Our Friends on stage

In The Independent, Lynne Walker talks to Peter Flannery about putting his celebrated TV drama, Our Friends In The North, back to the stage.

Long before it came to the small screen, Jarrow-born Peter Flannery's epic story of four friends from the North-East was a stage-play. "When I was in my late twenties," says Flannery, "and resident writer with the RSC in London, I began to think of a play which might concern itself with the growing cynicism of my parents' generation about our political life. The research and execution of Our Friends began my own long journey towards the almost pitch-black scepticism with which I now observe our political culture. "

The play is being produced by Northern Stage, who have put a rehearsal diary on their website.

BBC's new multiplatform strategy

Simon Nelson, the BBC's 'Controller of Portfolio & Multimedia', has announced a new strategy for multiplatform commissioning.

"We can use the two-way nature of new media platforms to transform our relationship with licence fee payer ... collaborat[ing] with audiences in the creation of content and participative experiences."

Spooks online

Kudos, the production company behind BBC TV's Spooks, created by David Wolstencroft, has launched an online game to tie-in with the series. According to Robin Parker in Broadcast (subscription only):

A new mission will be added after each TV episode and the game storyline will stand alone while also rewarding users by offering extra insights for followers of the TV plot.

"Events in the episode will be referred to in the online experience, leaving users a little more in the know," [Kudos's digital content producer, Linda] Paalanne said. "It's designed so that people can join at any point, go back later to complete missions or play everything in sequence after the series has finished.

"We're very excited that the BBC has supported us in wanting to create a ground-breaking project of this scale."

ITV boosts drama department

From Metthew Hemley in The Stage:

ITV has boosted its in-house drama production team by hiring three new members of staff, including BBC senior producer Kate Lewis. Lewis, who has worked on shows such as Blackpool and The Alan Clarke Diaries, will join ITV Productions’ drama department as an executive producer. The department has also hired script editor Julia Walsh as the department’s new head of development.

Putting Precious on screen

In The New York Times, Michael Wines talks to Anthony Minghella about adapting Alexander McCall Smith's novel, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, for the big screen.

Mr. Minghella, who writes the screenplays for all his films, said he regards himself as much as a screenwriter as a director. But for this movie he teamed with Richard Curtis, who wrote “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” and helped write the screen version of “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” to bring a light touch to the characters. The novel’s fans will recognize the cadence of Botwanan English, with its charming formality and and “ehs” and “izzists?” that punctuate everyday conversation.

But the screenplay is considerably funnier than the book, in a gentle, wry way, and Ms. Rose’s Grace Makutsi, in 1950s eyeglasses and fright-wig hair, takes on a major role as the comic anchor. Mr. Minghella also moves much of the action outdoors, where Botswana’s scenery and charms like a troupe of native dancers can be shown to best effect.

Davey to take over at Arts Council England

Alan Davey has been appointed as the new Chief Executive of Arts Council England.

Davey, currently Director of Culture at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, will take up his new appointment in early 2008 – succeeding Peter Hewitt, who will have been in post as Chief Executive for ten years.

Meanwhile, according to Michael White in The Guardian, word at the Labour Party Conference is that arts funding cuts seem likely to be avoided.

The kind of folk loutishly referred to as "luvvies" are greatly relieved, the National Theatre's Nicholas Hytner admitted at the Arts Council's fringe meeting. They had expected their budgets to be clobbered. But no, the Calvinist from the North has been quietly going round the arts circuit saying he loves them really. They expect an inflation-proofed deal.

Lynda La Plante interview

In The Independent, Danuta Kean meets Lynda La Plante, whose new novel, Clean Cut, has just been published.

Lynda La Plante is raging. She is furious, her temper as fiery as her flame red hair. "How many Romanians are in? How many Polish are in?" she splutters in the midst of a diatribe about the NHS, over-crowded prisons and illegal immigration. "They are congregating like cockroaches into our major city centres, which are unable to deal with the crime that they bring."

She doesn't see me flinch. My name is Polish but I am too shocked to say anything: the woman who showed us that there is more to female cops than Cagney & Lacey has turned into Alf Garnet. Her pint-sized body – small even in precarious high heels – shakes with all the indignation of a Daily Mail editorial.

Brian Way Award 2008

Applications are invited for the Brian Way Award 2008, funded by Theatre Centre.

Submitted plays should be suitable for young people up to the age of eighteen and be at least forty-five minutes long. They must have been produced professionally between 1 July 2006 and 31 August 2007. This may be a first, second or third production of a play written within the past ten years. The playwright must either be resident in the UK or Republic of Ireland or have had a writing association with a theatre company or group based in the UK or Republic of Ireland. Previously submitted plays will not be considered.

The first prize is £6,000. Thanks to BBC Writersroom for the link.

Writers' Circle Networking Event

The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain is pleased to announce that the first ever WGGB Writers’ Circle will begin on Monday 8th October 2007 at 7pm with a networking session. The event will be held at The Writers’ Guild Centre, 17 Britannia Street, London WC1X 9JN (Nearest station: King’s Cross). Meetings for all groups will be held every other Monday from this date onward. Candidate Members' sessions will be held at 7pm and Full Members' sessions in the afternoon.

If you are interested in joining up for a future group then you are also welcome to attend this event. Please book by sending a cheque for £5 to : WGGB Writers' Circle event, ’ Writers' Guild of Great Britain, 15-17 Britannia Street, London, WC1X 9JN.

The Guild is still inviting applications for the first round of this initiative which is being set up to provide Guild members with a forum to discuss and develop their work. There will be two groups available for applicants to join: one for Full Members and one for Candidate/Student Members. Writers in these groups will also be separated according to genre: TV/ Film and Theatre/Radio. Please specify when you apply which genre you are interested in.

At each group meeting writers will be given feedback about their work from their fellow participants. After six months two writers from each circle will be selected by a panel of judges to present their work at a showcase. Following this event, each group will be disbanded and new applicants will be invited to form a new Circle.

Applicants will be asked to pay £60 for 6 months in advance. (This works out as £5 per session and will cover the administrative costs of the meetings.) If you are interested in joining please send a cheque payable to the Writers' Guild, to ‘WGGB Writers' Circle ’, Writers' Guild of Great Britain, 15-17 Britannia Street, London, WC1X 9JN. Please remember to include your contact details so we can get in touch with you!

The Guild is keen to have WGGB Writers ' Circles set up all over the U.K , so if you are interested in establishing one outside London then please get in touch with Moe Owoborode: moe@writersguild.org.uk

Laverty on It's A Free World

Kierston Wareing in It's A Free World, written by Paul Laverty and directed by Ken Loach (photo: Channel 4)

In The Guardian, Guild member Paul Laverty talks about the issues behind It's A Free World, the film that he scripted and Ken Loach directed, about migrant workers in the UK. It's A Free World is on Channel 4 tonight at 9pm.

We tell our story from the viewpoint of Kierston Wareing's Angie, who opens an employment agency in the hinterland of "illegality lite". Despite their "deep concern", our supermarkets depend on the Angies of this world to lubricate the long lines of subcontracts until brutality is safely over the horizon. Ken Loach, the director, imagined that Angie might one day be businesswoman of the year.

PFD crisis rumbles on

As the crisis at PFD rumbles forward, the media world watches on in fascination, report Gavin Knight in Media Guardian:

While the nation talks about the McCanns and Jose Mourinho, in publishing and media circles there is only one story - the mass resignation of the leading agents at PFD, the UK's largest talent and literary agency. "We are all gripped," one publishing director tells me. "We can't talk about anything else," says an excited rival agent. When the departing agents set up their as yet un-named agency after Christmas in new premises, they could take with them a glittering conga of British talent ranging from Keira Knightley to Richard Curtis, Kate Winslet to Tom Stoppard, Ricky Gervais to Alan Bennett. A conga worth 75% of PFD's income.

In The Financial Times, Jan Dalley also provides an interesting insight into the affair.

Meanwhile, in The Guardian, Martin Wagner says that, whoever their agent is, for a writer the relationship can often be a let-down.

Most young writers, keen for their first break, accept any offer from an agent, no questions asked. But right from the beginning the odds are stacked against them. An agent has many writers to look after - of course, how could an agency be profitable otherwise? - but a writer has only one career. So for a writer to be with the wrong agent can be lethal, while the agent has not much to lose, apart from a few wasted phone calls and stamps, and maybe a minor dent in his or her reputation. But like a bad marriage, a poor match between an author and agent can result in a lifetime of disappointment - for the author, at least.

