Sir Charles Hood: "Star of Bethlehem"

I've been doing a lot of research, off and on, over the last few years (much of it paid for by the lovely Wellcome Trust).  I'm slowly putting together a proposal for a TV drama series based in Bethlem Hospital in the 1850's and 60's, so I've been digging around in the Hospital archives.  Need to find someone to buy it, of course, but that's a different battle.

Anyway, slightly to my surprise, I've been invited to give a little talk on the stuff I found out.  It's at the new Museum of the Mind at Bethlem Royal Hospital in Beckenham (which is well worth a visit even without the added attraction of a talk by yours truly).

I'll be talking about him, up there.   He's Sir Charles Hood - Resident Physician at Bethlem in the 1850s.  And he's a bit of a Star.

So, if you're in my part of the world on Saturday 25th April...

Details here...

http://museumofthemind.org.uk/whats-on/event-info/sir-charles-hood-star-of-bethlehem

New home, new garden, same shed

We've moved house.  We haven't actually told very many people about this.  But, what with e-mail and postal re-direction services, who really needs to know where we actually live?

But this has meant that I have been ousted from my shed-like garden office since way before Christmas.  Some very nice men came and tore it down (as gently as they could) and took it away into storage. 

Anyway, it's now been returned and reconstructed.  Electricity and telecommunications have been restored.  Fresh coat of paint on the outside, new carpet inside.  And here it is, in situ...

So, I'm back at my desk.  But it feels a bit strange.  This is how The Doctor must feel.  Inside it's much the same, but the view out the window is wrong.

Same old procrastination though.  Here I am, at my desk, ready to get started.  And what's the first thing I write in my new shed-like office...  a blog post.  Not that I've blogged about anything other than upcoming episodes of Doctors for a very long time.

Maybe I should do a quick update...

Er...

Well, we've moved.  Like I said.

I've been writing lots of Doctors episodes.  Currently on my seventeenth.  Fingers crossed, I'll get many more.

And I'm working on a new thing.  Well, it's been around for a while, actually, but it's building up a head of steam of sorts.  It's a spec TV drama set in Bethlem Hospital in the 1850's.  I got some money from the wonderful Wellcome Trust to do loads of historical research, and now I'm working up a first draft of a first ep.  All I have to do now is write it.  And sell it.

Nice speaking to you all again.  Do pop round for a cup of tea, anytime you like.  If you can find us.

Script Frenzy

Remember me?

Just a quick update. Haven't done one of those in many a long month.

Keeping busy with Doctors at the moment - see up there in the top right hand corner...

But have been ridiculously neglectful of spec projects. They're floundering at various stages between outline and second draft. And I'm feeling directionless.

So...

... although the timing is not auspicious (with a Doctors first draft due on Thursday, and rewrites thereafter), I'm having another go at Script Frenzy.

"Script What?!" Why, Script Frenzy, of course. Write a script from start to finish in April. It's a daft idea, but I'm going for it.

If you're doing it too, come along and say hello. My name's Paul C, and the project's called "Emperor"

It's the first part of a 6 part TV drama thing. Probably. We'll see.

What with Doctors and the fact that I don't have much more than a concept at the moment, I probably won't start Scene One until halfway through the month. I'll report back here on 1st May and let you know whether I reached FADE OUT.

Dr John Snow

So, I've been messing around with a script for a biopic of John Snow. It's getting there, though I had no idea when I started quite how challenging it can be to create a story from historical facts. You'd think it would make things so much easier - there's a great story about the guy who discovered the cause of cholera, and it's all true - all you have to do is put it on paper. Hah!

Anyway, for anyone who's been wondering what I've been up to, and who doesn't know who Snow was, then there's a five minute summary of the facts in the middle of the second episode of BBC4's "Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession." (I think they had as much trouble as I am finding a snappy title - I'm running with "The Communication of Cholera" for the present)



What it doesn't tell you, is that three of those black bars marking the cholera deaths in Soho, marked the demise of three of my great great great aunts and uncles. Which is what led me to this story in the first place.

