Yes, it’s a cheery one. At the risk of being extremely depressing, I have been thinking, for various reasons, about death quite a lot recently. And that led onto thinking about the connections between death and story.
I went to a funeral last week – not someone who I was close to – an aunt of my wife, someone I’d known not well but for a long time.
And then today we had to have our 14 year old family dog put down.
I’m thinking about that moment where a being passes from existing to not. Today I keenly feel the absence of our dog. And I know my wife’s aunt family feel much more keenly the absence of their beloved matriarch, even though she lived a rich, full life of 94 years. Many members of the family spoke with such meaningful detail about her life – it all added up to a wonderful tribute.
And today and yesterday our family have been sharing photos and videos of our dog from the last 14 years, trying to make sense of this vital presence who for evermore now will be an absence.
When I think about why story means so much to me – in so many different forms – including songs and poems – but in this instance in stories for the screen, it is as part of the way it addresses those insoluble questions, those questions we all have to confront but can never truly make sense of, however hard we wrestle with religion or scientific logic. At the heart of this is an emotional response and how to find virtue in it, how to make sense of the pure sadness we will sometimes inevitably feel.
Stories are such an important part of this – fictional stories that reflect emotional realities. And this deep need is also why we sometimes respond so negatively to the sorts of stories that superficially and dishonestly exploit these big questions. It’s why as I get older I increasingly hate empty violence in film and TV. I particularly find unwatchable the tired trope of violence against powerless women. I tried the well-reviewed Woman Of The Year on Netflix recently but couldn’t get past the first 5 minutes because of this.
And it’s why I respond so positively to Somebody Somewhere. Because it feels so true to life; and underpinning the whole series is a death that has happened before the start of season 1 and which the lead character just cannot make sense of. This one backstory detail informs the whole show and makes it beautiful and moving (even when it’s very funny). This connection to life and death and the emotions around these massive issues are at the heart of why I love Happy Valley, it’s part of the reason why shows as disparate as One Day and Dopesick are such excellent pieces of screen storytelling. It’s why there is still so much brilliant Holocaust drama (The Zone Of Interest). We need those deaths to have meaning.
It’s why I love the songs of Loudon Wainwright iii and the poems of Philip Larkin – for the way each confronts the idea of death and our finite existence with such grace and dignity (and in LWiii’s case – humour too).
But I think the best screen stories are often fundamentally about the human condition and attempts to – not resolve – but to dramatize the insoluble issues at the heart of life.
Of course not every story has to be directly about death (God forbid) but I think the best stories demonstrate an underlying appreciation of the absurdity of life, of the constant contrast we live with, in between those huge questions of the shortness of life, our place in the universe and those great mysteries of life – and on the other hand the unfathomable contrast with the ridiculousness of the detail of our day-to-day existence. The mystery for instance of procreation – our biological urge to keep repopulating the planet versus the messy, embarrassing reality of sex.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t revel in and enjoy shows that embrace escapism – but I think as storytellers it’s important that we think about what we’re ‘escaping’ from!
There’s a big role for sadness in story, for grief and catastrophe. Happiness means nothing without grief. Success means nothing without the spectre of failure.
It’s a harsh reality of life that there are going to be (at least) several pivotal moments where we will all face moments of crisis, loss, sadness that will challenge us, make us question big aspects of our lives. And if this is the reality of our lives, dramatic stories must reflect this – characters are nothing without crises – situations that will challenge, threaten – and change – them
And somehow when you’re thinking about people / animals that have gone, it’s the contrary details, moments of friction, idiosyncrasy and disagreement that humanise them, make them unique and emotionally rich. So when the 60+ year old daughter was eulogising about her mother, she mentioned their disagreements about feminism – how daughter espoused it, mother belittled it – but even through this quite fundamental political disagreement, their love for each other shines through, somehow becomes even more meaningful.
And on a massively more trivial level, the fact that our beloved dog would occasionally and exasperatingly disappear on walks (once when walking in the field 50 yards behind our house he disappeared and we then received a phone call to tell us he’d been handed in to a vet 5 miles away) or how, when excited and even though he’d been neutered, he liked nothing better than trying to hump a stranger’s leg (even on one highly embarrassing occasion a small child’s back – luckily the parent saw the funny side of this). Somehow this idiosyncrasy (a euphemism) was part of what made him the lovable individual he was.
It’s that conjunction of human foibles / idiosyncrasies and the massive insoluble human questions that is at the heart of the best storytelling in whatever form.
(NB I wrote this on January 13th 2025).
ONE DAY INTRODUCTION TO SCREENWRITING COURSE London Saturday March 22nd
I’m still taking bookings for this 1 day course. This will be both an introduction to and celebration of the wonderful craft of screenwriting. We have two guest speakers on the day – ANNA SSEMUYABA, brilliant screenwriter with a background of working in script development, who has written episodes of many excellent shows including The Buccaneers, Hijack, Smothered & Upload; and JAMIE HEWITT, development producer at Tiger Aspect Drama and also an excellent screenwriter in his own right. Jamie has worked on many shows including Strike Back and A Discovery Of Witches.
https://script-consultant.co.uk/one-day-introduction-to-screenwriting/
SCREENWRITING – THE CRAFT AND THE CAREER
Yesterday was WORLD BOOK DAY! My book about screenwriting has now been out in the world for several weeks. To those people who have got in touch with positive feedback, a massive thank you – it’s really appreciated. And to those of you who bought the book on amazon and who have enjoyed it (??), please can I ask you a favour? If you feel able to write a review on the book’s page on amazon, that really helps direct other readers to it. Thank you!
The next newsletter will be out on Friday March 21st.
Best wishes
Phil
PHILIP SHELLEY
Twitter / Bluesky: @PhilipShelley1
Friday March 7th 2025
