RANDOM STORY THOUGHTS
I apologise for the random / scattergun nature of this week’s newsletter but time has been in short supply. I taught a 3 day Screenskills script editing course in Belfast last week and turned my phone back on after my one-hour flight to Stansted on Friday evening to discover that my daughter had not only gone into labour but given birth within an hour of doing so! So the last few days have been full-on (in a wonderful way), catching up with work and visiting my new granddaughter.
The Screenskills course – we had some fantastic guests speakers including –
Declan Lawn, co-writer / co-creator and executive producer of the excellent BLUE LIGHTS. If you haven’t seen it, you should – it’s a brilliant example of traditional multi-stranded series storytelling at its very best and has achieved deserved success.
One of the many things that Declan said that inspired me was his complete focus on character – how the complexity and detail of the characterisations (sometimes influenced by casting and performance) is the paramount factor in the creation of the stories.
We also had a session with producer Shuana Shivers talking about her script-editing experience on CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS, THE DRY and TRESSPASSES – three brilliant examples of the depth and quality of Irish writing / screenwriting.
SOME DOCUMENTARY RECOMMENDATIONS
Something I’ve talked about before (and in my book) is the lessons screenwriters can learn from the best documentaries. Three I’ve enjoyed recently –
The Loneliest Race.
I saw this at the excellent Aldeburgh Documentary Film Festival (that takes place every November), a film about the 2022 Golden Globe single-person, non-stop yacht race around the world, a journey that (for the very few who completed it) takes 9 months – of solitary living and racing. This was such a great character study – to be mad enough to undertake this in the first place is extraordinary. It is a great illustration of how character is revealed when placed under extreme pressure – as well as being compelling as I became emotionally invested in the outcome of the race.
The Salt Path Scandal
An Observer feature-length film from reporter Chloe Hadjimatheou about the truths and lies behind ‘Raynor Winn’s three books. Another compelling study of character, as well as being a brilliant investigative story as Chloe H uncovers and reveals more and more of the truth of the books. It’s also fascinating that the scandal that blew up around the books has resulted in increased sales!
(and weirdly there is a new revelation about author Raynor Winn in the news today – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj32vx61x6lo )
Prime Minister
Documentary about Jacinda Ardern’s journey to becoming prime minister of New Zealand and the years of her premiership. Another fascinating character study – about how she rose to the challenges and crises she faced – such an inspirational figure, particularly when compared to so many of the clowns and fools wilfully wreaking havoc elsewhere in the world today.
FOOTBALL AND STORY
Something else I’ve observed / mentioned previously – how sporting stories can inspire and mirror fictional dramatic stories.
A prime example – Barcelona’s 4-3 victory over Inter Milan in last year’s Champions League semi-final.
According to Nick Hornby, ‘If I were a producer giving notes to the screenwriters, I’d have asked them to hold back on Frattesi’s winner: it came a little early. Otherwise it was perfection.’
And Jonathan Liew in the Guardian described it thus – ‘the sort of game that emerges when both sides give up on perfection and in so doing somehow manage to produce it… Perfect theatre, perfect tension, perfect imperfection, a perfect clash of styles and a perfect balance: between flamboyant, fearless youth and grizzled, grimacing experience.’
In other words, the sort of game that is an object lesson in storytelling.
As with so many sports and indeed like so many other life events, there is so much to take away when creating and structuring your own fictional stories. Rather than leaning into the familiar screenwriting structural tropes, have a look at the structure of sport – how each sport is set up and structured to generate maximum dramatic impact – and think about how these parallel narrative structures can be used and inspire stories for the screen.