Opening the Genre Floodgate

Ben Stephenson (him at the Beeb) has been widely quoted for a Broadcast interview in which he said, inter alia, "We'll also be focusing on how we can reinvent genre drama like crime and to a lesser extent sci-fi." See here for a bit of context.

Well, funnily enough, Ben, I'm working on something in that kind of area right now. Give me a few weeks to polish it, and all your problems are solved!

Except that I have a feeling there might be one or two other writers out there who think they've got a crime/sci-fi reinvention that'll tickle his fancy.

Mine's the one you want, Ben. Drop me a line, and we'll do lunch.

Starting

OK, so I've been working on my spec project, Project X (I must stop calling it "Project X" or people will start thinking that's what it's called. From now on it's "OPFK").

It's 6 x 60 minutes. Series with a wee bit of serial. Post-watershed. Genre. Think CSI meets Minority Report meets Casualty meets... hmm.

Anyway, the intention was to write a pilot. A first episode.

But you have to know where you're going, right? And you have to know the world inside out. And you have to be confident that you've got enough stories to fill six hours of prime time television to bursting point. With something in reserve for Series Two.

So, I've been working on the outlines of a Series Bible - character sketches, story outlines, fleshing out the world of OPFK, tying down the structure of a typical episode.

It's been fun. And, the more I do it, the richer it all becomes. But, sooner or later, I have to do some actual real proper writing.

I love this concept. I love the stories. And I really can't wait to start writing it. So why, now the moment has come, do I feel reluctant to get started?

Project X

February is looking like it's going to be "Write-a-spec-month".

So, I've waded through my ideas file, talked it all through with my wonderful agent, and settled on a project. I'm going to have a go at developing "Project X"

A while back on this Blog there was a moment of excitement as this idea came into being....

I've been working on this great idea for a TV Series. Let's call it Project X. I'm excited about it. I'd watch it. But I have a sneaking suspicion that nobody else would. Still, I'm seeing what happens, doing a bit of research, letting it bed down.... I'll just let this one gel/brew/stew/bubble/mature and see if there's still anything worth the pitch when I get back to it.

And now, here I am, getting back to it. It's a bit way out, so I need to do some serious work to see whether it has legs, or whether it's just daft. ANd it's completely on spec.

Obviously, it's all terribly Top Secret. But I can tell you that it's not comedy, nor is it gritty drama. It is "genre television". Daft term, really. Everything on telly is one genre or another. But anything with a hint of sci-fi, fantasy or the supernatural seems to get labelled "genre TV" - and that's where I'm heading with Project X.

Wish me luck.

Unforgiven

Just caught up with this on ITV's sorry excuse for an iPlayer.

Pretty darn good (the drama, not "ITV Catch Up", which I notice is now branded itvPlayer - that's shameless!)

But what made me really jealous was the simplicity of the the premise. I've been spending some time recently trying to come up with new ideas for TV drama. It's almost always doomed to failure. My best ideas tend to just happen when I'm not looking, so sitting down with pen and a blank sheet of paper trying to be spontaneous doesn't often produce the goods.

Or, it does. And I think I've got the next big thing. And then I look again a few days later and all I have is some convoluted mish mash that's impossible to pitch.

But...

Imagine a 15 year-old girl put away for the cold-blooded murder of two policemen. Flash forward 17 years, and what happens when she's let out?

That is such a great idea.

Can't wait for Part 2.


EDIT...

I've just read in Broadcast that Sally Wainwright "dreamt the story one night in 2007". So, there I was expressing my admiration for the clarity of her vision and wishing I could replicate it, and it was all a dream! I think I'll spend the afternoon in bed.

Next month...

I have nothing lined up for next month. No work. No commissions. No nothing.

On the one hand, this is a bad thing. Work is good. Not having any is not so good.

On the other hand, I haven't written anything of my own for a very long time. You won't catch me complaining about the Writers' Academy, but I have been immersed in Doctors, Casualty, Holby City and EastEnders for a year and a half now. It's been great, but I do miss having the freedom to just write whatever I want.

February is still a few weeks away, and you never know what might turn up. But a part of me is hoping that nothing does. I feel the need for a Spec script...