Guild Awards shortlists announced

The shortlists for the first Guild Awards in ten years have been announced.

The Awards will be presented at a ceremony on 18 November, hosted by Jeremy Hardy. Thanks to generous sponsorship from BBC, ITV and Working Title, the Awards will now be held at BAFTA (David Lean room) 195 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LN.

The support provided from sponsors has also enabled ticket priced to be reduced to £25 for members and £50 for non-members. There is an early bird offer on group bookings available until Monday 1st October: buy a pair of members’ tickets for £40 or non-members’ for £75. Only 100 tickets are available for sale so early booking is recommended.

If you wish to book, please send a cheque with your name and membership number (if applicable) written on the back. Please make the cheque payable to the Writers' Guild, and address it to the 'Writers’ Guild Awards Tickets ', Writers' Guild of Great Britain, 15-17 Britannia Street, King’s Cross, London, WC1X 9JN. " You should also include a covering letter detailing any special requirements you might have for the event.

If you miss out on the 100 tickets for sale but still wish to attend, you will be added you to the waiting list for spare tickets. In this case, priority will be given to Guild members.

Gallagher's Eleventh Hour bought by CBS

Eleventh Hour, the series written for ITV by Guild member and blogger, Stephen Gallagher, has been bought by CBS and will be produced in America by Jerry Bruckheimer.

When I contacted Stephen yesterday he said:

I'm really pleased at this news, as you can imagine. Not least because when I was laying out the template for Eleventh Hour I made a close study of the way that stories in the Bruckheimer science-based procedurals were developed and put together. Research driving story, not merely embellishing it. I've yet to find out what the new team intend to take from the original and what they plan to change, but in the meantime I'm just enjoying the coverage. Not that any of it has managed to mention the show creator's name...

Authors' blogs

On her blog, journalist Danuta Kean offers advice to publishers about authors' blogging.

A blog is about branding. The brand is not the host publication or publisher, it is the individual. You are attempting to market the individual as an authentic voice. Beware: the net community hates inauthenticity, and if you set up a blog cynically, then it will generate bad word-of-mouth and will have a long term negative effect - netheads do not forget or forgive. They also hate anything that looks blatantly commercial.

Tanya Lees: Often Bemused

Guild member Tanya Lees has started a blog: Often Bemused. Tanya recently secured a bursary from Screen West Midlands to help develop her feature film script Translations, a romantic tragedy set during the 1941 occupation of Ethiopia.

I wrote my first book when I was two and a half.

I have since mislaid it, but I seem to remember that it was a single sheet of paper, folded and carefully filled with random letters in imitation of the mysterious and wonderful volumes around me.

Coventry's new Belgrade

In The Guardian, Alfred Hickling reports on the re-opening of Coventry's Belgrade theatre, under the leadership of artistic director Hamish Glen.

He admits that 14 productions in as many months of mostly unfamiliar work is quite a gamble. "The Arts Council heavily advised me against it," he says. "But it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to establish a theatre with a completely new identity. It's like spraying urine - we're staking a claim and marking out our patch."

Emmy for Frank Deasy

Tucked away beneath the news in the British press that Helen Mirren and Ricky Gervais won acting prizes at the American Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday was the briefest of mentions for the winner of the Emmy for "Outstanding Writing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Dramatic Special".

Step forward Guild member Frank Deasy, who won with his script for Prime Suspect: The Final Act.

Writers on film

Californication trailer

In The Telegraph, Matt Thorne questions the accuracy of Hollywood's depiction of writers. The latest novelist on screen is played by David Duchovny in TV series Californication (which starts in the UK on Five from 11 October).

As he struggles to write a blog for a magazine, he makes up for his lack of inspiration by pursuing an endless stream of LA women (four in the first episode alone) all of whom think having sex with a novelist is the most desirable prospect imaginable.

Not all male novelists look like Duchovny, but even attractive ones might blanch at his seduction technique: going into Borders and reading his own novel.

Instead of being jeered at by passing customers, it's not long before a beautiful 16-year-old comes up to him and goes back to his place for violent sex.

The lad-lit novelist Mike Gayle, who once got fan mail from the Broadway Showgirls strip club in San Francisco promising him a free lapdance, doubts this pick-up technique would work: "I can barely look my books in the eye, let alone stand by them."

Crisis looms at PFD

There appears to be a growing crisis at top literary (and entertainment) agency, PFD, with reports in The Independent that top authors are set to seek alternative representation following the appointment of Caroline Michel, previously of William Morris.

There are now concerns that...authors and actors will follow agents including Pat Kavanagh and Anthony Jones... to set up a rival agency. Last week Caroline Michel, a successful and charismatic force in entertainment and publishing, was appointed chief executive of PFD. Directors at the firm had been trying to push through a £4m management buy-out after it was bought by CSS Stellar in 2001. But the appointment of Ms Michel was taken as a sign that this sale is no longer possible.

Now that a tranche of agents has resigned, authors are beginning to express their doubts about the changes at PFD.

Hunt leads Five drama push

From Jessica Rogers for Broadcastnow:

Five's new director of programmes Jay Hunt has been given the task of finding a long running UK drama for the channel.

Hunt, who officially starts her new job today (Monday 17 September), will be tasked with commissioning a cost-effective high volume soap or drama by the end of next year.

The move is a direct result of Five managing director of content Lisa Opie's strategy to no longer commission short-runs of drama for the channel.

The multistory novel

In The Guardian, Julian Gough argues that, while the traditional outlets for short story publishing have declined, the form itself survives within longer works.

What contemporary readers don't seem to like are short stories that don't connect to each other. Why? Perhaps because our lives feel fragmented enough already. Television too has almost abandoned the single, self-contained drama. People like art to make sense out of chaos but without denying the chaos. That demand is a tremendous opportunity for the natural short story writer, who merely needs to come up with an organising principle. It's just another technical challenge. Story itself is infinitely flexible, and doesn't much care how you tell it or what you call it. These stacks of stories, reinvented for the urban 21st century, could be called the multistory novel.

The biggest rom-com cliché

On his blog, author and script analyst Billy Mernit is fuming against a rom-com cliché.

Boy has lost girl, and where has she gone? Where-oh-where, do you suppose? That's right, my little rom-com chick-o-lettes. And learning of this, what, pray tell, whatever does the poor boy do? Can you possibly imagine? Yuh-huh!

HE RACES TO THE AIRPORT TO STOP HER FROM LEAVING BY DECLARING HIS LOVE.

If you've ever succumbed to this cliché in your own writing, feel free to 'fess up. It worked for me.

Guild recruitment offer

A special offer from the WGGB:

The Writers' Guild has launched a major campaign to recruit new members. The more writers who join us, the stronger we become in our efforts to negotiate better minimum terms agreements, secure better deals as technology develops, and confront difficult and inefficient management.

As part of the Writers' Guild's Recruitment Campaign 2007, we are offering Full and Candidate members the chance to win a free gift for every new writer you can persuade to join the Guild. And, in addition, that writer will also receive a free gift. You can choose one of the following £20 gift tokens: National Book Token (redeemable in any chain or independent book shop); HMV; The BBC Shop; Samuel French; Theatre Token. You will receive a gift for every new member you bring in to the Guild.

All you have to do is persuade a writer to download a Full or Candidate application form , fill it in, mention you as the person recommending them for membership, and send it back to us stating which gifts you and the new member would like.

If you have any queries about this, or you'd like us to send you some recruitment material and/or the application forms via post, please contact Naomi MacDonald at naomi@writersguild.org.uk or on 020 7833 0777.

Deadline for receipt of applications: 31 December 2007.

Please note: this offer does not apply to student members, whose membership is already discounted. This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

Tinniswood shortlist announced

The Tinniswood Award, set up by the Writers’ Guild and the Society of Authors in memory of Peter Tinniswood, honours the best original radio drama script broadcast during 2006. The prize of £1,500 is donated by the ALCS and judges are Gordon House (Chair), Jan Etherington and Lynne Truss.

The 2007 shortlist is:

• Mike Bartlett - Not Talking
• Thomas Crow - The Internet Wants a Chat
• Pearse Elliott - Last Suppers
• Rachel Joyce - To Be A Pilgrim
• Marcy Kahan - Twenty Cigarettes
• Richard Lumsden - Man in the Moon
  

The presentation of the awards, by Leslie Phillips, will take place on the evening of 18 October. Plays will be rebroadcast on BBC Radio 3, 4 and 7 and will be available from the BBC website 7 days on-demand. Scheduling details will be confirmed nearer the time.

