Category: THE WRITERS ROOM
Room with a view
Matt Baker, the writer behind BritBox series Hotel Portofino, tells DQ about the inspiration behind this picturesque period drama set on the Italian Riviera and discusses the value of remaking European dramas.
Modern life is rubbish
Writer Tove Eriksen Hillblom tells DQ how Swedish comedy-drama Vi i Villa takes a satirical look at middle-class life in a story about what happens when one man grows tired of his mundane existence.
Script to screen
Writers including Quoc Dang Tran, Nancy Harris, Nathan Foad and Bec Boey offer their insights into navigating the television industry, from developing new projects and adaptations to the importance of authentic and inclusive storytelling.
Turn of the Screw
Writer Rob Williams tells DQ how his own experience teaching and volunteering in prisons inspired him to write six-part Channel 4 drama Screw, which spotlights the work of the male and female staff in a busy men’s prison.
Talking comics
Television showrunners and comic book creators including Jed Mercurio, Adam Glass, Quoc Dang Tran and Peter Milligan discuss the explosion of comic book adaptations on TV.
Cooking up a storm
The Baker & the Beauty creator Assi Azar recalls how he was first inspired to write this Israeli romantic comedy about a pair of mismatched lovers that has sold around the world and sparked numerous international remakes.
Shift work
Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig speaks to DQ about returning to television with medical drama The Shift, which follows the staff of a busy maternity ward, and why she wrote the lead for The Killing star Sofie Gråbøl.
Blanc canvas
Actors and co-writers Sally Lindsay and Sue Vincent share their experience of creating Channel 5 and Acorn TV drama The Madame Blanc Mysteries, explaining how they came up with its characters and tackled multiple languages on screen.
Arrested development
Back to Life star Daisy Haggard and series co-writer Laura Solon reflect on making the dark comedy drama about a determined yet naive woman’s return to her family home after spending 18 years in prison.
Gone fishing
Gísli Örn Garðarsson, one of the creators, writers, directors and stars of Icelandic drama Blackport, speaks to DQ about why he wanted to dramatise the real-life impact of the country’s fishing quotas in the 1980s.
Wolfe at the door
Shameless and No Offence creator and writer Paul Abbott tells DQ about his latest series, darkly funny forensic crime drama Wolfe, and how he created the unique character at the heart of the show.
Top Class
Zebrarummet (A Class Apart) writer Michaela Hamilton reveals how she tried to grip viewers with this suspenseful Swedish murder mystery set at an elite boarding school.
Feeling Lucky
When a madcap family hits the lottery jackpot, will scheming patriarch Loïc be able to grow their new fortune and keep them united? Writers Vincent Poymiro and Anne Feinsilber tell DQ about Swiss comedy La chance de ta vie (Lucky Day).
Taking a stand
British writer Bisha K Ali opens up about her journey from stand-up comic to TV showrunner and explains how her experience paved the way for a new Netflix- and Sky-backed talent programme to support underrepresented writers.
Promising start
Former Engrenages (Spiral) showrunner Anne Landois tells DQ about creating crime drama La Promesse (The Promise), one of France’s biggest hits of the year so far, which revolves around the fallout from a young girl’s disappearance.
Us and them
Bafta-winning screenwriter David Nicholls recalls how Us, his novel about a man seeking to repair his marriage during a family holiday around Europe, made the journey to the small screen.
Breaking good
As filming begins on the series adaptation of Finnish novel The Man Who Died, author Antti Tuomainen and screenwriter Brendan Foley tell DQ how they have created a drama from this darkly comic story about a dying man who falls in love with life.
The joy of Six
Éramos Seis (Once We Were Six) writer Ângela Chaves reveals how she brought a modern sensibility to a classic Brazilian novel and explains how music plays an important part in her storytelling.
Derry girl
Derry Girls is the proof that local comedy can travel around the world. Creator and writer Lisa McGee talks to DQ about what inspired her to create the series and how she sees comedy progressing in the future.
As Luc would have it
Screenwriter Luc Dionne reflects on the success of his Quebecois crime drama District 31, discusses how he has navigated a film and television career over more than 25 years and offers some words of advice to new writers.