October 17, 2011
Film Network in Northampton laid on a networking event at the Royal & Derngate with film/TV director Dan Wilson as the guest speaker. Lots of good contacts and fascinating discussion - a great warm-up for the Screenwriters' Festival, in fact!
October 10, 2011
The London Screenwriters' Festival is fast approaching (October 28-30) and there's some intensive research to be done before then on guest speakers, agents and producers. I'm signed up for the speed pitching event but won't know until nearer the time who I'll be meeting, so that's an interesting one. Quick thinking and fast talking required, as well as the obvious passion for the projects.
September-October 2011
Busy time combining roleplay work with scriptwriting, reviewing and gigging - as my old dad used to say, it's a great life if you don't weaken!
September 20, 2011
I find myself in Harrogate for the day with nothing pressing on the agenda - a rare luxury which allows me the old-fashioned pleasure of mooching. I've not mooched in ages, and the location adds greatly to the enjoyment.
September 13, 2011
Great to meet writer Nick Fisher at the premiere of his debut play, Basket Case, at the Royal Theatre in Northampton. Nick created Manchild with Nigel Havers and wrote this play specially for him as well. I'd interviewed him by phone for the programme notes so it was lovely to actually meet in person. The show sets off on tour after three weeks in Northampton and looks set for a great public response.
September 5, 2011
Outline and scene-by-scene completed for the new stage play (see July 26 below). Now it's time to put some flesh on the bones.
August 30, 2011
Good to see Northampton's co-production of End of the Rainbow back where it all began, in the Royal Theatre, with Tracie Bennett giving her award-winning turn as Judy Garland. It had a fantastic run in the West End after launching in Northampton in February 2010 and now it's off on tour. Good luck to a well-deserved hit!
August 2011
Thank God for theatre programmes. A hectic few weeks has seen notes produced for (inter alia) Hull Truck, Raymond Gubbay and London's Duke of York Theatre, so my writing's back in the West End again!
August 5, 2011
Back-to-back programme notes for Queen's, Hornchurch, Nottingham Playhouse, Northampton Royal & Derngate and a national tour of a new comedy - good to keep busy!
July 26, 2011
Great meeting with two co-producers about working together on a new play for tour next spring. Toss a few thoughts about regarding an idea I've been brewing, and things shape up well, so I'll put together some more detail ideas and possible script beginnings for another meeting in September.
July 22, 2011
Graduation Day - the culmination of two years' work and umpteen scripts. Nice to reconvene with classmates and dress up in gown and mortarboard (yes, honest!). Makes it all seem worthwhile, even if the real work begins now...
July 16, 2011
Final of the Ronald Duncan Playwriting Competition includes workshops of two scenes from each of the three finalists and some Q&As. A really useful day, even though Rasputin's Mother doesn't win, and some more excellent contacts made.
July 6-7, 2011
Fantastic couple of days hosted by the BBC in Leeds - the Writers' Festival. Great sessions with Simon Harper and Justin Young (Holby City), Jimmy McGovern and John Yorke, among others. Great to mix with working Beeb writers and some great contacts made.
July 5, 2011
It's off to Sheffield for The Pride (Daniel Evans, Claire Price, dir. Richard Wilson) before heading on to Leeds for the two-day BBC Writers' Festival, with a terrific line-up of speakers and seminars. More in due course...
July 4, 2011
A day out in London at the Riverside Studios - sunshine on the (rather smelly) banks of the Thames while Simon Callow was apparently casting upstairs. I'm not sure how true that was - wouldn't we have heard his voice? Meanwhile, preparations continue for the final of the Ronald Duncan Playwriting Competition on July 16.
June 30, 2011
Interest from another producer in another stage play idea has prompted a meeting in July. Might require a fast turnaround of a first draft though!
June 11, 2011
News from the Encore Drama Company, administering the Ronald Duncan Playwriting Competition (see May 23 et al below): I have been selected as one of the three finalists! Now it's all systems go to prepare a presentation for a day-long workshop in July at the company's Bradford HQ, at which a couple of scenes will also be performed and a Q&A session undergone before the ultimate decision is made. The artistic director Colin Lewisohn phoned with the news and some very positive feedback, so it's probably time for a little celebration...
June 8, 2011
Final instalment of the 48-hour Book (see April 9 below) delivered to the group. These sections hopefully wrap up the storyline thread I've been working on, and along with the contributions of everyone else involved, should now enable the editing process to begin and some kind of finalised version to emerge. It's all been a fascinating project and I'll be very interested to see the finished product.
