LONDON ROAD – different ways to tell dramatic stories
Hi There, On Wednesday afternoon I was lucky enough to go to a matinee preview at the National Theatre of the revival of LONDON ROAD. This is a verbatim musical about the community response to the killing of 5 female sex workers in the London Road area of Ipswich in 2006-7 – ie both dialogue […]
GREENLIGHT SCREENWRITING LAB 2025 – the first weekend
GREENLIGHT SCREENWRITING LAB: 1st Weekend Galway May 10-11 I was lucky enough to go to Galway earlier in May for the first weekend of this year’s GREENLIGHT SCREENWRITING LAB, a scheme for new Irish screenwriters and script editors, now in its 3rd year. The quality of the submitted scripts we receive for Greenlight is outstanding. […]
DRAMATIC IRONY – TOM HANHAM
DRAMATIC IRONY by Tom Hanham HELP! I don’t have much time. I’m being held hostage and Philip Shelley is forcing me to write a newsletter, I don’t even know what dramatic irony is… Dramatic irony is a literary device, in which the reader knows something that the characters do not, to create suspense, conflict or […]
ORDAINED: a short story by DAVID ARMSTRONG
Hi There, As you will see, this newsletter is very much longer than usual. This is a short story sent to me by writer DAVID ARMSTRONG. David is one of my favourite novelists. When I worked at ITV I was always trying to persuade the powers-that-were, that we should do TV adaptations of his brilliant […]
CHANNEL 4 SCREENWRITING COURSE 2025 – READER FEEDBACK – MATT MCNALLY
Hi There, This fortnight, some reader feedback from the excellent MATT MCNALLY, who covered 280 of your script entries for the 2025 Channel 4 screenwriting course – ‘I thought I’d write something for the unlucky writers. The ones looking for explanations, enlightenment, encouragement or just reasons to feel even more cheesed off. So here is […]
TWO MORE COURSES
Hi There, 2 more courses – 2 DAY SCREENWRITING COURSE, LONDON June 21-22 https://script-consultant.co.uk/2-day-screenwriting-course/ I’m really pleased to be running my 2 day / weekend screenwriting course again for the first time in 2 years. I’ve met so many wonderful writers over the years when running this course, many of whom I am still in […]
CHANNEL 4 SCREENWRITING COURSE SCRIPT READING FEEDBACK
Hi There, This fortnight, some of the notes I made as I was reading script submissions for the 2025 Channel 4 screenwriting course. None of these are ‘rules’ (there are no rules!), just observations I made in the moment of reading, thoughts that occurred to me in the process of reading so many scripts – […]
STORY AND DEATH
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 […]
ONE DAY INTRODUCTION TO SCREENWRITING COURSE March 22nd
ONE DAY INTRODUCTION TO SCREENWRITING COURSE London Saturday March 22nd I’m delighted to be running this one day course for the first time for 2 years and I am now taking bookings. Please see all the information and testimonials on the course page on my website – One Day Introduction to Screenwriting – Philip Shelley, […]
CHANNEL 4 SCREENWRITING COURSE 1ST WEEKEND FEEDBACK
Hi There, This fortnight I look back at the 1st weekend of the 2025 CHANNEL 4 SCREENWRITING COURSE, which we held at C4’s offices in London over the weekend of Jan 18 & 19. The weekend consists of a series of talks, q&a’s with some brilliant people from the TV drama industry – representatives […]
