom's acute ear for the poetry that lies in everyday speech, including American vernacular. He had the generous ears of a generous man, and the strength to be tender.

Above all, he loved his native land. Of the language of the north-east, he wrote: "... if our betters shame us out of our phrases and pronunciation, we shall be without resource. From a shared history, dialect is the enabling power of the commoner." Maybe so, but there was nothing common about Tom Hadaway.

Libraries need lottery boost

National lottery funding should be introduced to tackle the "scandal" of Britain's shabby and neglected public library services, according to a report yesterday which says that well-stocked, attractive shelves, rather than IT terminals, are the bedrock of its future.
The report by the Commons select committee on culture, media and sport indicts 50% of library services as "persistently below standard" after decades of underfunding - an explanation for steadily falling book loans and visitor numbers over the past 15 years.

More in The Guardian.

ITV's new star formula

ITV has introduced a new budgeting formula whereby money is allocated to programmes in accordance with the popularity of the stars involved, reports Media Guardian (free registration required).

The formula has caused an immediate row within the network, with those who control programme commissioning saying it betrays a fundamental lack of understanding about how the creative process works.

One insider said: "What it now means is that it's more difficult to get a bigger budget unless you've got well-known faces, such as Ant and Dec or Julie Walters.

"It stifles risk-taking and gambles. But the thing is you often can't tell which shows are going to be hits - often viewers don't act as you think they might, despite a big name being attached. And surely that's down to the commissioners' instincts and experience, rather than a formula."

National Theatre of Variety

The Blackpool Grand is to become the National Theatre of Variety, reports The Stage.

In a deal between the theatre and Equity, the venue will announce its first programme in 2006 and it is hoped it will house a centre of excellence that will include training, a conference programme, a festival for the best in popular entertainment and an archive.

TV pirates

The first episode of the upcoming series of Doctor Who has been leaked onto the web. Darren Waters on BBC News looks at how widespread the problem of online TV piracy is.

Recent research suggested that the UK was the number one country for downloading TV programmes from the net.

Almost a fifth of all TV downloading was by UK net users.

Web tracking company Envisional said a typical episode of a show like 24 was downloaded by about 100,000 people globally.

The programmes are encoded into a computer file by individuals who make that file freely available for download by other users.

The point of film school

The point of going to film school is not necessarily to become a film-maker, says Elizabeth Van Ness in The New York Times. Increasingly students see them as places to learn general skills that can be applied in a range of commercial or public sector jobs.

To some extent, such broadening vision is already helping to make economic sense of film education, which in the past was often a long path to nowhere. "Most find their way, and the skills they learn from us are applicable to other careers and pursuits," Dale Pollock, dean of the School of Filmmaking at the North Carolina School of the Arts, said of his students. "So we're not wasting their time or money."

In praise of shorts

Margo Jefferson in The New York Times sings the praises of short films.

This year I got to see the 10 live-action and animated shorts nominated for Oscars. (I wish I'd seen the documentaries, too.) It was one of the best movie afternoons I've had in ages. So many full-length features dawdle, then pick up force, only to drift off again. With a good short - which runs from less than 5 to 20-something minutes - there's no time for all that. There's time only for that primal movie experience: absolute immersion in another world. And because it happens so quickly, it feels miraculous.

American imports

That staple of British arts journalism - why all our drama is vastly inferior to American imports - rears its head in The Observer.

I have it on good authority that the finest minds in the BBC drama department spend their lives watching Desperate Housewives. They're even running masterclasses on The O.C. American TV has set the bar incredibly high. It may even have changed the drama landscape forever.

Comment: My two favourite shows of the moment are homegrown - Help and Outlaws, an hour of pure quality on Sunday nights on BBC 2.

Doctor Who

Has a TV series ever been more eagerly awaited than the upcoming return of Doctor Who?

The Times has a sneak preview behind the scenes and suggests that head writer Russell T Davies will be the key to the show's success.

