So, I finally have some work news and it's a whopper: I have just gotten a place on BBC One's Doctors, following completion of their writers scheme. Basically, it was a trial to write on the long running drama about a medical practice in Birmingham. The series follows the lives of several GPs and staff at the Mill Health Centre. There's love, there's laughs, there's loss and always a new patient with some new problem every day of the working week!
As I succeeded to the script editor's satisfaction with said practice episode, now I get the real deal: pitching (and hopefully then scripting) my first broadcast drama credit.
It's been quite a trek to get here, having tried to get on the scheme two years ago, and not landing it. (On the flip side, it's a reminder to be gracious, as that script editor went onto become a producer and put me forward this time when I showed him a new, and better, script). I do intend to do a full post on the scheme and how the process to develop a Doctors episode works, but sufficed to say, do not let the quaintness fool you: this is a tough and demanding gig.
However, I'm really excited to get cracking on the real deal in the coming weeks, and big, big thanks to Mary Flanigan (no J, as she made very clear!) and Simon Curtis, for giving me this opportunity, as well as Michelle Goode of Writersofluid, whose notes helped polish the drama script that got me onto the trial in the first place. And in true awards tradition, not forgetting my friends and family, who've cheered me on through not just this, but last year and a bit as I've navigated a turbulent industry and media landscape.