RSC chief calls for big plays

From Dalya Alberge in The Times:

The head of the Royal Shakespeare Company gave warning that contemporary theatre would not thrive unless it addressed the most challenging political and social issues of the day, with “big plays in big spaces”.

Michael Boyd, the artistic director, said: “We have come to rely on the hard-hitting play in smaller spaces. There is a danger with contemporary theatre, as with contemporary music, of a defeatist return into ‘boutique art’, what I call ‘studio-itis’.”

Five new plays – by Anthony Neilson, Marina Carr, Leo Butler, Roy Williams and Adriano Shaplin – will be premiered next season, on themes from religion to the war in Iraq.

The Writersroom at the Guild

There was a good turnout last night for the latest Guild event - inside the BBC Writersroom with the BBC's Creative Director of New Writing, Kate Rowland.

Kate explained how the Writersroom has developed over recent years to be the central entry point for new writing across the BBC. Anyone can submit a script and it will be read. Or, at least, the first ten pages will be read and, if they think there is some merit in the writing, the whole script will be considered. It's very rare for unsolicited scripts to be made into programmes, but, Kate, said, from the 10,000 submissions made each year, contact will be made with several hundred writers.

The idea is that a relationship is built up with a new writer so that they can be steered towards an area of the BBC that would suit them best. In some ways, Kate explained, Writersroom operates as an internal talent agency for the BBC, suggesting new writers to departments or producers who are looking for them.

The Writersroom also helps run numerous competitions - another good chance to get your script read and, perhaps, to try a format that you've not previously considered.

The key thing, Kate stressed, is for a new writer to submit an original script that really demonstrates their talent. "In the end," she said, "whatever the platform, it is character and story that matter."

The other speaker was Guild member Darren Rapier, providing an insight into what it's like to write for BBC daytime series, Doctors, one of the shows that has been most open to new writers. His main advice was to be persistent. The process can be lengthy and sometimes frustrating, he explained, but, if you can get commissioned, it's a great opportunity to write what is, essentially, an original TV play that will be seen by several million people. As with other BBC shows, if you want to write for Doctors but don't have any previous credits, the best approach is to submit an original script to the BBC Writersroom.

Information about submitting scripts, as well as lots of other information and advice, is available on the BBC Writersroom website.

Ofcom's Second Review of PSB

Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, has published the terms of reference for its Second Review of Public Service Broadcasting (PSB). It's not the most immediately thrilling document but the Review itself, due to be completed in early 2009, will be significant.

The specific objectives of this Review will be:
• To evaluate how effectively the public service broadcasters are delivering the purposes and characteristics of PSB, particularly in the light of changes in the way TV content is distributed and consumed;
• To assess the case for continued intervention in the delivery of TV content to secure public service purposes;
• To consider whether and how the growth of new ways of delivering content to consumers and citizens might create new opportunities for achieving the goals of public service broadcasting, as well as posing new challenges; and
• To assess future options for funding, delivering and regulating public service broadcasting, in light of these challenges and opportunities, and uncertainty about the sustainability of existing funding models.

At The Sharp End

At The Sharp End - One Day Conference at the University of Portsmouth, Saturday September 15 - 9 am to 6.30 pm.

Organised by Guild member Peter Billingham who is a playwright and Reader in Drama and Performance at the University of Portsmouth, At The Sharp End brings together some of the leading modern dramatists, critics and academics to discuss the present state of British theatre.

Key Speakers: David Edgar, Edward Bond, Aleks Sierz, John Bull.

The event also features a production by Big Brum Theatre Company of Edward Bond's latest play for young people 'The Tune'.

For full details and ticket information, please visit the website.

Stephen Volk in conversation

BAFTA-winning screenwriter Stephen Volk will be in conversation with Eileen Elsey (who runs the Screenwriting M.A. at the The University of the West of England) on 27 September. They will be discussing Volk's background, his work in the horror/paranormal genre, and his experiences as a screenwriter in both the UK and the USA.

The event, at The Watershed Media Centre in Bristol is free, with tickets available from the box office on the night.

Thanks to BBC Writersroom for the link.

Michael Davis - Shoot 'Em Up

For the Writers Guild of America, West, Denis Faye talks to writer-director Michael Davis about his new film, Shoot 'Em Up (opening in the UK on Friday).

How do you go about conceiving your action sequences and how does that tie into plot and character?

I think you should, within an action sequence, try to move the story and the character along. Clive Owen, in my movie, is the angriest man in the world. The little injustices in life irritate him. If someone in front of him is a bad driver, he gets angry and he does something, running the guy off the road.

In the opening scene, I wanted to establish he is this angry man, so not only is he delivering a baby in the middle of a gunfight, but right as that is happening, he shoots off a guy's ponytail because he thinks the guy's trying to look young and cool when he's an old fart. In killing the guy, it's not just a kill, it reveals character. He shoots the ponytail off and blows off the back of the guy's skull, so within action, I'm learning who this guy is.

Shoot 'Em Up trailer

Dubplate Drama gets second series

In Media Guardian, Kate Bulkley reports on the recommissioning of DubPlate Drama (written and directed by Luke Hyams) by Channel 4.

The second series, set against a soundtrack of street music called grime and dubstep - a hybrid of step, hip-hop and drum'n'bass - continues with the theme of stories from the streets, which involve young, predominantly black, kids living and breathing the London music scene, and their battles with the drug culture that surrounds them. It is innovative because the characters use the language of urban rap, the actors are not professionals and the storyline denouements are decided by the audience.

Lee Hall interview

In The Daily Telegraph, John Whitley talks to playwright and screenwriter Lee Hall about his new play, The Pitmen Painters, which tells the story of miners who became artists in the 1930s.

"Virtually all the events in the play are true," says Hall, sturdy, bespectacled and himself Newcastle born and bred.

"They really did go to London and hang out with famous artists and their work did attract big collectors. They learned the language of that world.

"Their lives seemed to make a good subject for this theatre, a way of investigating some of the problems that culture brings if you're coming from outside of it, as these guys clearly were. It's a sort of parable. Of course, having written about miners and ballet, this didn't seem too big a stretch!"

The Pitmen Painters opens at the Live Theatre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 20 Sept.

Being adapted, by Susan Minot

One day an author will write about what a wonderful experience it was having a book adapted into a Hollywood movie. But until then, here's another story of painful development - although the adaptation of Susan Minot's novel Evening seems to have turned out OK in the end, as Martyn Palmer reports for The Times.

If Susan Minot could pass on one piece of advice to any writer whose book is snapped up by Hollywood it would be short and sweet.

“I would tell them ‘let it go’,” she says. “Just stand back and enjoy the ride.” It is easier said than done. And there were times when she had to remind herself of her own counsel as her novel Evening undertook a tortuous nine-year journey to the big screen including, finally, handing over her own version of the screenplay to another author, Michael Cunningham, to rewrite.

Slush Pile Reader

A new website, Slush Pile Reader, based in America, is inviting authors to submit manuscripts online so that others can vote to see which should be published.

It's not the first website of its kind, but it looks to be well laid out, there don't seem to be any hidden fees or catches and published authors will get US Authors' Guid terms.

A tribute to Clive Exton

Further to our round-up of obituaries for Clive Exton, Guild TV Committee Chair, Gail Rennard, has written this tribute:

Since Clive Exton died last month, I've read various obituaries, but I'd like to add a tribute from a Guild perspective. I didn't have the pleasure of knowing him, but from everything I've heard from fellow Guild members, I wish I had.

Aside from being an enviably talented writer, Clive Exton was joint Deputy Chair of the Guild (along with Michael Baker) from 1991-1993. Exton was also fundamental in getting the Guild's awards relaunched after a period of financial hardship...sound familiar?

Former Guild Chair and Treasurer Mike Sharland had known Clive since they were young writers at Associated London Scripts, when they used to have offices opposite each other (alongside Eric Sykes, Spike Milligan, and Galton and Simpson.) Sharland explained that Exton was "one of a few staunch members who brought back the Guild awards... even offering to cover any financial losses himself." You can't say fairer than that.