Davies may babble, but he also delivers. The scripts are, indeed, much better than Harry Potter. They are slick, witty and, most important of all, fresh. They also have Davies the Mouth’s fingerprints all over them. The Doctor’s slightly deranged monologue sounds suspiciously like Russell T himself.

Abbott goes factual

Hyper-busy writer Paul Abbott will script edit a new series of factual dramas for ITV, reports Media Guardian (free registration required).

"There is absolutely no reason why the drama in factual and documentary programmes shouldn't be excellent - particularly in terms of narrative and dialogue - but too often it isn't," Abbott said.

"The stories and the characters in this series are fantastic and we're going to make sure that we dramatise their amazing survivals to the highest possible standards. Unique Factuals is a strong Manchester-based indie and I'm determined to support TV production outside London."

The six survival stories will be told by some of the UK's top television script writers, including Daniel Brocklehurst, Oliver Brown and Jimmy Dowdall.

They will gather their information from survivors' testimonies and Abbott will then edit the scripts.

The resulting programmes will mix computer generated imagery with actors

to recount the stories, giving what ITV says will be a 'truly epic visual feel'.

BBC Last Laugh competition

The BBC is launching a new writing competition, Last Laugh, where entrants will be invited to write the second half of sitcom scripts started by well known writers.

The launch programme will go out on BBC3 on 19 March, with scripts available in free books or online from 28 March.

The competition is open to all non-professional writers, defined as anyone who made less than 50% of their income from writing in the last tax year.

Comment: Do they realise that will include a lot of people who would consider themselves professional writers?! (e.g. someone who had a hit show a couple of years ago but has got their next one stuck in development).

Full details are on the Last Laugh website.

EastEnders gets no Charity from Emmerdale

In a head-to-head battle of the soaps last night, BBC1's EastEnders was roundly beaten by Emmerdale on ITV1.

Both had hour-long specials - EastEnders to make up for a lost show on Friday when Comic Relief will squeeze the show out of the schedules, and Emmerdale to mark the departure of one of their most high profile characters, Charity Dingle.

On average during the hour from 7-8pm 6.3 million people watched the BBC while 9.1 million saw Charity leaving Emmerdale, according to unofficial overnight ratings, reported in Media Guardian (free registration required).

A spokeswoman for BBC1 played down the ratings figures, by saying EastEnders suffers when it has to go head-to-head with Emmerdale in the same slot as "the soap audience is split".

"It's par for the course when we go head-to-head. We had to do an hour-long episode because Comic Relief on Friday means we'll miss an episode then. But Emmerdale had a massive story-line, whereas we just had regular episodes," she said.

The lowest ever audience for EastEnders was 6.2 million - a 30% share - recorded on September 21 2004 when Ian Beale declared his love for café manager Jane Collins.

BBC Green Paper published

The government has published it's long-awaited Green Paper on the future of the BBC. The Board of Governors will be abolished, to be replaced by a BBC Trust (that is not actually a trust) and an executive board. The licence fee will remain in place until at least 2016.

Full details and the Green Paper itself are available from BBC News.

The Green Paper will work its way through Parliament, with a White Paper likely towards the end of the year.

The politics of criticism

Are newspaper proprietors taking an unhealthy interest in the views of their theatre critics, asks Anthony Field in The Stage.

What is of concern about any cursory dismissal of a drama critic is the warning it might give to the successor that it is important to toe the line. Even more so, these days one must be increasingly disturbed about the political and social views of a proprietor, editor or critic when it comes to assessing productions and performances. With recent political documentaries being passed off as plays, the political complexion of a newspaper might well influence a drama critic’s reaction to such productions. Even further, stories abounded about certain critics’ assessment of performances by Ian McKellen before he came out and after. Further, there is obviously a hidden agenda prevailing about actors such as Derek Jacobi and Kevin Spacey.

The forgotten British Oscar

Disappointing though it was that Mike Leigh, Imelda Staunton and Clive Owen failed to win an Oscar, the British media seems to have almost completely overlooked what must be one of the stories of the night. Winner of the best live action short film was Wasp, written and directed by Andrea Arnold. Her acceptance speech was pretty good, too.