May 23, 2011
With a deadline of Friday, today's the day for submitting Rasputin to the competition final (see below). Wish me luck.
April-May, 2011
Hectic month or so preparing a draft of Rasputin's Mother for final submission to the judges at the Ronald Duncan Playwriting Competition (see March 27 below). If writing is re-writing, I think I can definitely call myself a writer...
April 18, 2011
Enormous excitement surrounds the personal endorsement of a major theatrical knight (they don't come more major, in fact) for my play Rasputin's Mother, complete with the expression of his desire to be involved. Now the hard work starts: talks with agent and producers about where to go from here...
April 9, 2011
Follow-up session on the 48-hour Book (see March 5-6 and others below). Fine details worked out on the denouement of the book, plus a review of how the process has gone and what we've got out of it. As collaborations go, this one was rather unusual (due to the numbers and use of technology involved), and not a little entertaining. Mind you, it's left more writing to be done in the next few weeks.
March 31, 2011
Fantastic session on Casualty on a return visit to De Montfort University. Hosted by Barbara Machin (Waking the Dead etc), it explored the construction of last Saturday's episode from the writer's point of view and offered a masterclass in scripting BBC continuing drama. Nicely timed for applications to the shadow schemes on the Big Four - Holby, Casualty, EastEnders and Doctors. My agent is working on the submissions, which need to be in by mid-April.
March 27, 2011
Just heard that I've been shortlisted among the 10 finalists in the national Ronald Duncan Playwriting Competition. Next stage is to submit the full script for further judging selection of three to be workshopped later in the summer. Nice comments from the judges include:
Very dramatic staged beginning - cracking dialogue, fascinating ideas, strong complimentary characters that worked well with each other: intriguing premise - liked the way the staging was done; i.e. one scene slips into another.
March 5-6, 2011
Twelve authors, two days, one book. As part of Writing Futures, a Northamptonshire County Council project you can read about here, we're locked in the bowels of the Central Library and tasked with creating a novel. By the end of the weekend, there are 20,000 words that didn't exist previously, an ensemble cast of characters peopling a fairground, and a dramatic twist that will take them all on their own private journeys. While the project was never going to culminate in a complete book in 48 hours, we have got large chunks of narrative down, plus an overall structure and a plan for completion. There's an update in four weeks, by which time there's likely to be something approaching a full first draft, so I don't reckon we've done too badly. And it's been lots of fun.
March 2, 2011
Two character portraits required ahead of this weekend's 48-hour Book (see February 1 below). One creates herself quite easily, but I'm struggling with the other on a train to Euston when, serendipitously, she gets on at Bletchley and sits down opposite me, fully formed and ready to write down. Thank you...
February 25, 2011
To Sheffield for an intense David Hare weekend - Racing Demon, Breath of Life and Plenty in repertory across three venues. Added frisson from having the author himself in the audience for Racing Demon and Plenty!
February 17, 2011
Fantastic playwriting workshop hosted by the Royal & Derngate as part of Soho Theatre's promotion of the Verity Bargate Award for new plays. There's not much time to write one (entry deadline March 11), but the session was interesting and the chance to meet Soho and R&D new writing proponents very useful.
February 11, 2011
To Oxford to catch the tour of Alan Ayckbourn's newest play Life of Riley, which he was writing while directing Man of the Moment in Northampton. It also features two colleagues from that production - Laura Doddington and Kim Wall - so it's great to be able to support them as well. In a similar vein, there's a trip to Sheffield planned at the end of the month to catch all three plays in their David Hare season, one of which (Racing Demon) includes Man of the Moment alumni Malcolm Sinclair and Matthew Cottle. It's all go...
February 1, 2011
A fascinating invitation arrives requesting my participation in a unique publishing project, in which 12 writers aim to create a book in 48 hours. Straightforwardly entitled The 48-hour Book Project, it's the brainchild of acclaimed writer Judith Allnatt (www.judithallnatt.co.uk) and I am invited to spend the first weekend in March in the company of 11 others - something of a unique approach in itself. Sounds like a wonderful opportunity and lots of fun into the bargain. More details as and when I have them...
January 20, 2011
So much for waiting... Faster than a speeding bullet, R4 producer replies enthusiastically, saying she's forwarding the new pitch to the executive editor, no less.
Meanwhile, the Royal & Derngate launches its new 2011 subscription season with many fanfares and a lovely party. For details, see the News page at StageReviews.co.uk
January 19, 2011
Pitch despatched to R4 producer. Back to the waiting game, but writing plenty in the meantime.
