Writing Across Forms: My Publishing Routes To Success

I carried around with me for a long time a story I really wanted to tell about a prisoner who breaks out of prison to try and repair a relationship with his wife. He’s actually caught on his way out by a guard, who, because of problems in his own life, allows him to go. And I always knew the actor I wanted to play the prisoner and that was Ray Winstone, I talked to lots of people about it and could never attract sufficient interest to get it made – and Ray Winstone seemed a pipe dream. Then Casualty asked if I wanted to write for them and what story did I want to tell? And I said, well, I’ve got a story about a prisoner… I had to get the prisoner into hospital but that wasn’t too difficult, I staged a prison riot which ended up with a few of the prisoners being treated in A&E, including my guy, and then basically played out the beats in my original story. And – the icing on the cake – the director then asked if I had any ideas as to who might play the guest lead and I said, er, Ray Winstone? And because this was the BBC and a flagship show asking (rather than me), Ray Winstone said yes.

The wider point is that you can tell all sorts of stories in series drama. The best of them can become a Trojan Horse, allowing you to smuggle in stories which you feel are important, and you might struggle to get produced elsewhere. But what happens when you can’t get your stories on at all as a one-off, inside a series drama, on the radio, or wherever? A great writer called Alan Plater once wrote his life story, but he wrote about the plays that hadn’t been produced, the ideas that had never seen the light of day, because he believed that they’re the ones that burn inside you.

Rob Gittins is a screenwriter and novelist. The longest-serving writer on EastEnders, his other TV credits include Casualty, The Bill and Vera. He has also written prolifically for radio and is the author of ten novels, the most recent of which is Can I Trust You? (Hobeck 2023).