This is truly overwhelming. I'm not really used to this kind of thing. I'd like to thank everyone who worked on the film. Everyone worked extremely hard. They know who they are. The beers are on me when we get home. In English, we'd say -- I'd say that this is the dog's bollocks. Thank you very much.

The Oscar for Writing (Adapted Screenplay) went to Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor for Sideways, from a novel by Rex Pickett. The award for Writing (Original Screenplay) went to Charlie Kaufman for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Story by Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth).

The first time

Six authors on the verge of their publishing debut tell The Observer how it feels. They include Charles Chadwick:

The book and whatever may be to come were rescued from certain oblivion by the sheer good fortune of finding an agent who before taking me on had gone to the trouble of offering real and specific encouragement. A first novel of 300,000 words by a 72-year-old sounds like someone trying to be funny. Acceptance by Faber and then by Harper Collins in the US - the recognition that all along one had been some good at it - took a lot of getting used to. Still does.

Ofcom allows ITV to reduce programming for children

ITV has consulted Ofcom on its proposals for a reduction of children's programming from around 11.5 hours a week, as transmitted in 2004, to at least 8 in future (although the total for 2005 will be higher than this). ITV proposed that religious output should move from 2 hours to 1.

The Ofcom Board and Content Board have concluded that these changes would afford ITV a greater degree of flexibility in the delivery of its public service obligations in line with recommendations made by Ofcom's Review of Public Service Broadcasting.

The Review identified that the provision of public service broadcasting objectives by the public service channels should be “taken together” and that the level of provision remains substantially the same.

A full statement is available on the Ofcom website.

Kate Harwood takes over at EastEnders

Kate Harwood is taking over as executive producer of EastEnders, reports BBC News. Harwood, who has been working on the forthcoming BBC One drama Elizabeth, The Virgin Queen, is expected to take up the EastEnders post within two weeks. Her predecessor, Kathleen Hutchison left after just four months in the job.

Theatre faces DDA prosecution

Dartford’s Orchard Theatre will become the first venue in the UK to be prosecuted under the Disability Discrimination Act after it refused to offer a free ticket to a carer who was required to assist a disabled person at one of its events.

There's a full report in The Stage.

Are "Scratch Nights" bad for theatre?

A debate in The Guardian about the pros and cons of "Scratch Nights" for workshopping new plays.

Originally, Scratch represented an unreproachable attempt by a producing venue to alleviate the anxieties of a performer creating new work. But rather than pursue the cause of those anxieties in the context of an artistic inquiry, Scratch culture soothes their symptoms by encouraging artists to make statements that are at best provisional or hypothetical ("What if I did this?") and at worst almost existential ("Is this anything, or not?").

Open Door for radio writers

After the demise of Week Ending a few years ago there had been concern that the BBC Radio was weakening its commitment to non-commissioned writers.

Happily, as we reported last week, two new series will be open for submissions as part of BBC Radio Entertainment's Open Door Writers Policy.

The policy, along with some hints and tips, is explained on the BBC Writersroom website.

Richard and Judy winners

The Richard and Judy Show on Channel 4 has announced the winners of their first literay talent hunt, reports The Independent.

First prize went to Christine Aziz, 52, who left school at 15 with a single O-level in English, won the Channel 4 show's competition and will receive a £50,000 advance for her first novel. She beat more than 46,000 other viewers who were asked to submit a synopsis and the first chapter to the show's How To Get Published contest.

The four runners-up have also been offered £20,000 advances by Pan Macmillan, who ran the contest.

The copyright fight

An interesting analysis of the international debate about copyright, from Bill Thompson for BBC News.

In legal terms, the basic argument is between those who see creative works as just another type of property, with what are increasingly presented as inalienable property rights, and those who see copyright as a deal struck with creative people by the state, one which is intended to benefit both sides.

Hunter S Thompson in his own words

A selection of the best-remembered quotes from the legendary journalist, in The Guardian.

"I have no taste for either poverty or honest labour, so writing is the only recourse left for me."

