I Feelgood...

Today I went to the offices of Feelgood Fiction, an independent TV production company who specialise in new writing talent. I sent of my CV and a short cover (begging) letter to them before Christmas and they agreed to meet with me. Laurence was very friendly and within the first ten minutes I got all excited again about working with these sort of people; ones who actually care about what they do and are interested in the same things I am. He asked me what the one book I wished I had written is. That’s a very good question, and a very different question to what my favourite book would be. I wish I’d written Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis – not my favourite, but so stylistically deft that I’m in awe of it. The novel has an inverted order of events, and this reversal in chronology compels the reader to question a reality and morality that is often taken for granted. It also provides a potent new emphasis to the meaninglessness of Holocaust ideologies by creating a novel where things make equal sense both forward and backwards. The conversation meandered on about this for a while, comparing Amis novels and we then moved on to drama. He quizzed me on favourite shows and writers, but strangely I wasn’t able to talk about them in as much length as I am novels. I suppose that’s because all my experience at university was talk about books, and maybe I’m not yet used to thinking of something I see as a hobby in scholarly terms.

Here are a few of my favourite shows:

Queer as Folk – for the characters; the dastardly Stuart who was such a bastard but written in a way that you can’t dislike. Stuart and Vince were two characters whose objectives were at odds with each other but I just couldn’t choose between the puppy dog and the object of his affection. It is a very talented writer who can write a lovable rogue who is actually a complete cunt.

This Life – A script full of dripping sarcasm and sexual tension along with a healthy dose of drug taking and binge drinking created a comedy-drama that actually fulfilled both aspects of the genre with aplomb. As I was 13 years old it wasn’t really suitable viewing, but I saw it as aspirational television. My mother would have been furious – but that was sort of the point.

Mad Men – beautiful, sexy, shiny drama. Shame advertising isn’t like that anymore, or many I wouldn’t be so keen to get out!

Six Feet Under – dark comedy. So, so dark. Loved it.

Shameless – (early series mainly) when this was still Paul Abbott penned it was one of the funniest, best, freshest things I’ve ever seen.

Clocking Off – Again, a Paul Abbott gem. I remember the first episode of the first series vividly, where a guy comes home to his wife and he’s suffering from amnesia. The advert said something like “He’s finally come home. But wrong house.” I don’t want to give away why but watch it. Awesome.

This list is all well and good, and most of them appear in the recent Guardian top 50 TV dramas of all time (LINK) but as Laurence pointed out none of them are new. I go and see plays all the time, but often Chekhov or Shakespeare or a good Alan Bennett. I know that makes me sound pretty pretentious, but at least with a big name writer there’s no risk of it being rubbish. Which is certainly not the attitude someone wanting to be a new writer should have. Ooops. So the advice I’ve been given is watch new shows, attend new plays by emerging playwrights, see what’s going on at the moment and what the public has an appetite for. And if I see something that I love get in touch with the writer and invite them for tea! I can just see it now: Dear Paul Abbott…..