January 16, 2011
First experience of The Core at Corby Cube, the new sister venue to the Royal & Derngate, which is housed in the bowels of the council's civic centre building. While the building is all concrete and glass and reminiscent of pre-Berlin Wall Eastern Europe, the theatre space is delightful - welcoming, intimate, crafted for performance. It helps that cabaret chanteuse Barb Jungr is the host - read the review at StageReviews.co.uk
January 5, 2011
Interest from Radio 4 producer in another radio play pitch - invited to submit in a couple of weeks, after she's got some music recording sessions out of the way.
December 2010
A busy festive season of pantos and performances, while an e-publisher accepts a proposal for a book series from my pseudonymous alter ego - which means I can't blog about it. Never mind - it's all writing work.
December 4, 2010
There's no denying Christmas is here now. The decorations went up last weekend and the first festive show is in the bag - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at Northampton's Royal Theatre (review at StageReviews.co.uk). Plenty more to come...
December 1, 2010
The eccentric Professor who delivered the Curve performance (see October 30 below) may get another outing. Writer Will Morris is in talks for a new version at another Midlands playhouse in 2011.
November 30, 2010
The launch of StageReviews.co.uk attracts the interest of the BBC, who invite me on for an interview on the regional Breakfast Show - hear it here until December 7 (it starts at about 1:49).
November 18, 2010
Officially now an MA - news of my Merit on the TV Scriptwriting course at De Montfort University arrived today!
November 9, 2010
Finally able to reveal the new theatre review website (see October 12), which goes under the catchy title of www.StageReviews.co.uk - from today, all reviews will be appearing there instead of here.
November 5, 2010
Deadline for revising the first edits of episode one of a multi-part novel, due to be published over 14 months starting next year. Can't say any more as it's written under a pseudonym and I'm bound to secrecy, but it's very exciting.
October 30, 2010
After more than a week's manic script-learning, today's the day for the performance of Will Morris's monologue at Curve, and all goes really well. Produced by Bianca Winter of the Theatre Writing Partnership, the performance of CurvAture is very well received. Photos to follow...
October 19, 2010
So many hats, so little time. Well, the Londons Screenwriters' Festival is now officially off the menu as I've just had the call to perform at Curve, Leicester's dramatic and exciting theatre venue which replaced the Haymarket. Fellow scribe and De Montfort University MA graduate Will Morris has written a monologue, commissioned by the Theatre Writing Partnership, for performance as part of Curve's Momentum Festival next weekend, and I shall be performing it on Saturday, October 30. Now all I've got to do is learn the damn thing...
October 12, 2010
Work is progressing on a new website dedicated to theatre reviews, to which all such related material on this site will be migrating in due course. I'll keep you posted... Meanwhile, a variety of competition deadlines have passed or are approaching rapidly, with the accompanying scurry to prepare entries.
October 8, 2010
Just heard I've been cast in a short film with renowned children's TV presenter Dave Benson Phillips! Shooting somewhere between now and Christmas, I'll be playing the protagonist's book publisher. Yet to see a script, but it sounds like fun.
September 2010
Action-packed month devoted almost entirely to completing numerous drafts and rewrites of what I can now reveal is called Death of a Premier, the true story of the only assassination of a British Prime Minister... from the killer's point of view. Feature film script completes the portfolio, as well as the two-year MA degree, and it's now time to launch Michael Davies (Inc) on an unsuspecting world!
August 27, 2010
Exciting news from the Perfectly Formed short story competition run by Waterstone's: out of 1,250 entries, mine made it to the final 18. Although it's not officially a prize-winning feat, it does make me a finalist in a national writing competition, so I feel entitled to a little self-satisfied shake of the shoulders and a private smile... You can read South Sea Bubble here.
August 27, 2010
Return to find extensive scenes sent by roleplay agent to be learned for a job next Wednesday and Thursday. Meanwhile, there are two other scripts to be learned for Tuesday and Friday for a different corporate filming job. Do you ever have that feeling when your head says: Don't put any more in, please - I'm full?
August 24, 2010
Somehow there's a first draft finished. Long days, lots of supportive noises from the family, but it's in the bag. Copies off to Tony and my other reliable readers for their opinions, and me off to Blackpool with Tricia and Lexy for a couple of days, hopefully to resurface as me, rather than the grumpy creature who lives in the study and pops his head out occasionally to growl.
August 17, 2010
More terrific notes from Tony - he's happy that it's in reasonable shape to go ahead, but adds some more highly appropriate suggestions for tweaking and strengthening, which will all get added to the mix along the way.
