The Write to Know, Issue 4
Recommendations, reviews, randoms and reads
A lot is going on this week so for energy I’m serving up your curated Sunday morning blend extra hot and with a tiny biscuit on the side.
I’m going to start with the conversation around the new Netflix film Scoop, about Newsnight’s now infamous 2019 interview with Prince Andrew.
Gillian Anderson has been cast as interviewer Emily Maitlis, with Rufus Sewell as the prince in the seat that only became hotter the longer he sat there.
Like so many, my first thought was why dramatise this?
We’ve seen the interview - it wasn’t that long ago - so what could it possibly offer?
The film is based on the memoir Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews, from former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister (portrayed in the dramatisation by Billie Piper).
Scoop follows in the footsteps of other modern-day retellings of recent true life stories, such as Brexit: The Uncivil War, starring Benedict Cumberbatch,
Again, that seemed for some ‘too soon’, maybe because the very idea of Brexit is still so abhorrent to many. But should we always wait decades to dramatise real-life stories such as A Very English Scandal about the disgraced MP Jeremy Thorpe, or the rather wonderful Frost/Nixon, or does this kind of ongoing news story merit a screenplay retelling before the dust has settled?
Certainly, the recent ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office kickstarted the road to justice for all the sub-postmasters wrongly accused of theft. Without this emotionally-searing and gripping series, there’s no way the UK government would have had its hand forced on this decades-old scandal. Thankfully, it did because it looks like the sub-postmasters will finally be exonerated and compensated for one of the biggest cover-ups in British history.
Scoop is written by Peter Moffat, who also wrote the 2014 script Hawking, and he has said of his most recent project, and Prince Andrew: “What the hell did he think he was doing? Who got him to do it? Why, when the rest of the world was so appalled, did he think it had gone so well? What kind of a man is this? In researching the film and talking to those on the inside of this extraordinary story I got the answers to all these questions. They’re provoking, often surprising, sometimes disturbing – and I think they make for a compelling story about power and abuse and journalistic courage.”
I’d say that’s a great reason to write this drama.
But with so many, how shall I say this, outstanding issues, from the Newsnight interview which touched upon Andrew’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, what is the endgame?
Is this where the telling of stories becomes more than entertainment, tipping over into possibly something that could change the course of history? Or even the shape of a monarchy?
Time will tell. In the meantime, what do you think?
Scoop arrives on Netflix on April 5.
CALL MY AGENT
Finished your novel (well done you!), and looking for an agent?
Watson, Little have opened their submissions, and are looking for writers to rep.
Click here for the all-important submission rules and regs.
BRICKING IT
Roll up, roll up! The Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story competition is now open for submissions.
The deadline is April 7, so there’s still plenty of time to pen a winner that’s between 1,000 and 5,000 words. First prize is £1,000. That’s got to be worth a few hours slaving over your keyboard.
I like this kind of competition because it isn’t too overwhelming and a challenge is good for every writer, so my advice is to go for it!
KEEP YOUR FLAME SAFE
I’ve been talking to one of my co-writers about casting a movie we’re working on.
One of the names that came up was Tilda Swinton and that sent me down a Tilda-shaped rabbit hole with most excellent results.
This chunky 20-minute long read was published in the Guardian last year.
They asked readers for their questions to put to Tilda and also people like Elton John and Wes Anderson chip in with theirs. Wes asked her what character she’d like to play, which is a cunning move on his part because now he can write it.
I liked this particular exchange.
What advice would you give to young artists struggling to find the space, time and money to make work in these financially straitened times?
Daniel Grimston, London, playwright, poet, actor, director
Tilda: I’ve never been a believer in advice – especially for artists. You know what you have to do. Look after yourself. Look after the bits of yourself that need to be clear to make your work. And keep your flame safe.
Keep your flame safe. Genius.
THE PLAY’S THE THING
Forsooth, I have two questions. Do you live in the east of England and have you written a play?
If so, you might want to submit it to the Play Lottery. The script they select at random will be staged at the Mercury Theatre, in Colchester, in April. Madness!
Submissions will close on Sunday, March 10. Use this form to enter.
A MOUNTAIN OF WORK
Nonfiction writers grappling with mountains of research, this is for you.
The Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant ($40,000) is open for submissions, and they are looking for writers working on ‘intensely researched nonfiction books, written with an artful sensitivity to complexity and nuance’.
Here’s more: The 2024 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant of $40,000 will be awarded to as many as ten writers in the process of completing a book-length work of deeply researched and imaginatively composed nonfiction for a general adult readership. It is intended for multiyear book projects requiring large amounts of deep and focused research, thinking, and writing at a crucial point mid-process, after significant work has been accomplished but when an extra infusion of support can make a difference in the ultimate shape and quality of the work.
Think along the lines of Ada Ferrer’s Cuba: An American History or Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland. Both of these are now on my to-read list.
Whiting welcomes applications for works of history, cultural or political reportage, biography, memoir, science, philosophy, criticism, food or travel writing, graphic nonfiction, and personal essays, among other categories. Deadline is Tuesday, April 23.
FOREVER BONNIE
Just over a week ago, Bonnie Langford, star of British TV and the Broadway and West End stage, performed a tribute to the late, great Chita Rivera, who died in January.
Joined by Anna-Jane Casey, the pair performed the most excellent Hot Honey Rag from Chicago, at the WhatsOnStage Awards ceremony, held at the London Palladium. (In this link she cartwheels across the stage. Bonnie is 60 this year. Incredible).
I was lucky enough to interview Bonnie, in New York, her then home base, for my podcast some years ago. It was a great interview and touched upon the tragic career of her friend, the singer Lena Zavaroni, the travails of being a child star and longevity in a tough industry.
Bonnie found fame playing Violet Elizabeth Bott in the 1977 Just William series. She played Lena Marelli, in Bugsy Malone, Sylvester McCoy’s time-travelling assistant Melanie, in Doctor Who (a role she reprises in the new series), and more recently Carmel, in Eastenders. That’s honestly just a drop in the ocean of her extraordinary resume.
She was absolutely delightful and honestly, any time I can give this podcast an airing I will, so please forgive this indulgence. Listen to it here.
OH THE DRAMA OF IT!
There’s an excellent opportunity to get in at the ground floor and write drama for Channel 4, via their New Writers Scheme.
The blurb: Channel 4’s New Writers Scheme is a one-stop-shop for new writers with a burning desire to write TV drama. It is open to unrepresented new writers looking for their first writing credit. This scheme is aimed at those currently underrepresented in the TV industry. We are particularly keen to hear from Deaf and/or disabled people, ethnically diverse people and people from lower socioeconomic groups.
There are opportunities in Bristol, Glasgow and Leeds, and the door shuts on the opportunity for all three on March 1.
RED HOT VICKY PAGES
Another classic subhead! I do spoil you.
Last week’s Ten for The TEN interviewee, Vicky Hamilton, mentioned a few interesting books, including Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being. Rick produced the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, just so you know where I was going with that terrible pun. Tee hee.
She also recommends Patti Smith’s memoir, Just Kids, which she used as inspiration for the style of her own memoir Appetite for Dysfunction.
Read Vicky’s Ten for The TEN interview here.
“You can make anything by writing” - C.S. Lewis