BBC puts £9m into comedy

The BBC is to invest £9m in developing new comedy and entertainment programmes outside London, reports BBC News.

A number of new roles are being created...including a head of comedy commissioning based in Glasgow.

The new person will be in charge of the £9m budget and their role will be to develop shows outside the capital, both within the BBC and with independent production companies.

TV violence linked to child agression

A review of the influence of media violence shows that both “passive viewing” of television and film and “interactive viewing” of video games have substantial short-term effects on children’s emotions and increase the likelihood of aggression.

A full report is in The Times.

WGA Awards winners

The Writers Guild of America, west and East (sic) have announced the winners of the 57th Annual Writers Guild Awards.

Charlie Kaufman won the gong for Best Original Screenplay (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) while Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor won Best Adapted Screenplay (Sideways).

Radio sketch writing

Radio 2's Parsons and Naylor and Bearded Ladies on Radio 4 are both set to record new series, and both are looking for sketches from non-commissioned writers.

You can download the writers' briefs for both series from the Writers' Guild website.

Big Break screenwriting contest

Final Draft, who make screenwriting software, have launched their sixth annual Big Break international screenwriting contest. The first prize winner will receive $10,000, round-trip airfare to Los Angeles and 3 nights' hotel accommodations, and will meet industry executives and agents.

The entry fee is $40 if you apply before 15 March 2005, rising to $60 if you submit just before the deadline on 15 June.

Berlin film fest, last day

Amongst the gleaming highrises of the Postdamer Platz and lone autograph hunters waiting for Godot, nature is taking centre-stage. Snow has covered Berlin with a white blanket, while at dusk hundreds of black crows squawk from the naked trees. The crowds have thinned out. The festival is in its death throes. Next year the Platz will be buzzing again.

British writer/director Rachel Mathews had a similar experience at the Talent Campus' Script Clinic. She was one of 37 writers whose work had been selected for a session with an experienced script consultant.

"I came with a project that was moribund," she says. "Now I can't wait to resurrect it." Rachel credits Hungarian script editor Gaby Prekop for her renewed enthusiasm. "Previous editors I worked with didn't even like my script, but they just went through the motions because they were paid for it. Gaby switched a light on by asking me what I liked about the script. She found out my script changes from comedy to melodrama. But like any good script editor, she made me feel like I had arrived at that conclusion myself."

Click here to find who wins the usual assortment of Golden and Silver Bears, Teddies and other cute statues. Judging by the standing ovations at the press conference of Hotel Rwanda it may come away with a shiny bear of its own.

Who leads for Theatreland?

Sheridan Morley in The Stage laments what he calls "a terrible trend towards theatrical anonymity" in the theatre. Apart from Nicholas Hytner at the National, he says, there seem to be no high profile leaders to put the case for theatre.

In the brave new world of spreadsheets we have lost that all-important figurehead, the man (or woman, this is not a sexist argument) with whom the buck can be seen to stop. Nobody is really accountable for anything, because in the end nobody is really there, they have disappeared into the crowd, no longer targets for the brickbats but equally undeserving of the bouquets. I still wish that, anywhere in the subsidised theatre since Olivier, we could point to an actor in charge of a company. In America, Roger Rees has just been appointed director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival, which is more than he or any other actor can expect to achieve over here in the foreseeable future.

Late writers

Blake Morrison in The Guardian considers the approach of publishers to authors who fail to deliver on time.

In 1997 I received a letter from Christopher Reid, then poetry editor at Faber & Faber. Urged to do some reminding about old, unfulfilled contracts, he had come across one his predecessor, Craig Raine, had made with me, for a book about plagiarism. I was now 11 years overdue on the agreed delivery date: did I still plan to write the book or should he contact my agent for a return of the advance?

Channel 4 will spend more on drama

Channel 4 is planning to spend more money on original drama, reports The Stage.

