TV Drama Forum

JB has reminded me that I haven't reported back on the TV Drama Forum organised by Broadcast.

So, here's a quick report.

It was a good day. Loads of interesting speakers with loads of interesting stuff to say. In particular, I got to:-

- have coffee with Barbara Machin;
- humiliate myself by not knowing who Ben Stephenson was when he was introduced to me(Head of Drama Commissioning for BBC Vision, for those not in the know);
- admire the height of Russell T Davies;
- hear what the commissioners for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five and Sky want next (but I'm not telling!);
- hear what they don't want (might tell, but might lie), and
- generally enjoy not slaving away on my Casualty script for a day.

It was too expensive (more than £550), but I applied to SkillSet for a grant and they paid 80% of the cost for me to attend (Cheers, SkillSet! - I wonder if they would pay for Cheltenham too). It didn't need to be in a plush hotel in the middle of London, and the food didn't need to be quite so fancy. But maybe the snob value helped attract some of the speakers - who am I to tell Broadcast that a sell-out gig was too expensive?

It certainly opened my eyes to the business side of TV drama. Sometimes it's too easy to forget that one of the reasons we are able to continue to write is in order to entertain in order for someone somewhere to make money.

If You Don't Ask...

There's a "TV Drama Forum" coming up on 27 March, organised by the folks behind Broadcast magazine. It costs a bucket-full of cash for just one day of listening and mingling (£527.58, to be precise). But it looks really good. Speakers include:

• Andrew Davies , Screenwriter
• Russell T Davies , Writer and Executive Producer
• Luke Alkin, Acting Head of Drama, Channel 4
• Eileen Gallagher, Chief Executive, Shed Media plc
• Sally Haynes, Controller of Drama Commissioning, ITV
• Dominic Minghella, Founder, plainvanilla
• Ashley Pharoah, Joint MD, Monastic Productions
• Nicola Shindler, Chief Executive, Red Production Company
• Ben Stephenson, Head of Drama Commissioning, BBC Vision

Very nice. But not really affordable for a lowly scribe stuck on the bottom rung of the ladder. Unless...


... unless a Skillset Film Futures bursary pays for 80% of it. And it does. Hurray!