Kevin, Kevin, Kevin...

(copyright BBC)

As it says on the BBC Doctors Website, "Kevin's dream date turns into a nightmare when he realises that he has inadvertently invited two girls. Will he have the courage to do the right thing, or will his avoidance of the truth get him into even greater trouble?"

Just about tells you the whole plot.

But what it doesn't say, and what's much more exciting, is that it's got Alice in it. You know...

(copyright BBC)

Alice. Off Casualty. AKA Sam Grey.

Actually, I have to say that I wasn't at all sure about this episode when I handed it in. But I love it. Sometimes even the dodgiest scripts can sparkle when the actors and crew really pull out the stops. Which I think they do. Kevin and Jack are great, but there's a truly wonderful guest cast - Sam Grey, Richard Hurst, Lorna Want and, especially, Daisy Aitkens - and a great director in the person of Richard Signy.

Post Mortem

Well, I watched it over the weekend...

And I enjoyed it.

And I'm full of admiration for Mr Paul Logue, who had the unenviable job of re-writing the script in about a week (or maybe two). He didn't even have the freedom of deciding what stories he wanted to tell. We were so close to shooting that the prosthetics were already made and, I suspect, the guest actors already cast. So, he had to have one story about an old woman and her two daughters involving a drug overdose, and another about two men and a woman during which one man gets his foot crushed/amputated and the other gets compartment syndrome and requires a fasciotomy. He also used my 'fish-hook in thumb' patient for Toby.

He also had all the same serial as me - Jordan arriving, Adam being pissed off, Ruth getting hot under the collar, Toby feeling threatened, Zoe off to the gynaecologist, Jeff and Dixie seeing the counsellor, Abs attending his mate's post mortem, and Charlie dealing with Abs.

So the skeleton of his episode had to be much the same as mine. But the flesh he put on those bones was very different.

Of course, there's a bit of me that wished he'd used more of my material. But he had his own episode to write, so I completely understand that he didn't want to start messing around cutting and pasting.

There's an even bigger part of me that wishes they'd just gone with my draft.

But these things happen. It's done and dusted. I have learned a huge amount in the process and next time, hopefully, things will be different.

So, thanks, Paul, for saving my bacon.

And here's to next time!

Casualty - 27 September 2008

This weekend there's an episode of Casualty broadcast on the Beeb. It's the episode that I spent so long trying to get right.

I'm not sure I really want to watch it. It will have my name on it (I think), together with someone else's (I think). But, to be brutally honest, the someone else did most of the hard work (OK, I worked pretty hard on it too, but to very little effect!).

I think I might just watch it and play "spot the Campbell dialogue". I might have to watch very closely. I might even be on a hiding to nothing!

The episode title's mine, though. So that's at least two words of my script that made the cut!

Sharps and Stuff

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being invited into the hidden depths of Kent to meet up with the ten talented individuals who won the BBC's recent Sharps initiative. They're on their week-long residential course learning about all things teledramatic. Ceri Meyrick was giving a presentation on continuing drama and the Academy, and I got wheeled out as "and here's one we made earlier."

I'm afraid I didn't get a chance to read any of their work, but all you disappointed Sharps-applicants out there can take some small comfort from the thought that you were beaten by some very nice people.


Back in Walford, my script is about to turn "white", which means that the whole team is about to get their hands on my attempts at half an hour of life on The Square. They start shooting it in a fortnight's time and it hits the screen on 27 October. Put it in your diary.

... along with 14 January, which is the transmission date for my next Doctors ep - "Widow-To-Be". This was the script I wrote before Christmas as part of the Academy training. I hadn't looked at it since then, so it was a fairly surreal exercise last week to get notes on it from my script editor, who actually seemed to know the text better than I did.


Holby next. I have a commissioning meeting on 1 September. After my Casualty experience, I confess that I'm a bit nervous. But EastEnders went well, so I'm not totally crap. If anyone has any interesting hospital experiences that might segue nicely into an episode of Holby City, please drop me a line.

Casualty Casualty

Regular readers will have noticed that I haven't been my usual chatty self when it comes to the Casualty commission.

Well, that's because it's been a bit of a nightmare! That's not to say it hasn't been a lot of fun too. But I have struggled to find my Casualty feet. It's been a big step up from half hour, stand-alone episodes of Doctors to fifty minutes of serial and guest stories involving complex medical stuff.