August 16, 2010
Scene-by-scene now in place and delivered to Tony for opinions. It'll change a little already, I can tell from my own reading of it, but the basic shape is there. Now it's a mad dash to get the first draft done asap.
August 6, 2010
New outline complete for the revamped 90-minuter. Quite a different take on the story and (I hope) much stronger as a result.
July 28, 2010
Treated to a lovely lunch at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith by David Brawn, publishing director at HarperCollins and the man responsible for printing Desmond Bagley's novels. A lot of cud - and even some cod - was chewed, and he offered the logical opinion that HC would be delighted to see some kind of adaptation of one of the novels as a fillip to sales. He also happened to mention that he liked what I'd done with Tightrope. Which is nice.
July 26, 2010
Really exciting meeting with agent/personal manager who likes my writing and has loads of great ideas about where to take it. The only drawback is she's about to give birth, so we're on hold for a month or two until that important business is out of the way.
July 23, 2010
The gamble didn't quite pay off, but it's definitely for the best. A fantastic set of notes on the outline now means a complete reworking of the story, with much more emphasis on the human drama and emotion - on which Tony is something of an expert, having run Holby City for many years! What I now have to do is what The Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal (also a former journalist) admitted he was advised to do: take a large knife and stab myself repeatedly until I've killed all traces of the journalist in my writing!
July 19, 2010
With time pressing, I've gone ahead with a scene-by-scene without waiting for Tony's notes on the outline. Dangerous, but hey...
July 15, 2010
So an outline's complete for the new 90-minute TV film, which is a kind of biopic of a little-told story from British history. Unfortunately it's a bit of British history I know very little about, so some research will be in order. First step, though, is the view of Tony McHale.
July 14, 2010
All change! Having lost a certain amount of confidence in the crime caper as the scene-by-scene developed (not enough credible story, mainly), I've shelved it in favour of a completely different idea, which I now have to start from scratch. There's nothing like adding a bit of pressure to a deadline.
July 13, 2010
Meetings lined up for later in the month with an agent and a publisher. So much to do, so little time...
July 9, 2010
Working outline for the crime caper now complete. Next stop, a scene-by-scene treatment.
July 1, 2010
Work finally under way on a 90-minute TV film project, the last submitted formal piece for my MA in TV Scriptwriting at De Montfort University in Leicester. My mentor, Tony McHale (lately exec prod of Holby City), has already seen a brief pitch and offered some great suggestions, and now it's time to build up the concept into a treatment. It's a crime caper but I won't say too much more at this stage - it could well mutate and I don't want to pin myself down just yet.
June 30, 2010
The scripts I sent to the latest agent (see June 3) have been extremely well received, and the next step is to arrange a meeting. Meanwhile, numerous scripts despatched to various competitions - TV, short film, stage - with more deadlines coming up soon.
June 25, 2010
So my work is to be seen in the West End - well, a West End programme, at least! A piece commissioned by theatre publishers John Good is to appear in a forthcoming version of the We Will Rock You programme at the Dominion Theatre. One small step...
June 16, 2010
Well, what a beast that turned out to be! Finally delivered two 90-minute episodes of Tightrope, my TV adaptation of the Desmond Bagley thriller The Tightrope Men. Now awaiting feedback and approach to the agent who manages the rights to Bagley's novels.
June 10, 2010
To the big city for BBC masterclass in radio drama at The Drill Hall. Interesting insights from writers Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Sebastian Baczkiewicz, who's also written next week's Holby City episode.
June 4, 2010
More promising feedback from TV agent (see April 8 and May 28) and an invitation to send another script - radio this time.
June 3, 2010
Meeting with another agent and invitation to send various scripts. Duly dispatched...
May 29, 2010
Signed up for BBC Radio Drama Masterclass at the Drill Hall on June 10. Should be a very interesting session with useful networking opportunities.
May 28, 2010
To Richmond for fabulous revival of Ayckbourn's Taking Steps at the Orange Tree, directed by Alan himself and including Matt Cottle (with whom I appeared last summer in Northampton). Faultless production - no surprise there - and great to catch it before the run ends tomorrow.
May 13, 2010
Met the leading TV agent again today (see April 8) - he's still poring over the second script I've sent him, having asked for another on the back of the first, so watch this space. Meanwhile, work on Tightrope continues - first ep almost complete (first draft at least), second still to come. So that's next week sorted...
May 12, 2010
Really useful meeting with a Radio 4 producer at the BBC - left her with four pitches for the next commissioning round later in the year, so fingers crossed.
