So what do you make of the new Holby City trailers currently running on the Beeb?
I sat open mouthed the first time I saw them. My daughter offered 'Very Ugly Betty' in her dismissive teenage manner but I could tell she was impressed. Sadly no Elliot in a thong however...
After I'd managed to close my gobsmacked gob, I made a Note To Self - so this is how the producers see the show.
Of course some friends and family have asked glibly, 'Why don't they get the makers of the trailers to produce the episodes? We'd watch it then...'
When I tell people I write for continuing drama, I can usually predict how the rest of the conversation will go. Devotees of the programmes are delighted and usually know more about the shows than I do. Cynics inevitably throw up ER, Greys, often The Sopranos but always The Wire. Everybody it seems, loves the Wire. I wind up these conversations asserting that yes, I too enjoy American dramas, but we have to work to with what we've got - an 8pm watershed, and a British way of doing things. Vive la difference.
Sure we'd all like to write like David Simon, but as a writer friend pointed out the other week, our scripts are nit combed for expletives and dark humour and god forbid we take our central characters/heroes to such dark places that we risk losing audience empathy... And yet don't we all love the psychotic Tony Soprano, serial killing Dexter, House? Maybe we should give Charlie a crack habit and have him wreak revenge on NHS timewasters in an overt yet beautifully filmed bloodfest ... and we would love him more.
Personally I'm counting the days til the next instalment of Mad Men. It's a question of taste after all - and whilst I was happily transported to the streets of Baltimore with the homeys exploring urban life and the sociological battle that ensued vis a vis the effect of institutions on the individual - you can't beat the sheer joy that is the frocks on Mad Men.
Maybe it's a girl thang. During the Writers Academy training days we watched and deconstructed a fair number of TV shows. Academy Boss asked for my opinion on Life On Mars at one point and I think my reply was, 'It's a bit blokey.'
Well in my defence, it is - nowt wrong in that.
One thing I did love about the Wire, was watching the show and waiting for the 'title' of that particular episode to be spoken by one of the characters. It was always a very satisfying moment.
I've hit a real blind spot, it's not writers block as such, I'm not battling with huge story problems or re-drafts, but I am in creative pain. I can't find a title for my latest Holby City.
The episode is in the can, filmed over the past few weeks and soon they'll be wanting a title. I've posted before on this blog how episode titles usually make themselves known to me by the time I've written the treatment.
I've offered a few - but my editor has come back with, 'Might have to dig a bit deeper on the title,' and 'I've run it past the Producer and we might need another push on the title..'
I guess the problem is - finding a suitable title that encompasses all the themes in the episode ie: all 3 storylines. In my frustration I even took my daughter's advice and found a 'title generating' website - her mates use them for band names. It came up with suggestions like "Atomic Elliot and The Explicit Tree" and "Purely Holby and the Junk" (honest).
So now I am going to take a leaf out of The Wire, read through my Holby script and find the essential spoken line that sums up the episode ... and use that.