Thank you for stopping by and giving us the inside story on how it all works in the world of BBC Continuing Drama. (You’re too modest to have mentioned here that you’ve written episodes of Eastenders and Casualty as well as Holby!)

It sounds as though you TV scriptwriters have to keep very flexible with your characters as there are SO many external variables coming into play – casting decisions, the actor’s own charisma, the directorial slant. In that respect I wonder if prose fiction writers have an easier time of it, although even we are at the mercy of our characters ‘taking over’ and going off in a slightly – or radically – different direction! I guess it’s all part of the magic and fun of writing.

Roll on 8pm tonight.

Fiona

I didn’t like Michael either when he first appeared.

But I don’t think writers can take all the credit for winning you (and me) around. The actors have a lot to do with it. And the sheer familiarity of having these people in your living room once a week for month after month – how can you not warm to someone you’ve invited into your home and shared so much trauma with?

But, mainly, I think it takes time for the actors and the writers to bed a character in.

The writing team will have spent a lot of time deciding who they want to invite onto the show. They’ll have discussed who’s there at the moment, who’s leaving, and what kind of person would bring something new to the cocktail of different character types. They’ll have carefully crafted exactly the right kind of character who can create the most interesting storylines when mixed in with all the other characters.

But then the casting team get to work. Working from the writers’ notes, they’ll look for an actor who exactly fits the bill. But quite often they don’t find exactly what they’re looking for. More often, they go looking for that person, but find someone else who’s FANTASTIC, but is the wrong ethnicity/age/height/sex! But this person is just so good how can we not ask them to join the cast? So, the writing team go back and look at their character profile and make some subtle, or not-so-subtle, adjustments.

And then the writers start writing episodes for the character. Because of the long lead times, they’ll often be doing this from the original character profiles from before the actor was cast. So, they’re writing for a character they’ve never seen, who’s about to change considerably once the casting decision is made.

And then the actor and director get hold of this material, and give it their own slant. The director discovers that this actor has an absolutely winning smile. So, out goes Mr Curmudgeon, and in comes Mr Smiley, still saying Mr Curmudgeon’s lines.

So, quite often you’ll see a grand opening scene introducing a new character. It will make some big statements about who this character is, what their backstory is, and what they’re doing in our drama. And then, five or six weeks in, the character gradually morphs into the one that the actor and the writers are more happy with. And, often, that’s the one that the audience end up loving too.

I think.