And there’s the question of football tribalism and community. A quote from reporter Phil Smith after Sunderland’s hugely dramatic, last-gasp, EFL Championship play-off semi-final win last season at their Stadium Of Light –
‘It’s about the new generation who have just in this moment fallen forever in love with Sunderland, to whom the Stadium of Light has just become sacred ground. It’s about those with them, who passed on the stories and the folklore in the hope that it would lead to a moment like this. A moment of sheer guttural joy that you just can never replicate, when the bodies are flying and the ears are ringing and no one knows where to run or what to do. When Dan Ballard can’t get his top off and Régis Le Bris looks like he’s about to burst out laughing. When Dan Neil is cramping in the stands and the subs are pouring onto the pitch. This feeling of ecstasy, of being part of something bigger, of being here with your people and able to forget about everything else just for a moment or two. To be able to show those watching what your city is truly about, the community and love and passion. On the pitch and in the stands they have come from so many corners of the world to be part of this. Not everyone was Sunderland when they were born but now they are all Sunderland ‘Til they die.
By Phil Smith from the Sunderland Echo.
It’s these rare moments of communal, quasi-religious ecstasy that make people like me football addicts. The more pain and defeat you suffer in the years preceding it, the more these moments of joy mean. And they mean a lot because they’re shared and, I think they (weirdly) mean a lot because we all sort of know that they are ultimately meaningless – and harmless – compared to the real moments of joy and grief we share in the real world.
But, for storytelling, they’re such an inspiring and colourful reflection of the power of community, of the collective becoming more than the individual, of shared experience. So many stories share this theme of the individual becoming (for good or bad) part of a bigger community.
If you find a video of the above Sunderland moment on youtube – and if you’ve watched the wonderful Sunderland Til I Die documentary series, you will understand the ‘limbs’, the mad outpouring of communal emotion in this moment.
CLARITY CLARITY CLARITY
Clarity is everything. I read so many scripts that I find hard to follow / understand – both on a micro level – sentences that don’t quite make sense – and on a macro level – stories I can’t understand, too many characters without clear enough description (and, crucially, introduction into the story – their entry point) so that I can’t keep up with who’s who. There is nothing more dispiriting in a read than not being able to understand it or finding comprehension too difficult – it’s a real turn-off.
I’m a firm believer that the best writing has clarity and is easy to read.
So often, I can see that a writer has a clearer idea of how the story is supposed to come across in their head than they’re managing to convey on the page. This sounds contradictory but – writing means both owning your story (being able to justify everything you write) AND selling your story (on the page) – making it the best, clearest, most vivid version of itself for the reader.
(Touched on this a few newsletters ago – but it bears repeating!)
Chris Lang RTS interview
https://rts.org.uk/article/working-lives-showrunner-chris-lang
An insightful and generous interview with one of the outstanding TV dramatists of his generation – Chris Lang.
Katie Hims on radio drama crisis
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/feb/23/bbc-radio-drama-is-in-grave-danger-without-it-we-may-lose-the-next-generation-of-writing-talent
‘As a career radio dramatist, whenever I am gloomily dwelling on this fact, the football phrase “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory” comes to mind. Because in this new era of audio storytelling and podcast ubiquity, the BBC’s incredible track record in radio drama should have proved a fabulous advantage. Instead, we are facing the possibility of extinction.’
An impassioned plea from an outstanding radio dramatist – Katie Hims – that more needs to be invested in a dramatic storytelling medium that she among many others, has demonstrated over the years can produce wonderful, compelling drama.
CLASSIC FILMS
I’ve seen a number of classic 1960’s and ‘70’s films recently, all of which stand up to repeated viewing and are object lessons in screenwriting at its very best. To endure as these films have is a real mark of the quality of the writing.
The Sound Of Music (screenwriter Ernest Lehman)
Dog Day Afternoon (Frank Pierson)
The Apartment (Billy Wilder & IAL Diamond)
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (William Goldman)
All The President’s Men (also William Goldman!)
GREENLIGHT SCREENWRITING LAB for Irish (and Northern Irish) writers – ENTRIES CLOSE 5pm TODAY MARCH 20th
The 2026 Greenlight Screenwriting Lab for Irish and Northern Irish screenwriters closes today (FRIDAY MARCH 20th) at 5pm.
https://script-consultant.co.uk/ireland-screenwriting-course/
Best wishes
Phil
PHILIP SHELLEY
Friday March 20th 2026