Anyway, after three and a half months of constant effort, the team down in Bristol finally decided that I needed some help. With less than five weeks to go before shooting starts, they still weren't happy with the script, so they have taken the understandable decision to hand it over to one of their more experienced core writers to get it up to scratch in time.

So, how do I feel about that?

Hmm. Obviously, I am terribly disappointed that my first attempt to write for this market has not been an outstanding success. And nobody likes to be rewritten (in fact, it's never happened to me before).

But, I have learnt so much in the last three and half months. And the team in Bristol have been really supportive. I don't blame them for this decision (I'm just surprised they didn't make it sooner!). And the silver lining is that they have invited me back to try again at the end of the year.

Something will be broadcast on 20 September. It will probably have my name on it. It might have someone else's name as well. It might, or might not, bear some resemblance to some of the stuff I've been writing all these months. We shall have to wait and see.

In the meantime, I suddenly have some free time. If only the weather hadn't turned, I could have been out there mowing the lawn and doing some weeding.

It has been a difficult time. Any job is hard when you know you're not delivering what the boss wants. But, for better or for worse, it is now over.

Roll on EastEnders. I have a commissioning meeting sometime early next month.

Academy Question

James popped by and asked a question about the Academy workload and whether there was time to do anything else. I thought a few of you folks thinking of applying might be interested, so here goes...


All of us found last year that the workload during the initial 13 weeks of lectures leading up to Christmas was really heavy. Certainly it used up most of my available time. In addition to the lectures themselves we had a lot of written homework exercises. And we wrote four half hour dramas - an adaptation of a fairy tale, two dry runs at a Doctors episode and the real thing.

After Christmas we all had to wait different amounts of time before getting our first commissions. I had until the beginning of February. And there will be gaps over the course of the year between assignments. So, yes, there is time to do other stuff and/or earn some money, so long as you're flexible about dates.

So far, I've just done Casualty. It hasn't been an easy ride for me, but I have worked on it almost solidly for over three months now with hardly a day off. A better writer, or one who adapts more easily and quickly to the Casualty house style, wouldn't have found the workload so hard, but, even so, it's quite a lot of work with some tight deadlines. James Moran apart, I think most people would struggle to do any more than get the episode done. It might be different on EastEnders or Holby City, but I doubt it.

But, if you can find the time to write other stuff, then the Beeb don't frown upon it (so long as it doesn't prevent you completing your work with the Academy). The only thing to note is that there's a little bit in your contract which says that the Beeb have a first refusal on anything you write during your extended "year" in the Academy.

So, there you go, James. hope it doesn't put you off applying.

Deadline is this Monday, I believe.

Casualty Update

Haven't posted for a while. You know what that means!

But, actually, things begin to look up. A bit.

I've just had notes back on my second draft (which was set in a hospital, but, otherwise, had almost nothing in common with the first draft). Promisingly, it looks as though the third draft might not need to be utterly, completely, totally different from its predecessor. Still a lot of changes required, of course, but not a complete reinvention.

I'd call that progress!

My Very Own Casualty - nearly

OK. Been a bit quiet here on Scriptuality recently. Let's just say that when I'm doing really well I like to crow about it. Well, why not?

So, a silent Blog speaks volumes. Casualty is proving a tough nut to crack.


But enough of that. Let me tell you about what happened to me today (because a bit of procrastination never did anyone any harm).

I had a Casualty script meeting here in Bromley because my lovely script editor kindly agreed to come here instead of me going all the way down to Bristol again. Twenty minutes after our intriguing discussions about the need for a completely new B story came to a conclusion, I was walking home through the leafy suburban streets of Bromley when I heard an enormous bang. Actually, make that an enormous BANG ! ! !

I looked up to see a car cartwheeling down the middle of the street. The underside was facing me - you know, the bit that's meant to be right down there near the road. It was vertical. And bouncing. And sort of twisting. And coming in my direction.

Well, OK, maybe not directly my direction. And I could see that the extra energy it had got from bouncing off that tree was beginning to run out. It was never going to get as far as me. Probably. Right before it fell, exhausted, back down onto what was left of its wheels, it kinked a tad to the right and ended up ten yards from me in the middle of the road, a write-off. The other car, also written off, was 30 yards ahead of me where the driver had been trying to pull out before she was hit.