This November the Guild will once again be re-instating our awards and let's hope this time it's permanent. But what better time to thank Clive Exton and all the hard-working members who came before us? Without them, our awards or even our Guild wouldn't exist today. Goodness knows there's still lots of work to be done and other equally dedicated members are doing it, but it's made all the easier because we're standing on giants' shoulders.

British film-makers missing a trick

In The Guardian, John Patterson wonders why it took a French film-maker to adapt Ted Lewis's novel, Plender (released as Le Serpent), directed by Eric Barbier) and suggests it's not an isolated case.

Without getting too culturally nationalistic about it, why is Le Serpent not a British movie? Why did it take a foreigner to discern a superb film property within an out-of-print novel written three decades ago in another language? I only ask because it happens a lot. As foreign film-makers merrily plunder the nooks and crannies of our culture, nosing around like truffle dogs for the suitably scented kernel of an idea, we - the British - seem almost resolutely clueless about the riches strewn all around us.

Poetry, Style and Verse at the Guild

Mixing readings, performance and discussion, Poetry, Style and Verse (4 September 2007) was the Guild's first poetry event at the Writers' Centre in King's Cross.

Chaired by Alan Brownjohn, who began with readings of his own work, the first stage of the evening progressed with poems in a wide variety of styles from OneNess, David Morgan, Jonzi D, Leo Aylen and Peter Sansom.

The subsequent discussion centred on the significance of different ways of performing poetry.

There's a report on the event on the Guild website.

Bebo to launch second interactive drama

As Matthew Hemley reports in The Stage, social networking site Bebo is to launch its second interactive drama, Sofia's Diary, this autumn, following the success of Kate Modern last month.

Bebo international president Joanna Shields said: “Sofia’s Diary takes drama to the next level by embracing the web as a new medium for storytelling. It’s not enough for a piece of content to exist on a single medium - broadcasters, producers and writers need to consider the potential of telling multifaceted stories using multiple media.”

The drama will be written by UK writer and blogger, Danny Stack.

Update (17/09/2007): Danny points out on his blog that "Sofia's Diary itself is written and created by Nuno Bernardo, and the format has already been successfully adapted in several countries."

The future of royalties

On his blog, Richard Charkin, Chief Executive of Macmillan, argues that a new system needs to be devised for paying royalties to authors.

...the concept of royalties is a fair one but that the changes in our business have made it, in its present form (a percentage of the UK published price of a book), unwieldy and unrealistic.

The percentage is linked to a price which applies in only a minority of cases. It doesn't apply to all sales overseas; it doesn't apply to nearly all sales made in supermarkets, Internet bookshops and many bookshop chains.

Charkin argues that payments should be based on publishers' gross income rather than retail price.

He returns to the subject in another post, with a link to a radical proposal for abolishing royalties altogether (sort of).

The sitcom is not dead

On his blog, comedy writer Ken Levine argues that reports of the death of the sitcom have been greatly exaggerated.

There is no other genre of television programming that is a bigger cash cow in success. Warner Brothers will make more off of FRIENDS than their big summer blockbusters combined. How much moolah do you think 20th Century Fox has raked in from MASH? It has been paying off jackpots for over thirty years with no signs of stopping or even slowing down.

Graham rejects "self-censorship" jibe

On The Guardian's Organ Grinder blog, scriptwriter Matthew Graham rejects the allegation made by Mark Lawson that he and fellow Life On Mars creators Ashley Pharoah and Tony Jordan exercised self-censorship by moderating Gene Hunt's racism.

Did we self-censor when having heard some of Hunt's extreme racist lines read out at rehearsals, we decided to cut them? I would argue that we made a judgment call. One of a thousand judgment calls that we had to make at various stages in the development of the show. Not born out of fear, but out of an instinct for what worked best for the story.

Judging the BSSC

Does The British Short Screenplay Competition have the longest long-list of any writing competition? The First Round Qualifiers, announced last month, looked to number something in excess of 500 (from around 2,000 entries). Even the recently announced Second Round - has only narrowed things down to something around 250. Apparently there are normally four qualifying rounds...and then the semi-finalists.

Hopefully it's a sign of a particularly through judging process. And, of course, it means that each time a writer's script makes the cut they can enjoy a small moment of triumph.

Online giveaway

If you can't get a book deal, might it be worth giving work away for free online? Jon Evans, on The Guardian Books Blog, thinks so.

...to quote the publisher Tim O'Reilly, "the greatest threat an artist faces is obscurity, not piracy". I don't worry about people who read my work without paying. I worry about people who don't know my books exist. An online release reaches a potentially enormous audience, gets free publicity (because a free book from an established author still seems perverse and hence notable) and attracts readers by letting them try before they buy. If my writing is good enough - and I'm confident it is - people who read one of my books for free will be willing to buy the others.

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg interview

Superbad trailer

For the Writers Guild of America, West, Dylan Callaghan talks to the writers of hit comedy film, Superbad, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.

To what extent is Superbad a high school confessional/ autobiography?

Seth Rogen: It's not autobiography, but it's definitely inspired by our lives. I was a loudmouthed dick in high school, and Evan was slightly less of a loudmouthed dick. We both really wanted to get laid, which was not happening. So there are a lot of little things that are similar.

Evan Goldberg: Definitely. When friends and family see it, they almost all say, “That's a good Seth, and that's a good Evan.”

Superbad opens in UK cinemas on 14 September.

South Park creators' online deal

In Media Guardian, Anthony Lilley argues that an online distribution deal between South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker and Viacom could be the shape of things to come.

The interesting thing about the new South Park deal is the terms. Parker and Stone have got a big cash advance and a 50/50 split of ad revenues, which are clearly seen as the major way that profit is going to be made. Now this deal clearly has a lot to do with the fact that it also bundles in a commitment to three more seasons of Comedy Central's most iconic show. Let's not get carried away that any old producer could demand terms like these, but it's indicative of the way the wind is blowing.

WGAE's Mona Mangan to retire

Mona Mangan, executive director of the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), has announced her intention to retire from the position. Mangan has served as the WGAE’s executive director for the past 29 years.

“This has been an enormously exciting and challenging job and one I’m thrilled to have had for so many years,” said Mona Mangan. “The challenges the Guild has faced have been interesting, complicated, and difficult at times, but I’m extremely proud of the accomplishments that our Council and staff and I have achieved on behalf of our members. I’m very grateful to the members and staff who have helped make this job so rewarding. I can only hope that my new projects will be as professionally and personally rewarding as my work at the Guild has been.”

Mangan will continue to serve as WGAE executive director until her successor has joined the Guild and a transition period has been completed.

Afterworld on MySpace

Afterworld - Episode One
A new online drama series, Afterworld, a just-about-animated show reported to have cost $3 million for 130 episodes, launched earlier this month on MySpace TV.

There's an article about the series, created by American company Electric Farm, by Virginia Heffernan for The New York Times.

What’s best about it is the way it looks: charcoal, hazy, painterly, like nothing on television. To say the animation is rudimentary is an overstatement. Often, when Shoemaker is shown moving from, say, the bottom of an escalator to the top, we see only two still images, faintly interlaced with tracers, as if the action were witnessed in a sleepy, almost drugged, blink. This is not Disney animation, to be sure, but neither is it “South Park.” It’s more like a strange series of digitally manipulated photographs.

And that’s where it all clicks: “Afterworld” is a comic book. It has a far-fetched story, frankly clichéd speech, a solitary hero, Marvel-style foreshortening and images that hardly move. “Afterworld” is the work of authors who think in panels.

For some reason I can't get the Afterworld videos to play on MySpace TV , but they work fine on YouTube.

Matt Greenhalgh wins Guild and List Screenwriting Award

Matt Greenhalgh has won the first Guild and List magazine Screenwriting award for a New British Movie at the Edinburgh International Film Festival for his script for Control.

The film, about the band Joy Division, is based on the biography of lead singer Ian Curtis by his wife Deborah and stars Sam Riles, Samantha Morton and Craig Parkinson.

The film was a unanimous choice by the judges Paul Dale (List film editor), Andrea Gibb (Writers' Guild) and Eddie Harrison (Critic, Scottish Metro). It also won director Anton Corbijn the Powell Pressburger award at the Festival itself.

The Guild and List prize is the only screenwriting award related to the Film Festival. Greenhalgh's previous writing credits include episodes of Cold Feet for ITV and Burn It for the BBC. He has also directed TV drama.

