GIANT STEPS:

Planning A Head: Robbie Coltrane is back on our TV screens in a drama about a pillar of the legal establishment with a sinister side. Scriptwriter Stuart Hepburn explains how he got inside the complex mind of The Planman (Stuart Hepburn, 30 March 2003, Sunday Herald)

The first file contains four words: 'Academic who plans crimes.' Seventy-two files and four years down the road, the last one is a 220-page final draft script for three hours of television ranged over two Monday nights in March and April.

In between times, the academic became a lawyer, married a politician, married a lawyer, didn't marry anyone, married the politician again, became gripped in a midlife crisis, made enemies, friends, laughed, cried, got funded by ITV and -- most importantly -- attracted Robbie Coltrane to commit to starring in his first major piece of television drama since Cracker. So no pressure there, then. [...]

With Robbie on board, time has telescoped: we realise that Coltrane has a window of opportunity in October and November of 2002. Can I write three hours of drama by June?

Is George W Bush a Republican war- monger?

Mervyn tells ITV they can have Robbie Coltrane, they can have the series, but they have to commit now. They do and for the first time in my writing life, I am doing a new script that I know will be produced. (At least as long as Robbie likes it too. If he doesn't, that 'window of opportunity' will close quicker than, well, something that closes really quickly).

Mr. Hepburn ssems a git, but if you've never seen Robbie Coltrane's Cracker mysteries, you're really missing something.

MORE:
-BBC America: Cracker
-Magic monsters set loose (LOUIS B. HOBSON, November 5, 2001, Calgary Sun)

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 1, 2003 8:12 PM