I've detected a trend which I find quite intriguing. I've just come across a third highly successful writer of screenplays who has finally turned to writing a novel. I've mentioned in recent times the former cricketer and Heartbeat scriptwriter Peter Gibbs, who wrote the wonderful Settling the Score, and also the admirable Robert Banks Stewart, creator of Shoestring,who has published a thriller, The Hurricane's Tail.
Now it's the turn of Rob Gittins to produce a crime novel. I'm pleased to see he's joined the ranks of those of us who favour Sixties song titles as titles of crime novels - his book is called Gimme Shelter, and it's published by a small press, Y Lolfa, which is based in Wales, where Rob lives. It's quite a gritty story which concerns witness protection, and features Ros Gilet, a witness protection officer whose job requires her to tell lies every day. Witness protection is a fascinating topic for a thriller. In fact, is a subject in which I'm very interested myself. Some years ago, I even wrote a synopsis of a mystery about witness protection, but never got any further with it - partly because I wasn't quite sure how best to research it.
I met Rob around ten years ago at a CWA conference in Hereford. Even at that stage he was a well-established member of the scriptwriting team of EastEnders, and his name continues to pop up on the credits at regular intervals - he's written more than 200 episodes. He also co-created and wrote all eight episodes of the BBC 1 crime series Tiger Bay, as well as a three-part political thriller for ITV, In the Company of Strangers. And much else besides.
The perception I have, which I think many people share, is that television writing is lucrative. And certainly Peter, Robert, and Rob have all achieved great success in their field. Yet, for most of us, writing novels is a long way short of being a massive money-spinner. So why are scriptwriters tempted to write novels? I guess that one reason is that writing a novel is essentially a personal thing, whereas television writing is highly collaborative - which can be rewarding, yet also frustrating because of the lack of control. And for a creative artist, retaining a significant degree of control over one's creation is often very important.
Showing posts with label The Hurricane's Tail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Hurricane's Tail. Show all posts
Saturday, 29 June 2013
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Robert Banks Stewart
With surprisingly little fanfare, Robert Banks Stewart recently published a thriller, The Hurricane's Tail. Why do I say 'surprisingly'? Well, the fact is that Mr Stewart might be described as one of the more successful crime writers of the past half-century. Yet I guess that although plenty of readers will recognise his name, they will not be quite sure why it seems so familiar.
The explanation is that the name of Robert Banks Stewart has appeared on our television screens countless times, as he has been a producer and screenplay writer of great distinction. I first became aware of him years ago, and he was involved with many of the great television series. In his early days he wrote scripts for the Edgar Wallace thriller series, as well as Danger Man, starring Patrick McGoohan. These were among the first crime shows I watched on the box when I was very young.
After that, the hits kept on coming. He wrote for Doctor Who and also for The Avengers - an episode featuring a parodic version of Mensa, of which his wife was a member. He created Shoestring (one of my all-time favourite TV detective shows), starring Trevor Eve, and when that came to an end, followed it up with the even more successful, if less quirky, Bergerac, starring John Nettles. What a CV!
I've been lucky enough to come into contact recently with this wonderful writer, and I asked him about the difference between writing for TV and writing a novel. He told me, "The thing you learn as a screenwriter...ist that economy is important. The picture tells the underlying story...to a certain extent." He found that with his novel, the dialogue came easily, but that he had to work much harder to make everything else convincing: "Funny, isn't it, on screen you don't leave a lot to the imagination. In a book, huge chunks are down to the imagination of the reader."
The pleasure of becoming acquainted with this legendary writer has prompted me to take another look at his work, and I'll be returning to Robert Banks Stewart's brilliant career in a future post. In the meantime, The Hurricane' s Tail is definitely worth a look.
The explanation is that the name of Robert Banks Stewart has appeared on our television screens countless times, as he has been a producer and screenplay writer of great distinction. I first became aware of him years ago, and he was involved with many of the great television series. In his early days he wrote scripts for the Edgar Wallace thriller series, as well as Danger Man, starring Patrick McGoohan. These were among the first crime shows I watched on the box when I was very young.
After that, the hits kept on coming. He wrote for Doctor Who and also for The Avengers - an episode featuring a parodic version of Mensa, of which his wife was a member. He created Shoestring (one of my all-time favourite TV detective shows), starring Trevor Eve, and when that came to an end, followed it up with the even more successful, if less quirky, Bergerac, starring John Nettles. What a CV!
I've been lucky enough to come into contact recently with this wonderful writer, and I asked him about the difference between writing for TV and writing a novel. He told me, "The thing you learn as a screenwriter...ist that economy is important. The picture tells the underlying story...to a certain extent." He found that with his novel, the dialogue came easily, but that he had to work much harder to make everything else convincing: "Funny, isn't it, on screen you don't leave a lot to the imagination. In a book, huge chunks are down to the imagination of the reader."
The pleasure of becoming acquainted with this legendary writer has prompted me to take another look at his work, and I'll be returning to Robert Banks Stewart's brilliant career in a future post. In the meantime, The Hurricane' s Tail is definitely worth a look.
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