Speaking after the announcement Greenhalgh said:

"This is my first film and my first award, so thank you for popping my cherry! Thanks to all those who voted for Control, and to The Writers' Guild and The List for recognising the writer's role in this strange industry; cast as one of the main parts in the beginning of the process we usually find ourselves almost forgotten by the end. It amazes me that a script I wrote in late 2004 is now taking on a life of its own. I dedicate this award to Tony Wilson, a one-off and true friend of the creative mind. 'Rave On' mate."

When TV dramatists self-censor

In The Guardian, Mark Lawson cites two recent examples to argue that the main threat to TV scriptwriters' freedom of expression is self-censorship.

Ashley Pharoah, co-creator of Life On Mars, admitted that he had removed racist insults from the mouth of DCI Gene Hunt, after they caused "intakes of breath" among cast and crew at the first readthrough. Pharoah's explanation was that the success of the series depended on viewers liking Hunt. However, Hunt's swipes at women and gay people remained intact. And the series editor of BBC1's Casualty, commenting on newspaper reports that the editorial policy unit had insisted that two Islamist terrorists in a script were changed to animal rights activists, insisted that the switch had been made by the writer, who apparently feared inviting a reaction from extremists.

New blogs

Two new blogs by Guild members came to my attention this week.

Actually, Cine-City by Nick Goundry isn't new, but it's new to me - primarily a collection of his reviews and comments about new films and wider cinematic culture.

Hauling Like A Brooligan by Stephen Gallagher has only been up and running for a few weeks but already it looks like a significant addition to the world of UK writers' blogs. Stephen, a scriptwriter and novelist, covers a wide variety of subjects including the fashion for 'Director's versions' of films and a surprising recommendation from Amazon.

Serial novel-writing

In The Daily Telegraph, Ronan Bennett explains to Jasper Rees what it was like writing his latest novel, Zugzwang, in instalments.

"I think the first half stands up pretty well, and after that I do feel I lost the plot. There was too much exposition, rather than letting events and action lead you in, and some wrong turns that I couldn't put right. I left the rolling into the denouement too late, forgetting that actually endings need time. I realised by Chapter 28 that I was nowhere near the end."

Bennett now suspects that, as a writer who never plans his endings in advance, he bit off more than he could chew when he started researching the labyrinthine relationship between the Bolsheviks and the Okhrana, the Tsar's spy network...

It eventually took him seven months to revise what had taken him seven months to write. Loose ends were tied up, solecisms corrected, the second half was "substantially redone" and the entire ending rewritten.

Marchant criticises drama execs

From Matthew Hemley in The Stage:

Screenwriter Tony Marchant has criticised the majority of UK television dramas as “badly written and unoriginal”, claiming commissioners are restricting the development of imaginative and innovative scripts.

Speaking to The Stage, Marchant complained writers were suffering because executives were dictating content, rather than allowing them the creative freedom to devise bold scripts and challenging storylines.

Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin interview

Ramona Marquez, Claire Skinner, Hugh Dennis, Daniel Roche and Tyger Drew-Honey in Outnumbered, written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin (Photo: BBC/Hat Trick/Phil Fisk)

As they prepare for the launch of the new sitcom, Outnumbered, which starts tonight at 10.35pm on BBC One, writers Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin talk to Nigel Kendall in The Times.

What sets Outnumbered apart is its adoption of fly-on-the-wall camera techniques to give the series an almost documentary feel. The humour arises from the chaos of everyday family life, and as the parents, Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner wage a bemused and constant war against the tyranny of their offspring.

It’s a scenario that any parent will recognise, while nonparents will surely breathe a sigh of relief.

“Well,” says Hamilton, scratching his beard, “if there are long queues outside vasectomy clinics, we’ll know that it’s darker than we meant. We hope that there’s an honesty about it."

BBC Three 'safe' from budget cuts

By Kevin Young for BBC News:

The BBC's head of TV has rejected calls to close BBC Three in order to solve the corporation's financial problems.

All areas of the BBC are facing budget cuts after the broadcaster did not get the licence fee increase it wanted.

Conservative MP John Whittingdale and Panorama's John Sweeney suggested the digital channel should be shut to safeguard quality in other areas.

But the BBC's Jana Bennett said working more efficiently across the board was better than closing an entire channel.

Clive Exton 1930-2007

TV writer Clive Exton has died at the age of 77. Perhaps best know for his sometimes controversial work for ABC's Armchair Theatre in the 1960s, he also wrote numerous episodes of shows such as Poirot and Jeeves and Wooster.

There are obituaries in The Guardian, The Times and by Anthony Hayward in The Independent.

Exton wrote only a handful of plays for the theatre. "I like writing for television because it's such an effective way of forcing action out of a character," he said. "The play that shows people being forced by their natures into a conflict that they can't avoid - that's the sort of play I like to do."

WGGB Writers’ Circle

The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain is pleased to announce that the first ever WGGB Writers’ Circle will begin in September 2007 and applications are now being invited.

The initiative is being set up to provide Guild members with a forum to discuss and develop their work. There will be two groups available for applicants to join: one for Full and one for Candidate/Student Members. Writers in these groups will also be separated according to genre: TV/ Film and Theatre/Radio. Please specify when you apply which genre you are interested in.

At each group meeting writers will be given feedback about their work from their fellow participants. After six months two writers from each circle will be selected by a panel of judges to present their work at a showcase. Following this event, each group will be disbanded and new applicants will be invited to form a new Circle. Applicants will be asked to pay £60 for 6 months in advance. (This works out as £5 per session and will cover the administrative costs of the sessions.)

If you are interested in joining please send a cheque payable to the Writers' Guild, to ‘WGGB Writers' Circle ’, Writers' Guild of Great Britain, 15-17 Britannia Street, London, WC1X 9JN. Please remember to include your contact details so we can get in touch with you!

Spaces are limited to 15 people per group so please apply early. Group meetings will be held every two weeks at the Writers’ Guild Centre in Kings Cross. We are keen to have WGGB Writers' Circles set up all over the U.K , so if you are interested in establishing one outside London then please get in touch with Moe Owoborode: moe@writersguild.org.uk

Another Hollywood writers co-op

When news broke earlier this year of a new co-op of top-rated Hollywood screenwriters based at Warner Brothers, John August admitted to feeling slightly left out.

Now, as Jay A. Fernandez reports for The L.A. Times, he's part of another writers co-operative, this time based at 20th Century Fox.

The new Fox cooperative, called Writing Partners, includes equally heavy hitters: John August ("Big Fish"), Michael Brandt and Derek Haas ("3:10 to Yuma"), Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio ("Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"), Michael Arndt ("Little Miss Sunshine"), Craig Mazin ("Scary Movie 3"), Simon Kinberg ("Mr. & Mrs. Smith"), Stuart Beattie ("Collateral"), Tim Herlihy ("Happy Gilmore") and Cormac and Marianne Wibberley ("National Treasure"). August and Mazin have spearheaded the effort over the last few months, and after several entities showed interest, Fox Filmed Entertainment Co-chairman Tom Rothman signed off on the deal organized and negotiated by co-presidents of production, Emma Watts and Alex Young.

In what amounts to a first-look deal for the studio, each writer or writing pair in the group gets an upfront fee of $300,000 -- way below their normal quotes -- to write an original feature-length screenplay for Fox in the next four years.

The writer maintains creative control of the script and can make his or her own decisions about which studio notes he's willing to do and whether to allow another writer on board at the studio's or potential director's request. If the writer agrees, the project moves forward. If not, the writer can ultimately walk away with ownership of the script. But the incentive for both parties is to move the script toward production, in which case the writer gets his full standard fee and 2.5% first-dollar gross points on top of the quote.

You can read August's take on the arrangement on his blog, and Craig Mazin has blogged about it, too.

What's interesting, I think, is not that writers are seeking (and taking) more control over the production process, but they are doing it collectively. As Mazin points out, they're not intending to undermine the American Writers Guild (they're raising the ceiling for deals, he says, whereas the Guild establishes the floor) but they are showing that writers can have a great deal of power when they work together.

The film industry in this country isn't big enough for anything similar to happen over here, but could British TV writers follow the co-operative model? Several, such as Paul Abbott (Tightrope Pictures) and Tony Jordan (Red Planet Pictures), have set up their own production companies. Might writers' co-ops be an equally viable option?

New logo for CBBC

The BBC have unveiled a new logo for CBBC, the channel for six to twelve-year-olds. The new logo will go on air when the new season of programmes start on 3 September.

