BEST TV OF 2011

Nearly the end of the year, and I've been thinking about my favourite TV shows.

FRESH MEAT

Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain's comedy drama about a group of student house sharers was for me this year's gem. It's the brilliantly observed characters - not a weak link in any of the six who make up the main ensemble. Each and every one is strong with equally important storylines, and each get their moments. Most reviews have singled out Jack Whitehall's JP (summed up with his own line, the pathetic plea "Am I just the posh one who everybody hates?"). For me, I loved the unlikely friendship between Oregon (upper middle class girl, desperately trying not to be) and Vod (winging her way through Uni with a snarly attitude). And it'll be back for a second series.

THE FADES

What? How did this one get through? A fantasy horror drama from the BBC with proper gore, shocks and dark sense of humour. Jack Thorne's show is effectively a coming of age story - geeky Paul discovers a world of vengeful spirits and supernatural law enforcers, while trying to be a normal 17 year old. It doesn't help that he's also the chosen saviour of the world rushing towards an apocalypse. The Fades is big and ambitious, and pushes its BBC3 budget to the limit.  When a show is this enticing and exciting; and can go from moments of comedy to moments of jaw dropping shock (and there's one in particular where I did just that), you've got to love it.

DOCTOR WHO

Well, I'm not going to dislike this one am I. Although this year Doctor Who went a bit marmite, with a story-arc that answered a few questions posed over the last two series, and threw up new ones. Some thought it too complex, or too clever, and it's true, you had to pay attention and make your own leaps of understanding. Yet this year also produced some of the best episodes it's ever attempted: 'The Doctor's Wife', 'Let's Kill Hitler', 'The Girl Who Waited', and 'The God Complex' were wonderful dramas with brilliant concepts.

HOLY FLYING CIRCUS

And finally, this one just popped into my head. The story of the controversy surrounding the release of 'Monty Python's Life of Brian'. The whole thing done in the style of Monty Python, down to John Cleese played as if he actually is Basil Fawlty, and Michael Palin's wife looking a lot like Terry Jones in drag. Funniest thing of the year.

Trust Me, I'm A Genie

The second half of this series has started on BBC2 weekdays. And my episode 'Nice Genie' is on Monday 24th at 7.30am. At last!

"A chilled-out camel called Diego finds a soft drink can in the desert, opens it and out pops Ziggy the genie. He fulfils Diego's first two wishes, but then sand gets into his can and mucks up the magic, so new wishes fail. Follow the wacky and madcap adventures of Diego and his friends as Ziggy keeps trying to fulfil a third wish so he may be free from his can.

Ziggy is a real pain, annoying Diego and criticizing his friends, so Diego wishes for Ziggy to be a nice genie all day long. Ziggy now has a magic pair of pink glasses. Every potentially unpleasant circumstance is turned into something great, in his eyes. With the glasses, he willingly helps all Diego's friends in their worst chores. But Diego accidentally breaks the glasses."

Reviewed

A few reviews for the Doctor Who audiobook. Generally very positive, even the one that got the title wrong. Must have been the excitement.

Mass Movement

Doctor Who Reviews

Sci-Fi Bulletin

Eye of Horus

Hi-Ex

CMC 2011

Went up to Sheffield last week for the annual Children's Media Conference. It's becoming a bigger event in the media calendar, and seems to have doubled in size in just the last two years. That kind of makes it less intimate and more frantic. One fellow writer observed that more people appeared to be taking meetings instead of going to the sessions. It continues to attract an eclectic mix; this year included delegations from China, Argentina and South Korea, as well as publishers and agents, all joining the Broadcasters, TV and Transmedia producers.

Too many good and interesting things to report, but some snippets and highlights were:

David Kleeman's annual look at the programmes different countries around the world make for their children. This year he revisited the best and most challenging shows from the Prix Jeunesse archive. And who would have thought that 'Ponds of Mirror', an Iranian film about a boy determined to save his pet goldfish would have had the UK's media folks so enthralled!

UK children's publishers got together to present where they are heading in the 'transmedia' landscape. One said that they no longer thought of themselves as book publishers, but more story publishers. They are now actively involved in other areas: online, TV and film, games...

And I was lucky enough to see the BEST SESSION EVER at the conference (which ironically had been shunted into the smallest room - Why?!). Alan Gilbey's 'How To Train Your Writer' was hilarious, informative and fun - agent and producer interviewed each other, a man with a bag over his head got an award, and we all let off party poppers at the end. You had to be there.

The Eye of the Jungle Cover

I'm a bit tardy as this was announced a couple of weeks back. I think it's lovely.

Agented!

It's nearly five years since I got my first writing commission, and periodically in that time I've approached various agents for representation, without any luck. So it was a nice surprise when Cecily Ware Literary Agents contacted me. My name had apparently cropped up a few times, and they were interested in meeting. So we did, and had a lovely, friendly chat, during which they made the offer, and I accepted. I'm very pleased.

Doctor Who: The Eye of the Jungle

Remember the 'exciting project' I mentioned almost a year ago? Well this is it, a Doctor Who audio book  due for release in July. It's an original story featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory, and it was a complete thrill to write.

How did this happen? Well I invested time and hard cash to attend the Cheltenham Screenwriters' Festival in 2009. One of the sessions was about the many spin-offs from Doctor Who, and Michael Stevens from BBC Audiobooks was there. So I accosted him afterward, gave a short patter about me and what I had written before, and asked if I could get in touch after the Festival. He said yes, and I did. Thankfully he liked my work and the idea that eventually became 'The Eye of the Jungle'.

I have to thank Michael for taking a punt on me, and also to John Ainsworth who script edited the story and suggested a lot of improvements. I can't wait to hear how it turns out.