Speaking at a Royal Television Society dinner, chief executive Andy Duncan said he was keen for greater investment in drama, particularly as more money had become available through the channel losing its cricket coverage to Sky last year. While the current drama strategy mixes continuing series such as Shameless and No Angels with quarterly drama ‘event’ pieces such as Omagh and Sex Traffic, Duncan said the channel planned to improve on this and have such event programmes every month from 2006.

Berlin film fest, day 7

Most of the tables in the QIU bar of the Hotel Madison are sighing under the weight of screenplays being pitched by hopeful writers to an international assortment of producers. This is the 'real' industry schmooze-fest.

Back in the huge Fifties-era building - Berliners call it the Oyster - where the Talent Campus takes place, young filmmakers are taking their first steps into the professional world. One of the European organisations that helps them do that is the Amsterdam-based Binger Institute, a post-graduate screenwriting 'finishing school' that prepares its students for the debutante ball that is the film industry (see Qiu bar).

Last semester's belles met with prospective producers at the recent Cinemart at the Rotterdam film festival. Binger director Dick Willemsen, also present in Berlin, is happy to report that at least one deal has resulted from that. Polish writer Kasia Klimkiewicz sold her script Daughter to Flying Moon Productions of Germany. "We're talking to some other European organisations to see if we can launch a pitching event at the Swiss Locarno festival," says Willems. "But the idea would be to showcase the writers' capacities and skills as a whole, not just their screenplays."

EastEnders under attack

With the BBC's flagship soap suffering from poor ratings and critical hostility, Caitlin Moran in The Times twists the knife.

EastEnders is anything but quiet at the moment. Everyone is still talking about it. It’s just that now, they’re talking about how awful it is. They’re talking about how, after 20 years of plots more or less based in the real world, the storylines have become increasingly more ludicrous — gangsters, rapes and Dirty Den back from the dead, impregnating stroppy teenagers again in some kind of weird BBC Groundshag Day.

Berlin film fest, day 6

British writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski screens his adaptation of Helen Cross's novel My Summer of Love in Berlin. Pawlikowski reminisces about his early years as a struggling journalist to the festival daily produced by trade mag Screen International.

Twentythree years ago, he drove to the Berlinale in an ailing Mini carrying 1,000 magazines. "I went with a friend of mine who had started a film magazine," says Pawlikowski to reporter Leon Forde. "I stayed in a squat with no running water and during the day I wangled some interviews with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders and all these people."

These days Pawlikowski is polishing the BAFTA award for Best British Film he received last weekend and he's working on an adaptation of DBC Pierre's novel Vernon God Little for FilmFour.

Doctors and Family Affairs make Rose d'Or short-list

Doctors and Family Affairs have both made the prestigious Rose d'Or competition short-list for best soap, while better known UK rivals EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale have all missed out.

There are numerous UK nominations in other categories, including six for best sitcom.

The Rose d'Or Festival for Entertainment Television takes place in Lucerne in the first week of May.

Berlin film fest, day 5

The award for Most Provocative Panel Contribution goes to British script editor David Wingate He did his best to shake up the two-hour long discussion on Storytelling and Cultural Identity. Sadly, by the time he arrived on the stage, due to snow-storms in his adopted country of Sweden, the two panelists who could have shed some light on the cultural identity bit, Indian critic Meenakshi Shedde and South African producer Cristian Mungiu had already left due to other obligations.

"The idea that scriptwriting is storytelling is sloppy thinking. Storytelling is a post-analysis thought process that is only visible in the finished product - the film. Europe wastes millions of Euros in development money every year. The filmmakers are obliged to put down their stories into scripts first, and then they have to 'translate' them into film. Life doesn't always have a plot and some films don't even have scenes. You have to be careful to seperate finished films and the creative process. There is no necessary connection. Storytelling might be useful if you're stuck, but never, ever forget that you're making a FILM."

Berlin film fest, day 4

Stephen Frears spoke to a roomful of screenwriters and directors from all over the world at the Talent Campus in Berlin. Some of the Young Auteurs were shocked to find out he has no ambition to write himself and that he will happily work with someone else's material.