According to press reports, the channel will be aiming to increase its appeal to those aged nine and over, taking on rivals such as Nickelodeon and Disney.

New drama will include The Sarah Jane Adventures (created by Russell T Davies); adaptations of Jamie Rix's best-selling novels, The Revenge Files Of Alistair Fury; and Summerhill, a drama based around the pioneering school, written by Alison Hume.

ConstantComedy.com

From Ben Dowell in Media Guardian:

Former Channel 4 commissioning editor Phil Morrow has launched the UK's first online comedy service allowing comedians to upload their work and to judge that of others.

ConstantComedy.com, which goes live today, aims to capitalise on the growth in social networking.

It will offer comedy fans and performers the opportunity to showcase new material ranging from 45 seconds to five minutes in length.

Clips can be judged by anyone watching the "premiere" of the material and viewers can rate the material second by second before it is archived.

2008 People’s Play Award

New Writing North and the People’s Theatre Company have launched the 2008 People’s Play Award. The award is run to find a new play that will be produced for one week in the studio theatre at the People’s Theatre in Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne, in May 2008. The winning writer will receive an award of £2,000.

The competition is only open to writers who have not yet received a professional production of their work on the stage. The award is funded by New Writing North and The People’s Theatre and is open to writers who live and work within the Arts Council England North East region (Tyneside, Northumberland, Tees Valley and County Durham).

The closing date for entries is 5pm on Monday 5 November 2007.

Mohsin Hamid interview

The longlist for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, announced last week, featured several lesser-known writers, including Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

He's interviewed in The Guardian by Decca Aitkenhead.

When we meet for breakfast in a cafe near his Kensington flat, I wonder if he feels awkward at all about the implication that he owes his success to Osama bin Laden. After all, one could argue, al-Qaida's atrocities in the US have proved to be the making of him.

"Well I wouldn't resist that at all," he agrees smoothly. "I mean, the Holocaust was the making of Primo Levi. Anti-black sentiment was the making of James Baldwin. And certainly, I think that this current tension between the west and Islam is, for a westernised Muslim like myself, identity-forming as an artist." He pauses. "But I would very happily trade a world where I didn't have to worry about my family in Pakistan - which American presidential candidates talk about invading - for the success of my second novel." Hamid directs a witheringly polite smile at me, and takes a sip of green tea. "I'd be happy to make that swap."

Scottish Broadcasting Commission

From Matthew Hemley in The Stage:

Playwright Chris Ballance and actress Elaine C Smith have joined the new commission formed to look into the future of Scotland’s broadcast industry.

Both from Scotland, the pair will sit alongside the commission’s chair, Blair Jenkins, and seven others tasked with investigating the state of television and production in the country.

Meet The Writers

Writers ' Guild presents Meet the Writers (Edinburgh Festival)

A series of free, informal events will be hosted by The Writers' Guild of Great Britain at the Edinburgh Festival. Each Guild member will talk about how they became working writers and the best ways into the business. The first two meetings will be held on Saturday 18 August at Oxford Bar, 8 Young Street, Edinburgh:

• 11am: Deborah Moggach (Tulip Fever, Pride & Prejudice screenplay)
• 12 noon: Andrea Gibb (2005 Scottish Filmmaker of the Year).
  

The third will take place on Sunday 19 August at Costa Coffee in Waterstone's, 83 George Street, Edinburgh:

• 11am: Alan Plater:(Biederbecke Trilogy, Z Cars, Blonde Bombshells of 1943)

Numbers are limited to 15 per writer so come early!

The Working Writer

The Writers ' Guild presents The Working Writer (Edinburgh Festival)

Okay, the producer likes your work, you’ve sold your script, you’ve got the job - now you’re a fully paid up working writer. But it’s your idea, your vision, your baby, so are you a just an employee or a real partner in a creative collaboration?

What can your producer expect for their buck? How does the industry define the terms and conditions for creative work? Who owns who, and what?

Chaired by Andrea Gibb (Dear Frankie/Afterlife) on behalf of The Writers' Guild, a panel of producers, screenwriter and agents will discuss the basis for their working relationships and consider whether a standard industry contract has real relevance in a creative environment.

The panel will include Claire Mundell (The Brotherhood of the Book / Synchronicity Films) Alex Holdrige (US writer /director) Anita Cox (Head of Business Affairs, Scottish Screen).

The event is for industry delegates only and will be at The Sheraton Hotel, Edinburgh at 2pm on Saturday 18th August.

Kate Modern

The man behind YouTube star Lonelygirl15, Miles Beckett, has created another online character, Kate Modern, for social networking site Bebo.

If you're not a member of Bebo, you can see the videos on YouTube.

In Media Guardian, Kate Bulkley talks to Bebo's Joanna Shields about why she believes online drama has so much potential to reach younger audiences.

Shields ... saw the potential for integrating advertisers and brands from the outset. When she was developing Kate Modern, Shields took both Beckett, 29, and co-creator Greg Goodfried, 28, to advertiser pitches, explaining that they would write specific products and brands into the plot. It worked: Procter & Gamble (Gillette, Tampax and Pantene), MSN, Orange Mobile, Paramount and Disney/Buena Vista paid £250,000 each for six months of name-checking in Kate Modern.

Beckett admits that writing a plot line involving Tampax was the "most challenging" but says the result is "pretty creative" and that viewers will be amazed at how seamless it is. "The production team in London is working on a weekly and sometimes daily basis with the brands and the brands have been really open," he says. "They don't have veto power, but I haven't run into many problems, I guess because they mostly like the stuff I'm doing."

Adapting Atonement

On The Guardian Film Blog, Christopher Hampton explains how he went about adapting Ian McEwan's novel Atonement for the big screen.

In the end I think we managed to stay true to McEwan's original vision. If anything, I tend to get fired for being too faithful to the novels that I adapt. So I'm in the camp that says that you should choose books that you love and then honour them. I learned this when I was starting out in the 1960s by reading Harold Pinter's screenplays. The better the book, the more faithful he was when adapting it.

There is an old maxim that says that it is easy to make a bad book into a good film, but that it's difficult to do the same with a good book. I'm very opposed to that argument; I don't see why it should be the case. What I would say is that a higher quality of book forces you to make a higher quality of film. That much is obvious; the rest is a mystery.

Atonement trailer

Truth and factual drama

The recent debate about standards in television has focused on false phone-ins and rigged reality shows. But, argues Jon Sen on the Broadcast Now Blog, the row also has big implications for factual drama.

During the current furore, drama has watched passively from the sidelines as docs and reality TV have wrung their hands over editorial truth. But to think drama is unaffected by events would be wrong. The makers of factual drama need to be the first to take stock of the changing climate.

Amazon sales rank addiction

In The New York Times, Lyndon Stambler looks at how authors get addicted to looking at their sales rank on Amazon.

It may seem obsessive, but every day — sometimes hourly — Aaron Shepard checks the Amazon.com sales rankings for his 12 self-published books. He even created a Web site, www.salesrankexpress.com, that lets authors check their Amazon rankings instantly.

“People want to know where their book stands, just for the thrill of that score,” says Mr. Shepard, whose top seller, “The Business of Writing for Children,” clocked in at 1,834th during one random check last week, and at 2,070th during another one. He says it sells 250 to 450 copies a month.

Mr. Shepard is not alone. Forget writer’s block — many authors put their manuscripts aside because they cannot stop checking their rankings.

Mark Rylance interview

In The Daily Telegraph, Jasper Rees talks to actor Mark Rylance about his debut as a playwright.

It may well be the least catchy title in theatrical history. Take a deep breath: The BIG Secret Live - "I Am Shakespeare" - Webcam Daytime Chat-Room Show.

"It was a much longer title," says debutant playwright Mark Rylance, "but I edited it down. It is big, it is a secret, it is live, it is on a webcam, it starts at daytime, it is a chatroom show. That is it, distilled." And it's also about Shakespeare.

ITV to focus on long-running drama

In another statement of intent regarding the channel's drama output, Michael Grade, Chairman of ITV, has said that improving the mid-week 9pm drama slot on ITV1 remains a key priority, reports Katie Allen for Media Guardian.

"I'm talking about series that run 12, 14, 15 weeks a year, every year for three, four or five years, that is where we have been weak," he said.

"Short series we are brilliant at, whether it's Commander or Wire in the Blood and so on, these are terrific series but they are not 16 weeks a year, that's where we are short and we are working very very hard on that. That will take some time to come through."

