Home arrow Features arrow Interviews arrow BBC Writers Room - What They Really Want (Paul Ashton Interview)

BBC Writers Room - What They Really Want (Paul Ashton Interview)
PaulAshton.jpgPaul Ashton runs the team who act as the first line of defence for the BBC as they endure the constant seige of scripts from hopeful screenwriters. In their search for new talent they receive, consider, and respond to around 10,000 screenplays every year. Can there be many people in the world with such a wide experience of the pitfalls committed by new screenwriters? And Sally Brockway asks him all the questions you would ever want answering about that. If you've ever sent a script off anywhere, this 40 minutes+ downloadable interview is simply unmissable. If you have ANY interest in knowing what goes through the mind of those people who consider your script when you kiss it goodbye and send it out into the cold, hard, real world, then this is absolutely ESSENTIAL listening.

If you spend any time on this site at all this week, listen to this first. It's that mission critical.

Press the Play button to hear the interview in the site player:



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Comments
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Lee Morton   |2009-08-19 15:08:42
I asked the BBC how many scripts have actually reached the screen through the
WritersRoom. I never got a reply. Do you know? I suspect its zero.
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sally  - Writersroom   |2009-09-21 10:26:27
Radio scripts sent to Writersroom sometimes get made, but I don't think it's
ever happened with a TV script. Still, there's always a first time.....
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Paul Ashton     |2010-02-16 14:30:48
It's true that very few unsolicited scripts get made. But that's simply because
the things that get commissioned and made tend not to come out of the ether, but
from a conversation with a commissioner/producer. However, the BBC sitcom The
Smoking Room was a script out of nowhere that made it's way to BBC Comedy and
eventually to the screen. And Dirty Pretty Things was an unsolicited script from
out of nowhere too. So it can happen. It's just not likely
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neil  - Lost Letter     |2009-08-28 17:57:26
My name is Neil Mulligan and I published a novel, Lost Letter, several months
ago. Many of the readers have commented that it would make a great movie. Do you
have any suggestions on writers that may be interested? I have attached the
Kirkus review and a link to the book below. Thank you.


http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Letter-Neil-Mulligan/d
p/1439226369/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=124486 8599&sr=1-1
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Allen  - Thanks   |2009-09-08 13:49:59
Great interview, essential listening for UK writers...
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Paul Haughey   |2009-09-21 05:26:30
Stunning interview
The best thing I've heard so far in all my net trawling.
Clear, intelligent, perceptive.
Paul
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Jayne Waterman  - Well Done Sally   |2009-11-12 13:57:43
Sooooo enjoyed this radio broadcast Sally asked Paul exactly what I would have
concerning the writersroom. Its hard for unpublished writers to get their work
read. I am currently awaiting feedback on a script & everytime my postman
delivers a large envelope my tummy flip-flops Good luck to all x
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Marc de Launay  - Director / Writer / Producer     |2009-12-21 20:46:11
What an excellent interview and interviewee in Paul! Honest and straightforward
on the real restrictions of the resources in play at The Writers Room. Met the
lovely Kate Rowland last year at Northern Writers Fest in Middlesbrough, have
sent two scripts in and got nowhere with them...basically assume because of
individual reader's opinion on first ten pages...a short and a feature both of
which after the no thanks from BBC Writers Room were finalists in two
international screenwriting competitions based in the States...so just because
you get a rejection there does not mean it is not good or won't get picked up
elsewhere in the WORLD! Writers Room do a great job on their limitations.
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maryanne   |2010-02-13 08:36:34
Excellent interview.
But the idea it was just a 'calling card' came through loud
and clear.
I have had two radio scripts read and returned with feedback and
invitations to send in my next script, but now I feel I am wasting my time.
Is
The Writers Room really just a slush pile then?
What percentage of radio plays
sent in get put on?
I hear so many radio plays which, being honest, I feel are
not as good as mine. I cannot believe they went through this process.
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