On adaptating Nick Hornby's High Fidelity: "John Cusack, who's been a friend of mine since we worked together on The Grifters, called me to say he had the rights to the book. John and his friend who co-wrote the script are from Chicago and they had written their own biography into it, which is good. John's script made me see the good bits in the novel, which is quite stream-of-consciousness. But Nick really was the secret weapon. You don't want to muck up his book."

Lorraine Heggessey to leave BBC One

BBC One controller Lorraine Heggessey is quitting the corporation to work for an independent television company, reports BBC News.

Heggessey will leave later this year to take over at top independent company Talkback Thames.

There's an assessment of her legacy at the BBC in today's Media Guardian (free registration required).

Update: BBC News outlines the favourites to replace Heggessey, with Jane Tranter, the controller of BBC drama commissioning, the favourite.

Writing jukebox musicals

The jukebox musical, where a new story is woven around existing hit songs, poses a particular challenge for writers, says Jesse McKinley in The New York Times. Mama Mia!, based on Abba songs has had huge success, and Elvis and John Lennon are soon to get a similar treatment.

[Judy] Craymer [producer of Mama Mia!] admits there is a certain madness in the method of making catalog shows. "It's really doing things upside down," she said last week by telephone, adding that she would very likely never try another one. "Usually you write the story first and then the songs are inspired by the story," she explained. "This is a whole different way of doing things."

Berlin film fest, day 3

While some Berliners were watching Keanu Reeves on a huge screen at the Potsdamer Platz, a nearby press conference for Hotel Rwanda
turned to more pressing matters. This film about the real-life story of a Kigali hotel manager who saved a thousand lives durning the Rwandan genocide in 1994 has been nominated for three Oscars.

Writer/director Terry George (writer of In the Name of the Father) was asked what he thought of the Berlinale's penchant for putting political films in the limelight. "I hope there is a political interest. My main reason to do this project was the enormous avoidance of the subject by Hollywood cinema, which I was trying to correct. Initially I was writing a film about the Liberian civil war because I was so inspired by the courage of some civilians. In the middle of that, my agent sent me a script by a former Rwandan hotel manager called Paul Rusesabagina. I wanted to show the pain and the hope that can be generated by that kind of disaster. Hopefully films like Hotel Rwanda will help people realise what's happening in Darfur."

Berlin film fest, day 2

What better place to organise a schmoozefest for introspective screenwriters than in a bar called Oxymoron? The Denmark-based MEDIA programme North By Northwest threw its first ever Berlin bash. An excellent way to catch up with writing folk from all over Northwestern Europe who followed the programme along with me five years ago.

I ran into NxNW director Anette Funch, freelance script editor Jane Williams (ex NFTS Beaconsfield, ex Binger Institute), screenwriter and Talent Campus-participant Rachel Mathews and German producer Babette Schroeder.

We all sampled a Berlin delicacy involving prosecco wine, soda water and ice cubes, which the locals undoubtedly call Schnoerrle or something like that. It was a merry reunion, but with 200 hungry writers in one room the networking potential was minimal.

Arthur Miller obituaries

There are numerous obituaries and tributes in all today's newspapers for Arthur Miller who died on Thursday. For example, The Independent, The Times, and the LA Times.

The New York Times, as you would expect, has probably the most comprehensive coverage.

The author of "Death of a Salesman," a landmark of 20th-century drama, Mr. Miller grappled with the weightiest matters of social conscience in his plays and in them often reflected or reinterpreted the stormy and very public elements of his own life - including a brief and rocky marriage to Marilyn Monroe and his staunch refusal to cooperate with the red-baiting House Un-American Activities Committee.

However, it's a short piece by Michael Billington in The Guardian that caught my eye, with it's analysis of Miller's work in the context of both American and European theatre.

Arthur Miller helped to define American drama.

Although there were notable American dramatists before him, most famously Eugene O'Neill, he did not have a rich tradition on which to draw. Along with his contemporary, Tennessee Williams, Miller in the immediate postwar period gave American theatre maturity, dignity and an enduring record of the frustrations of contemporary man.