Freemantle launches comedy website

From Jessica Rogers for Broadcast Now:

Fremantle Media Enterprises has launched a comedy download website in a bid to make money out of classics such as George and Mildred and Love Thy Neighbour.

TVComedyClassics.com will be updated with content from Fremantle's archive on a regular basis. Visitors to the site will also have the opportunity to download additional content such as unseen episodes and interviews with talent.

Episodes of George And Mildred (written by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer), for example, can be downloaded for £0.99 each.

Ravenhill's play for each day

Playwright Mark Ravenhill has written a series of 20-minute plays to be read at the Edinburgh Festival, with three more to be written while the Festival is in progress. He explains how the commission came about, and how he's approaching it, in The Guardian.

What is emerging is a cycle of plays that I'm calling Shoot, Get Treasure, Repeat. Each 20-minute play is a stand-alone piece, but they are all in some way about the war on terror. Key images and phrases are repeated throughout the cycle. My aim was to create an epic out of a series of small encounters. It feels as if I'm getting there. The next few weeks in Edinburgh will be the test.

Animation writer website

For the Writers Guild of America, West, Elliot Feldman has produced a list of websites useful for animation writers.

The list includes (American) animation industry sites as well as personal sites by animation writers. (Top marks for style go to Jeffrey Scott.)

R.D. Wingfield 1928-2007

Novelist and radio dramatist, R.D. Wingfield, creator of the Inspector Frost series, has died at the age of 79.

There is an obituary in The Times and one by Mike Ripley in The Guardian.

Rodney was less than enthusiastic about the television adaptation of his work, though he always insisted: "I have nothing against David Jason as Frost at all, he just isn't my Frost." He liked Jason as a comedy actor in such vehicles as Only Fools and Horses, but felt that along with the choice of actor had gone a softening of the dark humour essential as a safety valve for policemen investigating horrendous cases.

While primetime television could accommodate exchanges such as this, with a doctor - "I'd guess from the obstruction in his throat that he probably choked on his own vomit"/ "Better than choking on someone else's vomit, I suppose" - the author regretted the loss of the tougher style of the books, as in this, addressed to a queasy young copper in A Touch of Frost: "Reminds me of the time when I was a bobby on the beat and I had to pull this stiff out of the canal. He'd been dead a bloody long time but had only just popped up to the surface. I grabbed his arms to pull him out and his bloody arms came off. I was left holding the damn things while he sank to the bottom again."

Poetry, Style and Verse

Speakers have been confirmed for the WGGB Poetry Style and Verse event on Tuesday, 4th September 2007.

The evening will be chaired by Guild member and poet Alan Brownjohn. A regular broadcaster, reviewer and contributor to journals including the Times Literary Supplement, Encounter and the Sunday Times, Alan was poetry critic for the New Statesman and was Chairman of the Poetry Society between 1982 and 1988. He has also served on the Arts Council literature panel, was a Labour councillor and a candidate for Parliament. His first collection of poetry, The Railings, was published in 1961. Alan’s most recent collection of poetry is The Men Around Her Bed (2004). A Collected Poems was published in 2006.

The other panellists will include, in alphabetical order:

Guild member, Leo Aylen has had three solo shows devoted to him as poet-performer on American nationwide TV (CBS), eight collections of poetry published, the latest Dancing the Impossible: New & Selected Poems; also published in about 100 anthologies. For more information about Leo, please go to: www.leoaylen.com

Poet, Jonzi D has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam and Channel 4's Faking It. He has worked with numerous artists including The Roots, Steve Williamson, Mannafest, MC Mell 'O' and toured with Gangstar. He also runs Jonzi D productions, an associate company of Sadlers Wells. For more information please go to: www.jonzi-d.co.uk

Guild member, David Morgan has travelled all over the northern hemisphere as a street musician and performance poet. He has won numerous slam poetry competitions, including the London Slam Championship, the UK Champions Slam and was voted the UK's best slam performer of 2004 by the 4,000 members of the Farrago Slam Poetry list.

Poet, OneNess was nominated for Best Black female poet of 2005 by Black Women in the Arts and was hailed in the New Nation Newspaper as being one of the top 5 poets of 2005. OneNess has appeared on BBC Radio 4 series Bespoken Word. As a member of London’s finest poetry collective the ‘Best Kept Secret’, OneNess became the first person out side of the USA to win a prize at The Toronto International Poetry Slam, whilst the collective were on tour in Canada. She was awarded third place.

Dr Peter Sansom, will join the panel on behalf of Bloodaxe books. Peter is author of Bloodaxe's handbook Writing Poems. He is a Carcanet poet, director of the Poetry Business and editor of The North and Smith/Doorstop Books in Huddersfield. Bloodaxe books is an independent literary publishing house, founded in Newcastle in 1978 by Neil Astley joined in 1982 by Chairman Simon Thirsk. For more information about Bloodaxe Publishers go to: www.bloodaxebooks.com/about.asp or for further info on the Poetry Business go to: www.poetrybusiness.co.uk

The event will be held at the Writers’ Guild Centre on Tuesday, 4th September 2007 from 7pm – 9:30pm. If you want to find out more about the different styles of poetry and are interested in becoming part of the poetry scene then come along. Poetry, Style and Verse will help demystify the new, emerging as well as traditional poetry forms. The evening will involve a panel discussion which will be followed by individual performances from the panel members.

Tickets will cost £5 for Guild members and £7.50 for non-members. Please join us afterwards for a complimentary glass of wine and a chance to mingle with fellow guests.

Places are limited so please book in advance If you would like to attend this exciting poetry event please send a cheque payable to the Writers' Guild, to ‘Poetry Event ’, Writers' Guild of Great Britain, 15-17 Britannia Street, London, WC1X 9JN

Sally Wainwright sued over Bonkers

From Matthew Hemley in The Stage:

At Home with the Braithwaites writer Sally Wainwright is being sued over claims she copied an existing stage play to create ITV1 series Bonkers.

The claim has been made by playwright Tricia Walsh-Smith, who alleges the characterisations, premise and title of the ITV1 series were copied from a stage play she wrote in 1987...

...The claims have been denied by ITV, Wainwright and Lime Pictures, which made the television production.

Crisis in the West End

In The Guardian, Michael Billington says the time has come for a revolution in the way West End theatres are run.

What the West End needs is a radical makeover, even a minor revolution, in the interests of both quality and variety. I'd like to see Sunday openings, lottery money for the rotting fabric, more imaginative use of the buildings themselves: in particular, pre-show talks, jazz and poetry recitals, stand-up comics in the dead hours before the 7.30pm opening. If the commercial theatre can't beat the subsidised sector, it should, in effect, join it: not only by adopting its practices but by employing its personnel. In the old days, the West End theatre relied on actor-managers to give it body and substance. Now what it needs are director-managers, or even dramatist-impresarios, of proven vision. Otherwise it is destined to become little more than a gaudy musical fairground based on sinking land and of scant relevance to the art of theatre or to life.

Teen poetry

In The Independent, Bill Hicks reports from the London Teenage Poetry Slam.

It's a Saturday afternoon, and seven teenagers take the stage of the Stratford Circus in east London. They're handed a trophy, and the crowd goes wild, stamping and chanting, "Lam-mas! Lam-mas!"

This is not a basketball match, but the finals of the London Teenage Poetry Slam, and these pupils from The Lammas School in Leyton have just won a cup for the quality of their poetry. Specifically, for writing and performing blistering poems about living in London E10, and their family roots in Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, Turkey – and Waltham Forest.

BT scraps mobile TV

On Blogcast, Greg Brooks argues that BT's decision to scrap its wholesale mobile TV service BT Movio has highlighted some of the massive problems facing the mobile TV industry.

Mobile TV has tumbled a long way after being heralded as the future of TV. Predictions for global subscribers stand at 155.6m by the end of 2012, with 42.7m subscribers within five years in Europe, according to Datamonitor. But the lack of interest in BT Movio seems to contradict this prophecy.

Writing The Simpsons Movie

The Simpsons Movie Trailer

In The L.A.Times, Geoff Boucher meets some of the men who wrote The Simpsons Movie, including James L. Brooks.

"... with the movie we started with the old gang of writers and we kept on shifting our personalities and new people would come in.... Some of us were always at the table no matter what and it was a very long period of time. A lot of it was to shake loose of what everyone was saying about the show" — here he put on the voice of a haughty and wheezy critic — 'This show, after all these years....' The main thing is we wanted to have fun. And make a movie we could be proud of."

