09.01.07

Drama documentary

Drama is drama, argue J.C. Wilsher and Isabelle Grey, even when it’s documentary.

These days there seems to be an open border between television drama and documentary. On the drama side, some of the most prominent singles and serials of recent years have been factually based – the work of Peter Morgan (The Cambridge Spies; The Deal, among others) is an example.

On the documentary side actors speaking scripted dialogue pop up everywhere, from ancient Egypt and Imperial Rome, through the wonders of Victorian engineering and the escape from Dunkirk, to Simon Schama’s The Power Of Art. Dramatised passages within documentaries are clearly seen as adding value, attracting audiences, and therefore increasing the chances of a project being green-lit.

This should be good news for writers; it makes a change from writing about cops and doctors, and any increase in job opportunities is welcome.

Unfortunately not all scripted drama is commissioned on the same terms. When drama departments make factually based productions they fall unambiguously within the scope of the Writers’ Guild’s TV Drama agreements with the BBC, PACT and ITV. That means the rate for the job must be at least the Guild’s minimum, and the writer’s participation in future commercial exploitation is guaranteed through Principal Photography Payments and/or residuals or royalties.

However, the Guild’s Agreements do not cover documentary writing. A writer commissioned to create drama scripts for a ‘factual’ programme is entering into a bit of a lucky dip. In some cases the contract will respect the Guild’s drama terms; in others, traditional documentary terms will be offered – a low fee, unrelated to the Guild’s minimum rates, and a buyout of future rights; or there may be a mixture of drama and documentary terms.

This is an unsatisfactory state of affairs. Writers of TV drama should be getting TV drama rates and terms, whether they are commissioned by a drama or a factual department. Of course there may be ‘discounts’ from the full original drama rate – the dramatised sequences may only be a portion of the programme’s running time; storyline and underlying source or research material may have been provided.

The Guild’s TV drama agreements can accommodate that. The point is that the writer will be providing original creative input, and will also be providing a structure that dramatises the telling of the entire story. Our principle is that such a contribution should be based on an acceptable going rate, and that it should be rewarded by ongoing participation in whatever future success the production enjoys.

We would propose that the Guild’s TV Drama Agreements with the BBC, PACT and ITV should be explicitly extended to documentary programmes with dramatic material. Beyond that, we invite writers in the documentary field to join the Guild and help to negotiate agreements that cover non-drama documentaries as well.

Documentary should never have become a poor relation of drama writing, and the time has come to include all writers for television in the Guild’s agreements on comparable terms.

Isabelle Grey is the writer of Genghis Khan (BBC)

J.C.Wilsher is the co-writer of The Dinosaur Hunters (C4) and If… Drugs Were Legalised (BBC)

This article first appeared in the Guild's magazine, UK Writer (New Year 2007).