May 4, 2010
Lectured on theatre criticism to a keen, interested bunch of creative writing students at the University of Leicester's Northampton College outpost - aside from being great fun, it forces you to think about what you write and why.
April 30, 2010
Final decision made on which script to submit for the Writers' Academy application, and submission duly made. Deadline is May 5, so we'll see what happens after that.
April 8, 2010
The past 24 hours have seen requests arrive from a leading TV agent, one of the UK's top theatre directors and a BBC commissioner to read various scripts. The post office has been busy this afternoon...
April 4, 2010
Treatments complete for both parts of Tightrope, plus a full scene-by-scene of Part One. Off to celebrate Sondheim's 80th birthday at a special concert at the Derngate in Northampton tonight featuring Daniel Evans, Maria Friedman and the RPO.
April 1, 2010
A good day to begin my adaptation of Desmond Bagley's novel The Tightrope Men. Using Script Frenzy as a kick-up-the-backside device, I'm working it up as a 2x60-minute TV drama entitled Tightrope.
March 18, 2010
Murder They Read is delivered to the BBC...
February 26, 2010
The end of the tunnel. Finished drafts of both Murder They Read and Granny Get Your Gun are now ready for delivery. MTR has had a bit of a polish, GGYG a total rewrite. Meanwhile, the BBC tell me they like Hacks enough to ask to see another script - MTR's looking favourite for that, so the timing's worked out nicely. Next up, an adaptation of the Desmond Bagley novel The Tightrope Men - I'm thinking a 2x60-minuter but it's early days yet.
February 25, 2010
Session with Ben Stephenson, the BBC's controller of drama commissioning. What a nice man! A genuine fan of TV drama - you couldn't really ask for more from someone in his position.
February 1, 2010
Couple of months or so writing first drafts of two shows (see below). Team-writing effort Murder They Read is now with m'learned colleagues for script editing, while the sitcom pilot - Granny Get Your Gun - has had both barrels from a very generous Laurence Marks (as in Marks & Gran - Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart, The New Statesman et al). Wonderful, detailed masterclass advice from one of our leading sitcom kings. Unfortunately for me, it now means a return to the drawing board. It would be churlish to complain...
November 18, 2009
Completely crazy few weeks working up two TV projects simultaneously - glutton for punishment. First there's the team-writing piece, a five-part dark comedy to be stripped across one week's transmissions. Then there's my own sit-com - more news anon - which has been lagging behind a little but now starting to make progress. Deadlines for both this side of Christmas. Mmm.
November 13, 2009
So that was Collision, the Anthony Horowitz drama that scuppered our original team-writing idea Impact (see September 17 below). Nicely produced, well acted, great cast etc etc. We'd have written it better.
September 25, 2009
The RSC have revealed to us critics the opening salvo in their four-year Russian project Revolutions (read the Davies review here). Distinct flavour of Rasputin's Mother - perhaps RSC Literary Department should be an urgent port of call...
September 23, 2009
Charming letter from Alan Ayckbourn, who generously agreed to read my play Rasputin's Mother (see May 1 below) and has offered some lovely comments and encouragement. What a nice man.
September 17, 2009
First meeting of the triumvirate that will now have to create a co-written TV show by Christmas. The original idea (dating from about May - see June 3 below) has been scuppered by the news that ITV are to air a mini-series in November which is basically the same thing, so it's back to the drawing board.
August 16, 2009
Last night last night. No more diving in the pool. But fantastic fun while it lasted. Back to reality...
July 31, 2009
After a month of fantastic rehearsals, last night was press night. Read a totally unbiased review here!
July 1, 2009
It's a 'yes' from Sir Alan! Time to polish up my best Iberian accent for Ruy, the Spanish gardener. Performances from July 27 to August 5. Visit www.royalandderngate.co.uk to book. Can't quite see how I'm going to review this one...
June 30, 2009
Acting hat on for audition with Sir Alan Ayckbourn for a small role in his play Man of the Moment, being directed by him at Northampton's Royal Theatre. Watch this space...
June 16, 2009
Latest - fifth - draft of Hacks (one-hour TV pilot) completed.
June 3, 2009
Work starts on TV drama 'Impact' with co-writers Rob Wilkinson and Jo Braithwaite.
June 1, 2009
Deliver shadow script of Holby City episode, Enigma Variations.
May 1, 2009
It seems an appropriate day for signing off on stage play Rasputin's Mother.
March 18, 2009
Deliver shadow script of Doctors episode, Basic Training.