Ingmar Bergman 1918-2007

Ingmar Bergman, who has died at the age of 89, wasn't just a great film director, he was also a great screenwriter. Indeed, his first success came with the script for the 1944 film Hets (Frenzy), directed by Alf Sjöberg and a major prizewinner at the Cannes Film Festival in 1946.

In addition to writing the screenplays for most of the films he directed, including classics such as Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal, he also wrote for other directors. The Best Intentions, screenplay by Bergman and directed by Bille August, won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1992.

There are obituaries for Bergman in all the major newspapers and film sites. The Guardian, has a whole section devoted to him, including tributes, archive articles and an obituary by Brian Baxter.

His films had a grim obsession with physical confrontation (he once remarked that he would like to have made a film entirely in close-up) made possible by his collaborations with two great cameramen and his team of skilled performers, and Bergman literally astonished people with his willingness to recognise cruelty, death and above all the torment of doubt.

TV eclipses film at Comic-Con

In The Hollywood Reporter, Borys Kit reports that at Comic-Con in Los Angeles, TV shows were creating the biggest buzz.

Thanks to NBC's "Heroes" presentation, the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con International, which took place this weekend, will be remembered as the Con at which TV shows eclipsed feature films.

There's more on Comic-Con on the Risky Biz blog, including news of a favourable reaction to the premiere of NBC's Bionic Woman pilot.

Exec produced by "Battlestar Galactica's" David Eick, the "Bionic Woman" reboot is similar to that show in its darker take on a slightly campy genre show from the 1970s.

Bionic Woman preview

The future of the Absurd

As the Donmar Warehouse prepares to open a new season of Absurdist plays, in The Times, Benedict Nightingale asks whether the movement associated with Eugene Ionesco and N.F. Simpson has a future.

Whether or not you agree with those Absurdists who think the Universe void, you must admire the humour with which they (Ionesco again) “exteriorise anxiety and project visible images of fear, regret, remorse, alienation”. You can quarrel with the content while relishing the form. Conventional plot, narrative logic and characterisation are mostly missing. Instead, you get dream, nightmare, hiccups from the subconscious, such as heads protruding from funeral urns (Beckett’s Play) or a giant corpse bursting into a living room (Ionesco’s Amedee).

Holiday

This blog is taking a short holiday. See you in a week or so.

In defence of publishers

Following the news that 18 publishers were, apparently, unable to recognise Jane Austen's work, in The Independent, Andrew Franklin, managing director of Profile Books, defends his trade.

If an editor commissions 20 titles a year, which is probably about average, they are being asked to consider around 500 manuscripts a year. That is an awful lot of words. No one can be surprised to learn that not every manuscript gets the careful attention it deserves. It should not come as a shock that many manuscripts are returned unread to the sender. We need to clear our desks in order to look after the authors whom we do sign up, and the unsolicited manuscripts are often a chore to be dealt with at the end of the day by an overworked intern.

Mad Men - Matthew Weiner

Mad Men preview

In The New York Times, Jacques Steinberg talks to former Sopranos writer-producer, Matthew Weiner, about his new series, Mad Men which premiered on American cable station AMC last night.

Though nobody is killed, at least early on, Mr. Weiner’s lead character, an archetypal advertising man named Don Draper, is surrounded by a supporting staff of misogynistic executives who engage in enough lying, backbiting, drinking and sexual shenanigans during the industry’s golden age to rival the bad behavior of the crew at the Bada Bing club.

There is also a disproportionate amount of spirited conversation in office hallways in the series’s initial episodes — as if “The West Wing” had been restaged in a haze of cigarette smoke, among neat rows of desks topped with typewriters — though not necessarily a lot of action, beyond a low-speed car crash and some overt flirting.

“Talking can be heroic,” Mr. Weiner said in an interview here on the studio set serving as Mr. Draper’s living room, arrayed with linen drapes, needlepoint pillows and copies of Flair, the popular ’50s magazine. “I loved ‘The Sopranos.’ But not every problem can be solved by killing someone. When you take that out of the mix, talking is kind of what you have left, although a lot of problems on this show are solved by sleeping with people.”

Some reviews: from L.A. Weekly and Variety.

Coelho's pitch to his readers

Best-selling novelist Paulo Coelho is inviting people to make films based on different the different narrative perspectives in his book The Experimental Witch and post them to YouTube.

The makers of the best films will win €3,000, but won't retain any rights over their film. The closing date for entries is 19 March 2008.

Adapting Harry Potter

For the Writers Guild of America West, Dylan Callaghan talks to Michael Goldenberg about adapting J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix for the film that opens in the UK tomorrow.

Order of the Phoenix is not only darker and more adult, but, despite a good amount of action, it's loaded with drama. If you were forced to narrow it down, what was the most crucial element of this story for you?

To me it was always a coming-of-age story, in the sense that it was about Harry's journey from seeing the world with a child's black-and-white simplicity to a more nuanced, complicated world view. The key scenes that jumped out to me in the book, where Harry sees [in a mind reading exercise with Snape] that his father was not the idealized character he thought he was. That's that striking loss-of-innocence moment where you realize your parent is just a flawed human being. And then he learns that Dumbledore has made a huge strategic mistake later... So life is more complicated than you think it is when you're a kid and that you're much more complicated than you thought you were.

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix Trailer

ITV expands drama department

From Tara Conlon in Media Guardian:

ITV has created a new post of drama commissioning executive and appointed World Productions executive Victoria Fea to fill the role.

The move expands the drama department, which is directed by Laura Mackie.

Ms Fea will work with the department controller, Sally Haynes, and the head of continuing drama, Corinne Hollingworth, to commission and develop groundbreaking shows.

Elsewhere, as Matthew Hemley reports in The Stage, Tony Jordan’s Red Planet Pictures has appointed producer Claire Phillips as its first senior drama executive.

Phillips, whose credits include Waterloo Road and Footballers’ Wives, will be responsible for producing the company’s second series of HolbyBlue, as well as overseeing the production house’s drama development slate. She will executive produce future commissions the company receives.

Brian Finch 1936 - 2007

Screenwriter Brian Finch has died at the age of 70. There are obituaries in The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, and The Guardian.

Brian Finch wrote 151 episodes of Coronation Street, as well as contributing to other series including All Creatures Great And Small and Heartbeat. Perhaps his best known work of recent years was his adaptation of Michelle Magorian's Goodnight Mr Tom (1999), starring John Thaw.

The great poetry binge

In The Guardian, Sarah Crown explains how being a judge for the Forward Poetry Prize changed the way she reads.

I found that, by immersing myself in poetry, I read with far greater incisiveness and clarity. I no longer needed to make the gear shift that is generally required when you pick up a volume of poetry after reading prose; my ear was attuned to poetry's rhythms, and my eye - accustomed to the sight of poetry on the page - became far quicker at detecting themes, echoes and linguistic flourishes (reading the collections back to back also, of course, allowed me to arrive at qualitative judgements with far greater speed and conviction). As the days passed and the pile of "read" volumes grew taller, I also became increasingly aware of what a rare privilege it was to read a year's worth of poetry - I felt as if I was being given an insight into the country's collective conscious. Words resurfaced from collection to collection - caul, clarity, fetch - and themes emerged, of which the most prevalent was water: poets from every part of the British Isles - and beyond - turned again and again to rain, rivers, seas and floods.

The shortlist for the 2007 Forward Poetry Prize was announced yesterday.

Mark Freeland to head BBC Comedy

From the BBC Press Office:

Mark Freeland is to take up one of the key creative roles in the BBC...when he returns to the BBC as its newly appointed Head of Comedy for Vision Studios.

Mark joins from Hartswood Films and takes up his post in September, bringing with him over 20 years of experience in TV and comedy. He will be in charge of in-house comedy production across all four television networks as well as radio comedy and entertainment, working with some of Britain's most acclaimed producers, writers and performers.

Between 2002 and 2005, Mark was Head of Comedy Commissioning at the BBC, and responsible for commissioning, executive producing and developing comedy across the four BBC channels – working closely with in-house and independent production teams.

The appointment follows the departure of Jon Plowman, who is leaving after 27 years at the Corporation.

Guild website

We're currently experiencing some technical problems with the Guild website. We're working on fixing it as soon as possible.

Update: It's now fixed and working fine.