Quite Possibly the Best Version

I present my week to you. Once I have stopped laughing/crying I will bid you all a good weekend. That is all.

Dad

Today should have been my Dad's 70th Birthday but thanks to that bastard disease cancer, he's not here to celebrate.

Bless his little cotton socks - cannot for one moment imagine Dad ever being s-e-v-e-n-t-y. I have been thinking about him all day, working out his year of birth, convinced I am wrong - but my maths is correct: he would have had a big load of candles today.

I miss my annual 'surprise' red eye flight up to Edinburgh on the morning of the 2nd March; I miss turning up at his door like an excited five year old with parcels, breakfast rolls and bubbly; I miss him acting surprised and saying "I thought it was a bit bloody early for the postman!"; I miss him giving me such a big bear hug I can't breathe. I really miss him.

I've had an unusual amount of positive news today - nothing definite, nothing guaranteed - but good all the same. I'd like to think that somehow, Dad had a hand in some of that.

Cheers Da-Da. Happy Birthday. x

Schminterview

I was recently approached by the lovely Scriptwriter and Reviewer, Andrew Tibbs, and asked if I would mind doing an interview for his new blog. I considered this for all of a second and the results are HERE. I hope you enjoy it.

Meanwhile in "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" land, things are getting very exciting. The final drafts are all but in; about sixty percent of the Commissioner's Pack is complete and the whole of Series 1 and 2 are tied up with a pretty bow - but I didn't knot it too tight, just in case. I'm one for making a decent contingency.

That's it for now, short and sweet. How very unlike me.

Ta-ra!

List of Lists

I make a lot of lists, loads in fact. I usually include a little diagram here and there too, which represents the flow of items on the list.

This week I have made big lists - wish lists, reality check lists, to do lists, to don't lists - and the list that is currently top of my...er...list, is "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious". A rapid and ever-growing succession of words and figures, one tiny glance in its direction tells me one important thing: it's nearly there. The full season product, the pilot, the teaser, the promo: every element is teetering on the edge of completion and now I need to scoop it all up and add a final piece of formula to the equation.

Yesterday, I heard the very first musical interpretation from 0110 Composer, Sam Watts, and last night felt the urge to storyboard various scenes and items. Sam uttered to me that the inspiration on 0110 is extremely cyclic(al) - and that is pretty much it in a nutshell. Birth, life, death. The eps actually go through that cycle - not in physical terms on screen but emotionally; the series will also move through the cycle working on that very base-level principle.

What has now been created (or very nearly) is the final stages of gestation of 0110; by the time you are two thirds of the way through the Pilot episode, as an audience you will have travelled through an odd time - the final stages of labour, if you like; and by the end of the episode, you will feel the new entity has been born - the DNA of which consists all the threads and elements just observed.

But what have you observed? Everyone will be different.

You may walk away with a smirk and a giggle, thinking it was entertaining; you may shrug your shoulders and think, "So what?"; you may have it pop into your head for a few days afterwards, whilst you ruminate on certain details - were they important or not? You may even dream about it, wondering where your reality ends and 0110 begins.

Whatever you think, I hope it makes an impression on you. We all know many brilliant ideas fall by the wayside and are never even seen by the great viewing public. So much hard teamwork and dedication goes into creating entertaining and intelligent programming and for that reason alone (but out of many), I hope "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" succeeds.

But then this project is slightly different. It has one element - one very important element - woven through the core of its very being: that is the zerooneonezero effect.

Not sure what that is yet?

You will.

Onwards.

x

Develop the Vision

Hello

Just nipping in and out, and thought I'd check on you all. How are your chilblains? Better I hope, now.

I am so rubbish at keeping up with other people's blogs and suchlike these days that I had actually forgotten about my own. Totally forgot its existence (even though I updated a few weeks ago) until someone mentioned blogs to me the other night. Most queer.

Well, just for a change, I have been keeping out of trouble thanks to sheer lack of time. This past week has seen the "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" bar being raised even higher as the entire Team so far* met for another very intense but enjoyable day of development discussions. What can I tell you apart from it's all perfectly brilliant?

The full Pilot script was read from cover to cover, we noted, suggested, moved, added, deleted, drank tea, coffee and ate food. I, of course, was in charge of pretty coloured things and blutack - my lovingly prepared chart which represents the story and character flow across the Pilot. Once we had settled on our final steps for the Pilot we moved onto the Series flow, links, twists and turns. If I didn't have anything to do with this project, I would be excited, but as it stands, I am very excited and utterly chuffed with how it is all going. There's a lot of work still to be done but the majority of it is mine - the Scribes are polishing their final drafts as I start to pull together the whole kit and caboodle.

Damn, I love it - but it's like a drug, you know, and I can't stop the euphoric rush even though sometimes I really need to.

Damn this crazy, lovely and totally silly world I live in too. I wouldn't be without it.

Upwards.

x

*Scribes: Alan Mckenna, Daniel Hall, Helen Smith, Laurence Timms, Michelle Lipton, Piers Beckley, plus Script Ed, Elinor Perry-Smith and Composer, Sam Watts.