Everyone was OK. Minor bruise for the cartwheeler, abrasions on face and arm from the airbag for the girl in the other car. But she was well shaken up. He was too, but he put on a good show. And there's me, first on the scene, running from one to the other checking them out, doing the reassuring bit while others called emergency services etc. We ended up with three fire engines, two ambulances and a police car. All very exciting.

For a brief moment I thought I had a brand new B story. But, truth to tell, it wouldn't have cut the mustard. Just like the rest of my stories.

Casualty progress report

I haven't blogged about this for a while, because it's been a bit frustrating.

It took me a long, long time to produce story proposals which the team down in Bristol were happy with. I pitched about ten stories altogether (or variations on stories) over a period of about a month, packaged in three different proposals for how to deal with my particular episode.

By the time we had all agreed on which two guest stories I would use (and how they would fit into the the overall structure and mesh with the ongoing serial elements), we were about three weeks behind schedule. And the thing about the Casualty schedule is that the end date doesn't change - they will be shooting this episode from the 14th to the 27th of June, and they will be broadcasting it on 20th September. So, three weeks behind is not a good place to be.

But we did finally agree, and I sat down to write the Treatment. It seemed to go quite well, and I sent it off just before Easter.

So, yesterday I went down to Bristol to discuss the medical aspects of the script with my ever so friendly and helpful Emergency Medicine Doc. And to find out what they thought of the Treatment.

The medicine was good - no major changes required to what I was proposing.

And the news on the Treatment was even better. I haven't got the detailed notes back yet, but they're all agreed that I can go straight to the first draft of the screenplay rather than produce another version of the treatment (which is the norm). This means that we are almost back on schedule. Or, rather, we will be if I can produce the script on time.

Better get on with it.

"To me!" "To you!" "To me!" "To you!"

Do you remember, a couple of posts back, how I pitched my ideas for Casualty and "passed".

Well, it was all an illusion. I'm back to the drawing board, looking for guest stories to go alongside the serial element already provided by the team down in Bristol.

It's not as easy as it sounds. Everyone's watched Casualty. You've all played the game - guess the victim. Who's going to get it in the neck, and with what nasty pointed piece of apparently innocent street furniture?

Of course, amongst us professionals (ahem) it's all more serious than that. We're looking for the human drama between the victim and those they love, live and work with. And we're looking for some kind of resonance with what's going on in the lives of our doctors, nurses and paramedics (without being too corny). The incident itself (the "stunt") is simply the thing which propels them into the story.

But it's the stunt I have the most trouble with.

Have you ever seen Chucklevision? Why is it that every stunt I think of sounds like the mishaps of the Chuckle Brothers? Those of you with young kids will know what I mean.

This is meant to be serious drama, and all I can come up with are pratfalls.

Yesterday

Well, the Planning meeting was a lot of fun. It makes you feel like a real insider, knowing exactly what's coming up over the next six to eight months.

And the Commissioning meeting was fun too, though a bit scary. They're a very positive, supportive, ambitious, creative bunch of folks. I can't report back to you all that they loved my ideas - there was no spontaneous round of applause as I revealed my wonderful new storylines. But they didn't laugh. They didn't ask whether I had any other, different, ideas. And they came up with lots of useful thoughts (as well as some genuine issues which I'm going to have to address if the idea's going to work).

So, I passed. Just (I think).

Now I have to prove that I was right and that they were right to trust me to get it right.

Me, Nervous?

Just a bit.

My first ever commissioning meeting tomorrow.

Casualty. For real.

There's a Planning meeting in the morning with a whole bunch of people to discuss the overall arc of the serial story over the first 12 episodes of Casualty Season 23. That'll be fine - listen carefully, try to make a few wise comments and suggestions, don't make a fool of myself.

But, in the afternoon, three of us stay behind to pitch our ideas for how we're going to handle our particular episodes. That means we need to have guest stories worked out, and an overall approach to how we're going to tell our chunk of serial. I'm prepared. I know what I want to do.

But, what if they don't like it?

20 September 2008

I've just had the paperwork through.

My first episode of Casualty will be broadcast (fingers crossed) on 20 September.