And, even though Miller latterly fell out of fashion, he never gave up: astonishingly, at the age of 89, he saw his most recent play premiered in Chicago last autumn.

In one sense, the absence of a living tradition of American drama worked in Miller's favour. Most of the serious inter-war playwrights, such as Clifford Odets, Elmer Rice and Maxwell Anderson, were either dead or defunct by the time Miller started writing. In consequence, he looked to Europe: especially to the ancient Greeks and Ibsen, both of whom left a profound, and beneficial, impact on Miller's work.

Berlin International Film Festival

In our first attempt at international coverage we've signed up Dutch writer Thessa Mooij to blog for us from the Berlin International Film Festival. She'll be sharing some thoughts over the next few days, and here's her first post:

Under the aegis of festival director Dieter Kosslick, the Berlin International Film Festival has embraced urgent global issues (antiterrorism, tolerance and football) as well as first-time filmmakers, who are generously included in the competition alongside well-known veterans.

This year's competition includes David Mackenzie's Asylum, the follow-up for his debut Young Adam and the US/UK coproduction Heights, a debut feature by Chris Terrio.

Some 500 young filmmakers from 90 countries, including dozens of UK screenwriters, are participating in the Talent Campus - where they can hear Stephen Frears talk about development, test-drive their pitches in a Global Speed Matching session and have their work analysed in a Script Clinic.

You can find out more about Thessa on her blog

Arthur Miller dies

American playwright Arthur Miller has died at the age of 89.

Widely acclaimed as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, Miller was also a strong advocate of writers' freedom and famously withstood the pressure to name names at the McCarthy hearings.

BBC News has a brief obituary. We'll post more links as articles are written over the next couple of days.

Wilson tops PLR league

For the second year running, Jacqueline Wilson has topped the league of most borrowed authors from British libraries. According to figures released by the PLR children's author Wilson's books were borrowed over 2 million times from public libraries in 2003-4.

The annual PLR payment remains a crucial source of income for many writers and other rights holders whose earnings, on average, are far less than the minimum wage. For 2003-4 the payments made by PLR to authors rose to a record 5.26p per loan (from 4.85 pence in 2002-3).

PLR celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2004. In 1979 an Act of Parliament established the right for authors to receive remuneration for the public’s use of their work through public libraries.

In praise of TV drama

Rupert Smith in Media Guardian (free registration required) says that drama is the best thing on TV.

Thank God and the commissioning editors for popular drama. At a time when television seems to be swirling inexorably down the celebrity plughole, it's good to know that you can still trust the old formats of one-offs and continuing dramas to deliver something amusing and even thought-provoking. Drama can do this because it has writers. They don't have much status in the improvise-and-edit world of reality voyeurvision, but without them we might as well pack up our toys and go home.

Film still a (white) man's world

Women working in the film industry earn less than their male counterparts, despite being better qualified, and most people working in the industry get their jobs through word of mouth and live in London and the South East, according to the most in-depth survey ever of the UK’s film production workforce published by The UK Film Council.

Women make up 33% of the [film industry] workforce and earn less than men. 35% of women earn less than £20,000pa compared to 18% of men. In the higher salary brackets 30% of men earn £50k+ compared with 16% of women.

The survey found that industry is also lacking ethnic diversity.

Film production is also predominately white with only 1 in 20 from a minority ethnic background. This represents just 5% of the workforce. In London, where the survey found the majority of the workforce was concentrated, minority ethnicity groups make up 24% of the working population.

Penguin chief resigns

Anthony Forbes Watson has resigned as chief executive of leading publisher Penguin UK, reports The Book Standard. John Makinson, Penguin Group chairman and CEO, who has taken over the management of Penguin said that Forbes Watson left following "genuine differences of view on the way forward."

However, Forbes Watson's departure is being seen as linked to the recent troubles Penguin has had implementing a new distribution system.

Writing and therapy

The links between writing and psychotherapy discussed by Blake Morrison and Susie Orbach in The Guardian.

