Guild office email

Following recent technical problems, the Guild's offiice email will be restored by the end of Friday 19th Jan.

Please resend any messages sent earlier in the week.

BBC licence fee settlement

As has been widely reported, the government has announced the level of licence fee funding for the BBC until 2012.

The level will increase, but not by as much as the BBC wants. The Guild has been a strong supporter of the continuation of the licence fee.

BAC funding threat

Battersea Arts Centre (BAC), home to some of the UK's most innovative theatre practice and new writing in recent years, is threatened with closure reports Lyn Gardner on The Guardian Theatre Blog.

Last week BAC's local council, Tory-governed Wandsworth, gave notice that from April 1 it intends to cut BAC's annual grant from £100,000 to zero and simultaneously start charging a commercial rent for the Lavender Hill building of more than £270,000 per annum. If this was to go ahead, BAC could not survive and would have to close.

This would be a tragedy for the people of Wandsworth, whose cultural lives would be so much poorer. It would also be a tragedy for British theatre because it would inflict huge damage on the theatre ecology. The local children and companies watching and working in Wandsworth today should be working at the National and on international stages tomorrow. Without BAC that won't happen.

When will government, both local and national, wake up to the fact that giving money to the arts is not subsidy, but investment - investment which not only has a financial return, but which also brings much wider benefits and improvements to people's lives? The health of the country demands that we invest in the imagination as well as in hospitals.

Update: more bad news on theatre funding.

On January 31 this year Chester Gateway closed its doors after 38 years as a professional producing theatre. At the end of this week (January 20), Leicester's Haymarket Theatre will follow.

The closures will leave Leicester without a professional theatre until 2008, and there is no alternative venue envisaged for Chester until 2010 at the earliest.

Bigot Brother

In a guest post for this blog, Gail Renard, Chair of the Guild's TV Committee, argues that Celebrity Big Brother has proved to be a reality show too far.

Okay so if the Ku Klux Klan burn a cross on your lawn and lynch your mother and you don’t actually use the phrase, “Stop that you racist!”; it ceases to be a racist act?

Well, that’s been Channel 4’s inestimable defence in the whole Big Brother debacle. I think they’re confusing it with another well-known series’ catchphrase, “I’m A Crucified Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.” Thank goodness the respected Bollywood film star Shilpa Shetty (pictured, above) finally used the “r” word because it seems that’s what it takes for a TV company to do their moral and legal duty.

As writers have been discussing in pubs for ages, reality shows have already done great damage to television. They are largely cheap-to-produce TV fodder, which don’t use commissioned scripts or writers. These series devour what little writing work is available and devalue our industry.

On the plus side, TV companies have recently sussed that these reality shows bring in no repeats or overseas sales. A television company’s library is one of their greatest assets. I look forward to the companies explaining that to their shareholders and board.

It was inevitable that to maintain and gain ratings that reality shows would have to become more bear baiting and extreme. It’s only because the Christians and the Lions weren’t available (panto season you know) that we ended up with Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty. It’s already become an international incident.

Channel 4, Endemol, Ofcom and the powers-that-be have shamefully let the kicking continue which, to me, makes them as morally culpable as any bullies or racists. How long before the first sniper, on a grassy knoll in Elstree, waits for a celeb to be evicted by Davina and we have our first Celebrity Shooting?

Now there’s an idea for a new series. I’ll get onto my agent at once.

Iris Yamashita - Letters From Iwo Jima

Ken Watanabe in Letters From Iwo Jima, screenplay by Iris Yamashita, directed by Clint Eastwood (Photo: © Warner Bros. Pictures 2006).

When Clint Eastwood was researching his film about Iwo Jima, Flags Of Our Fathers, he came across letters from the Japanese commander during the American assault on the island and wanted to use them as the basis for a companion film, explains Jay A. Fernandez in the LA Times.

Eastwood brought the project to his best picture-winning "Million Dollar Baby" screenwriter, Paul Haggis, who was too buried in post-production on "Crash" to write it but who took it upon himself to find another screenwriter. Yamashita's agent at Creative Artists Agency got wind of the open assignment and sent Haggis (also a CAA client) some of her scripts.

"They were very different, very well researched and had a distinct sense of time and place," Haggis says via e-mail from New Mexico, where he's shooting his follow up to "Crash," "In the Valley of Elah," a drama about the suspicious disappearance of an Iraq war soldier.

At the time, Yamashita, who declines to reveal her age, was working full time as a Web programmer and had yet to sell a spec or get a paid assignment. But during their second meeting, Haggis suddenly decided that she was right for the gig and told Yamashita, "OK, now you can quit your job."

When a sitcom sings

It's probably best to avoid in spec scripts, but 'the musical episode' has a long history in American sitcoms. As Edward Wyatt reports in the New York Times, it can be the sign of creativity flagging but for hospital sitcom Scrubs, it seems to have energised the show.