And I know what happens! Well, I know what the powers-that-be have decided will be happening amongst the regular cast members (and it's exciting stuff, let me tell you). All I've got to do now is come up with some guest stories and accidents to go with it.

And then write it.

Easy really.

It all kicks off

Tuesday 12 February.

That's the day I head down to Bristol for the two meetings which will kick off my commission for Casualty.

In the morning the 11 writers who will be writing the first quarter of season 23 will gather with a whole bunch of Casualty people to hear the plans for the overall story arc over those 12 episodes and to discuss it.

Then, in the afternoon, I'll have my commissioning meeting for episode 4, together with the writers of episodes 3 and 5. This is where I have to come up with the original ideas for guest stories (there's still time to get back to me with tales of gruesome accidents - please!).

I think I'm prepared:
- I've done the Academy course
- I've stayed two days in an A&E Department to see what they get up to
- I've visited the Casualty set (twice)
- I've talked to the Casualty script and story teams
- I've got a notebook full of potential ideas
- I've watched every episode of Casualty since the beginning of 2007
- I've watched sample scenes of the new characters who haven't appeared on screen yet
- I've read the serial story outline up until the end of the present series
- I've got the series Bible and read it cover to cover
- I've watched and analysed episodes of ER, House and Greys Anatomy
- I've read four recent sample scripts from Casualty
- I've got a new office and a new computer
- (and I'm a little bit scared)

Now, let me at it!

Not sure about this...

The Casualty team have arranged for me to observe in an Emergency Department on Thursday.

I'm not too good when it comes to blood and stuff. And, of course, there's always the potential that it gets worse than that. With real people.

I'm sort of looking forward to it. But I'm very apprehensive. And really quite nervous.

And now the fun begins...

We've finished. Look, I've even got a certificate to prove it...



After all the fuss recently, I half expected some sub-masonic ritual on the final day during which John Yorke personally tattooed a discreet gridmark # on my right buttock. Instead, we had a few drinks, swore eternal friendship, had a few more drinks and staggered home. Leastways, I was staggering and I did get home. I don't yet know how everyone else felt and whether they all got home or not.

Now comes the tricky part. Sometime in the middle of February I'll get my commission for Casualty. No fancy certificate's going to help me then.

Academy Update

Things are getting serious now.

There's been a lot of classroom stuff and a lot of writing exercises, but, all of a sudden, it begins to feel very real.

We have now been entrusted with the highly confidential 'Bibles' for three of the BBC's continuing drama shows - Doctors, Casualty and Holby City. We'll get the EastEnders one soon.

We've written two "dry run" episodes of Doctors, but now we've pitched for the real thing. Homework for the rest of this week is to produce a Scene by Scene for discussion and, hopefully, approval on Monday.

But, most significantly, we're now visited all the sets and are proud owners of 'Casualty' tee-shirts and pens.

This is really going to happen.

The Academy begins

The BBC Writers' Academy starts next week. But we had a taster session today in the form of a trip to Birmingham to visit the Doctors team and look round the set. It was a good relaxed start to what is going to become 13 frenzied weeks of overload.

Despite some requests, I have decided that I won't be blogging in much detail. It's a small group of people (8 of us), and the potential for treading on people's toes or invading their privacy is too great. All I will say, on the basis of a day spent together in Birmingham and in the minibus there and back, is that they seem a great bunch of guys and that I'm looking forward to spending 13 weeks in their company.

Neither will you find a blow by blow account here of what we learn or what the tutors tell us. I'm not sure whether that would be fair to the tutors, but, anyway, I'm simply not going to have the time or the energy.

I will let you know how I'm doing from time to time, and give you a taster of what we're up to.

So, for example, I can tell you that our weekly timetable involves two days of lectures/seminars/exercises etc at Elstree, a day of "homework", a day of "guest lectures" at Elstree, and a weekly tutorial, one-to-one, with John Yorke himself. And there'll be a lot of homework in the evenings and over the weekends too. We'll also be writing a trial-run episode of Doctors, and a real-life commissioned episode.

All that before Christmas. And then, if we do OK, we spend next year working on one episode of each of Casualty, Holby City and EastEnders.

All I can say is that I'm looking forward to the whole thing with an almost embarrassing amount of glee.

Roll on Monday!