Press

UK needs 'industrial' drama writing

UK television drama has to "grasp the nettle" and alter the writing process if it is to compete with long-running high-concept US drama, according to a panel of high-profile US showrunners and UK drama executives.

Speaking yesterday at Bafta on Mediaxchange's Absolute Drama Day, US names including Carol Flint, writer and executive producer on the likes of ER, The West Wing and Six Degrees, and House creator David Shore discussed the cultural differences between the US and UK writing models.

They were joined by UK drama execs including Carnival's Gareth Neame (Hotel Babylon), the BBC's Julie Gardner (Dr Who, Torchwood), Sony Picture Television International's Serena Cullen (This Life, Waking the Dead) and Showrunner's Paul Marquess (The Bill).

The panel argued that the industrialised US TV production system, which usually sees multiple writers working as a team under the direction of a showrunner or exec producer, as being the way forward in sustaining long-running drama.

"I've worked exclusively on network shows that have commanded around 22 episodes a year," Flint said. "I think part of the reason that writers have more importance over the process in the US is just because of the sheer number of deadlines that you have. No-one else can get the work done – other than the writer."

She said that because of this, the US writer almost always becomes the exec producer or showrunner.

House creator Shore claimed that he wouldn't have been able to work on a 24-part series without being trained within the US system. Shore, who started as a junior writer on the likes of Due South, claimed that to some extent American TV is running writing academies, where writers learn their craft through on-the-job training.

This currently differs from the UK system were rather than having staff writers, writers are commissioned on projects

"We don't have staff writers. We just don't have the budgets or the system set up for that," said the BBC's Gardner, claiming that she doesn't think many UK writers would particularly want staff jobs, preferring to work across different networks.

However, she is starting to buck the trend somewhat, by working with authors such as Russell T Davies on Dr Who. Davies acts as a showrunner on the series, so as well as being head writer, also takes on other responsibilities.

"Russell stands in on casting, he's on the set, he defines what the show is," she said.

However, unlike the US model where a writer/showrunner will often always take the chief production role, Gardiner said that she and Davies will never have conversations about things like the budget.

In America, writers tend to work in a room of other writers, where UK writers are expected to liaise more day-to-day with network executives and producers. Flint describes the writers' room as somewhere intimate where there is "a kind of frankness" and people can shoot ideas off each other. "There's definitely something about the trust and feeling that understand the process," she said.

Conversely, in the UK a writer is put in a room with people who aren't writers and at the end of the day will be responsible for delivering the script on their own.

Execs also talked about the cultural differences in how the writer is perceived at each side of the pond. Carnival's Neame suggested that the UK system is still steeped in class and what it means to be a 'writer,' which needs to change.

"Here we have an idea about writers as artists or sculptors – they are 'authors' rather than 'writers,' and I think that's an important distinction," he said.

"The American system works extremely well, where they have highly professionalised writing teams," he said. "Writers are not as revered in quite the same way, but importantly, they work exclusively for one show."

Neame suggested that while that particular system has served UK TV incredibly well for a long time, "it means that you're always fighting the system to try to make something which is more overtly commercial."

Neame said that Europeans are beginning to move away from notions of public service broadcasting with the emergence of more commercial broadcasters.

"What I find appealing now is the commercialisation of British TV," he said. "Networks now all have long-running established brands identities and shows that are hugely valuable to networks. Writers who can deliver on those and the producers that can supply them are going to have successful businesses. I think that is a huge emerging trend."

For now, however, the UK is marred by harsh economic realities. Perhaps only 8-10% of the overall budget is spent on writing, which differs hugely in the US. Tied to a low licence fee settlement and declining ad revenues, the showrunner system perhaps couldn't come at a worse time for UK writers. In addition, there are only three networks that spend sizeable amounts on drama.

But for independents like Carnival, which Neame heads, short-order shows cannot sustain the business. "You need to be selling multi-shows into multi-networks," he said.

Execs argued that the UK has lost opportunities for junior writers to learn their trade, such as Brookside or Crossroads.

"We need to see broadcasters ready to commit to taking risks with new writers, for one or two shows at least, otherwise we are not going to have showrunners in this country," Neame concluded.

Jules Grant
8 Jun 2007
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