“Most comedy writers are tall, jocky types,” said Bill Lawrence, the creator of “Scrubs.” “But they don’t like being stuck in the comedy closet. Secretly they have arguments about Sondheim.”

Elsewhere in the New York Times, the episode is reviewed by Ginia Bellafante.

The episode revolves around the arrival of a female patient at Sacred Heart who imagines that everyone around her is not speaking but singing. For the entire show, all heard through her ears, the hospital staff converses in show tunes created by the songwriters of “Avenue Q,” Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. (The gambit produces moments like this: “Hello I’m Dr. Kelso!/I’m delighted that you came!/The doctors said you fainted and you don’t know who to blame!” Or: “We’re running a test that’s a waste of our time!/But at least she’ll accept that she’s medically fine!”)

Donald Faison (left) and Zach Braff in Scrubs, created by Bill Lawrence.

Joost: the future of TV?

In Wired magazine, Spencer Reiss discovers how Joost, a company from the men behind Kazaa and Skype, could be the future of TV.

The vision: universal TV, running on a hybrid P2P platform - millions of exquisitely networked PCs fortified with traditional video servers. Free to viewers who download the player app. Friendly to content owners, thanks to industrial-strength encryption. Delightful to advertisers, adding pinpoint targeting to their all-time favorite medium. Everyone's a winner!

Illustration for Wired by Paul Willoughby

Has fiction lost its power?

In The Times, Rod Liddle explains why he no longer reads novels.

[Fiction] has become so broad, so general, so eager to please, so self-satisfied, so anxious to make itself relevant and attuned to the times, so shamelessly — and again, forgive me, I can think of no better phrase — middlebrow. In other words, exactly like journalism, except with some made-up names. And we have journalists for journalism, don’t we? Literary fiction, it seemed to me, had stopped doing what literary fiction does best: getting beneath the skin of a subject, to the viscera, without even always intending to so do. It had started being like every other form of mass entertainment, aiming wide and broad, hoping to alienate nobody.

Michelle Buck to leave ITV

ITV Productions drama controller Michele Buck is to leave the company, prompting a restructure of its London drama operations.

Ms Buck is expected to join her former ITV colleague Damien Timmer's new independent production company, Mammoth Screen.

Following her departure, the ITV Productions director, John Whiston, has decided to merge the London drama department with the comedy and drama unit run by Andy Harries.

Mr Whiston will be hiring a new ITV Productions London drama controller to run the merged departments.

Mr Harries will not be renewing his ITV contract when it ends in December and is not expected to continue as head of an in-house production department.

More from Leigh Holmwood in Media Guardian (free registration required).

Guild office email problems

Due to technical problems the Guild's email will be down for the next few days. If you need to contact the office please be patient, since the phone lines are likely to be very busy.

Greg Garcia interview

In Script Magazine (pdf file), Debra L. Eckerling talks to My Name Is Earl creator, Greg Garcia.

Garcia was on vacation with his wife’s family in North Carolina when he came up with the idea for My Name is Earl.

“I didn’t really start with anything in particular, other than the fact that I believe in karma, I like stories about people starting fresh later in life, and I’ve always been attracted to the world of trailer parks. So, I guess I took those three things and came up with this idea.”

Garcia pitched the idea to Fox, and they turned it down. He took two weeks to write the pilot anyway. Fox and the rest of the networks turned Earl down, so it sat on a shelf for a year and a half.

“Then I was having lunch with NBC, and they mentioned they had read Earl and wanted to do a show with me,” Garcia explains. “I was like, ‘Let’s just do that show.’ They thought about it and said, ‘Yeah. Why not? Let’s give it a shot.’”

Find out more about Script Magazine.

Ethan Suplee in My Name Is Earl, written by Greg Garcia.

Nell Leyshon interview

In The Telegraph, Charles Spencer talks to playwright and novelist Nell Leyshon about her burgeoning career.

It wasn't until after the birth of her second son 12 years ago that Leyshon started to write seriously. "I just thought, right, I'm going to write a novel. So I literally sat my six-month baby on my lap and wrote one. I got to the end of it, and thought, it's not good enough. So I wrote another one. And that was terrible. And then I did another one. And that wasn't good enough either." So with reckless pluck, she burnt them in her vegetable patch. "Dom kept asking me if this was what I wanted to do, and I said yes, it felt so good to get rid of it all."

Leyshon's new play, Comfort Me with Apples, is at Hampstead Theatre, from Jan 18-27, then touring until March 31. Her adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Don't Look Now is at Sheffield Lyceum from Feb 22-March 10, before transferring to the Lyric Hammersmith.

Golden Globe for Peter Morgan

Screenwriter and playwright Peter Morgan has won a prestigious Golden Globe for Best Screenplay for his script for The Queen. The award puts him in pole position for both the BAFTAs and the Oscars in the coming months.

Elizabeth I, written by Nigel Williams, won the Golden Globe for Best mini-series or film made for TV.

The Hollywood Standard

If you've got script formatting concerns (and want to make it in LA), screenwriter and blogger John August has a new book to recommend, and a few points to clarify.