Blake Morrison: I want to start by asking you whether you feel there is some overlap between our professions. When I started writing I was told, with some vigour, that writing is very different from therapy - that a real writer did not use poetry, fiction, memoir, whatever, to work out feelings. People tend to be snobbish and dismissive about writing as therapy, and you'll hear creative writing tutors, in particular, discourage students from being 'confessional'. How do you see it?

Susie Orbach: Just as you have prejudice coming from writing which isn't about catharsis and therapy, I am prejudiced against people who insist on seeing therapy as catharsis without an aesthetic. What seems very similar to me about the two processes is that what I'm struggling for is some kind of understanding that will be helpful to the person I'm with. We do that together in the therapy and I do it myself when I'm writing, so in that sense there are similarities, in that writing is sort of therapeutic as well.

The Stage at 125

The Stage newspaper is 125 years-old and they've put their special supplement online. It includes an article by David Hare on the state of British theatre:

What has undoubtedly deteriorated over the years is the quality of writing about the stage. When my play Teeth 'n' Smiles was revived at the Sheffield Crucible, I looked back at the reviews of the original production and I was struck by what the late Ronald Bryden wrote about it in The Observer. There was an acceptance in his notice that my intentions in writing the play were worthy of discussion. Since the days when Bryden 'discovered' Tom Stoppard via Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead on the Edinburgh Fringe, there has not been a single critic whose name can be identified with a single writer in the way that Tynan championed Osborne and Harold Hobson supported Beckett.

The Screenwriter's Thirteen Commandments

I started trying to write for the screen in 1999. Six years on, I am actually being paid money to write for it. Yes, it took that long. And what have I learned, in all that time? What accumulated wisdom - and I use the term very loosely - could I possibly pass on?

Jack Dickson on The Screenwriter's Store website, lays down the law.

Thou shalt entertain - if you don't, your scripts will be boring diatribes and no-one will want to read them let alone make them a reality. Your audience is comprised of a huge cross section of individuals and they are not there to be patronised, talked down to or lectured. They are there - primarily - to be amused and / or diverted. Any informing or educating comes a definite second. No-one wants to be preached at. Remember the screenwriter's mantra (thank you, Jimmy McGovern): make 'em laugh, make 'em cry, make 'em think.

Digital Spy

If you're a TV addict, and/or a TV industry addict, you might already know Digital Spy. Lots of gossip and breaking news, as well as very lively and entertaining discussion forums.

Authors wants cut of second-hand sales

Leading authors including A.S. Byatt are demanding a cut from second-hand sales reports The Times. Second-hand sales are booming on websites such as Amazon and in charity shops such as Oxfam, but authors don't make a penny in additional royalties.

Dame Antonia Byatt has called for new rules to protect novelists using a system known as droit de suite, which guarantees artists a payment for each subsequent sale of their work. The rule is already scheduled to be introduced for visual art next year to ensure that painters receive a payment for second-hand sales of their work.

“Droit de suite is a very good way to protect us,” she said. “I hope they do something because earnings for an author can be absolutely pitiful.”

Abbott and Wood

Two of the Guild's most prominent members, Paul Abbott (free registration required) and Victoria Wood, interviewed (separately) in The Guardian.

Abbott talks about Shameless and his writing career:

The 21-year-old Abbott was not impressed by his colleagues [on Coronation Street]. "Some people had been working there since episode six. This was 1983! They had started two decades before!" Like them, though, he stayed and became comfortable. "I was there for eight-and-a-half years. Soaps are great - they teach you how to write a lot, but that's it. It's opposed to writing. It's a succubus." So why did you stay so long? "Two hundred grand a year."

Wood speaks as her new musical is previewing in the West End:

"I've always wanted to do a proper musical," says Wood, who has written an entirely new book and songsheet for the occasion. "I had the idea at the back of my mind for years, but I was so busy with TV and stand-up that I never had time. When I finally got round to it, I just thought that Acorn Antiques was the strongest brand in my back catalogue, and that the words 'Acorn Antiques - the Musical' would look very funny on a poster."

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