Has radio comedy had its last laugh?

"The problem is that Radio 4 hasn't developed a really huge zeitgeisty show since Little Britain," says radio critic Will Hogkinson. "That's what Radio 4 is all about. I love shows like Ed Reardon's Week, but it could have been on air at any time in the past 10 years. They're still struggling to find that great of-the-moment comedy troupe."

"There's a very cosy, middle class, middle-aged feel to a lot of what's on air at the moment," says Vanessa Haynes, who develops comedy for production companies such as Celador. "Talent who get a show on Radio 4 tend to soften around the edges a bit."

Some argue that it is all about the dosh - "broadcast comedy would suffer if Radio 4 went away," says one agent, "but it pays so little that it's impossible for a writer or performer to focus without another income stream, so I see it as an intermediary level rather than an end in itself." Others think the industry has changed and Radio 4's role is unclear.

More from Stephen Armstrong in Media Guardian (free registration required).

Jacqueline Wilson at the Writers' Guild Centre

Date: Tuesday 6 February 2007, 6.30 - 8pm

Venue: the Writers' Guild Centre, 15 Britannia Street, London WC1X 9JN

Children’s Laureate Jacqueline Wilson will give a talk at the Writers’ Guild Centre on the evening of Tuesday 6 February from 6.30pm – 8pm. The author of the popular Tracy Beaker series will discuss her experiences of working as a children’s writer.

Free refreshments will be provided before and after the event along with the opportunity to mingle with fellow guests.

Tickets for this event are £10 for Writers' Guild members. Tickets for non-members will be £20 but priority will be given to members of the Writers' Guild on this occasion. Tickets must be purchased in advance. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

To book your place, please contact Moe Owoborode at moe@writersguild.org.uk or on 020 7833 0777. Cheques should be sent to the Writers' Guild, 15 Britannia Street, London WC1X 9JN and made payable to the Writers' Guild of Great Britain.

Rehearsed reading: Leaving

You're invited to attend the first rehearsed reading at the new Writers’ Guild Centre. It will take place next Wednesday, 17th January at 8.00 pm (please note: not 7.00 pm as previously advertised).

The play is called Leaving, a comedy by Guild member Stanley Price. It tells the story of Carol who, after 27 frustrating years, finally walks out on Brian, a trumpeter in a symphony orchestra. Brian tries, rather loudly, to win her back….

Come along and enjoy the show and join us for a glass of wine afterwards and mingle with the cast and other members of Equity and the Writers’ Guild. We hope that rehearsed readings will become a regular event at the Writers’ Guild Centre and that members will be encouraged to put on their own shows right here.

Tickets: £6 (members of the Writers’ Guild and Equity), others £8.

To book a ticket please contact Anne Hogben 020 7833 0777 ext 201 or email anne@writersguild.org.uk.

BAFTA nominations

The nominations have been announced for the 2007 BAFTA Film Awards. They include:

Best original screenplay

• Guillermo Arriaga - Babel
• Michael Arndt - Little Miss Sunshine
• Guillermo del Toro - Pan's Labryinth
• Peter Morgan - The Queen
• Paul Greengrass - United 93

Best adapted screenplay

• Neal Purvis/Robert Wade/Paul Haggis - Casino Royale
• William Monahan - The Departed
• Aline Brosh McKenna - The Devil Wears Prada
• Peter Morgan/Jeremy Brock - The Last King Of Scotland
• Patrick Marber - Notes On A Scandal

The awards will be presented at a ceremony in London on 11 February.

Gwyneth Hughes interview

After two high profile true-life dramas for ITV (Cherished and Mysterious Creatures) Gywneth Hughes is one of the hottest TV drama writers around. Her new five part serial for BBC and HBO, Five Days, which starts in the UK on 23 January, looks set to confirm her status. I spoke to her earlier this week about Five Days and how her background as a documentary maker has informed her writing.

Can you describe your approach to writing an original story? Do you plot it all out first?

I don’t plot it out at all. I’m not sure how unusual that is but I do very little storylining. I have an idea about the story and an almost musical sense of what key it’s in and what the emotional temperature will be. But when I wrote the first episode of Five Days I had no idea what would happen in the subsequent four. I can do storylining – I had to when I wrote on The Bill – but I invariably throw it out once I start writing so there’s not much point. Stephen King talks about writing being almost like archaeology, where it feels as though you’re excavating a story that already exists, and that’s how it seems to me.

Five Days: written by Gwyneth Hughes, directed by Otto Bathurst and Simon Curtis.

Bernie Corbett: The year ahead

On the Writers' Guild website, General Secretary Bernie Corbett looks at work the Guild will be tackling in 2007.

The most important upcoming work is the renegotiation of the main BBC TV Drama Agreement. The livelihoods of many Guild members are dependent on the minimum rates and terms in this document and, with digital content and new media to be included, the negotiations will be more significant than ever.