Phil Collinson: drama will become more writer-led

Our friend in the north?

Richard Bevan speaks to Phil Collinson, the Head of Drama at BBC Manchester.

Phil Collinson, the Head of Drama at BBC Manchester has returned to the city where he started his television career. Together with Development Executive Hilary Martin he will be looking to launch a new generation of drama from the region.

You may have seen Phil talking enthusiastically about the behind scenes secrets of Dr Who on BBC3 – he has spent the last few years producing the hugely successful franchise that was resurrected from a too long a sabbatical by co-producer Russell T. Davies.

Phil recently moved up to Manchester to take on his next big challenge, that of revitalising the region’s drama department. Having started his career as script editor for drama serials at Granada, followed by stints as storyliner/script editor on Emmerdale, Phil later moved on to be first story editor and then series producer on Peak Practice.

Richard Bevan: Dr Who has had a huge impact with a new generation of viewers. Did you set out to make that happen?

Phil Collinson: It makes a big difference that it was an authored piece. It was Russell T. Davies’s creative vision for the entire season. He would storyline all the episodes before we did them in terms of working out roughly what happened in each episode. As an executive producer he would work with and give notes to the other writers on their drafts. It’s quite a different approach to most shows. So Russell was much more hands-on with everybody and I think that gave it an overall vision and a kind of through-line. It’s a model that’s also been used now in Survivors and I think you’re going to see a much more writer-led medium in general, at least for a while, and particularly in complicated shows like Dr Who.

Was Russell’s involvement with the scripts the main difference between your roles?

As a producer on Dr Who there are so many elements to deal with that if you also had to knock the scripts into shape as well there just wouldn’t be enough hours in the day. I would have to be spending a couple of days during the week at The Mill looking at the special effects and seeing how they would work and be at meeting after meeting because there were a lot of stunts involved in the episodes. So for me as a producer I was freed up to deal with all that – although it wasn’t a case that I was uninvolved with the scripts. I was, at least, able to read a draft and give notes in a meeting with the writers.

Your new role has been created just as the BBC is investing heavily in the region. It must be an exciting time for your department.

Yes, there’s a big move up north. A building is going up which is costing in the region of £250m which will house sport and children’s TV and they realised that they needed a drama presence as well. We’re literally at the start here, the paint’s hardly dry.

Has the department got a particular brief relating to drama?

If we’ve got a brief it’s a self-imposed one in that we’re trying to revitalise drama in this region because it feels it’s lost its way a tiny little bit. There was a golden age of shows from here such as Prime Suspect and Cracker, and before that Brideshead Revisited and Jewel In The Crown. Cold Feet was also an important show. So, big stuff came out of Manchester. But that’s been less and less the case over the past ten years. Now there are at least two of us, Hilary Martin (Development Executive) and myself, at this high level in the BBC who are going to be beating the drum for drama in this region – not just in Manchester but also Leeds, Nottingham and Liverpool.

Does that mean that most of the shows will be northern based?

A great deal will be set here, yes, but I think the most important thing is to just start making TV, and big TV, from here. Reflecting on the Cardiff experience, they hadn’t had a re-commissioned show from network television for about 15 years and so an element of stagnation had occurred and people had looked elsewhere for work. There was nothing going out from there that was saying ‘this is what this bit of the world is like’. Even if what we do in drama isn’t always going to be set here in and around Manchester it will certainly have the voice of the region.

Do you think a big drama presence can help the tourist trade and local economy?

If you look at the Dr Who and Torchwood experience, people are now going to Cardiff because of those shows. You can showcase a city in drama – certainly Cold Feet did that for Manchester. But that was ten years ago and places like Leeds and Manchester have gone through a massive revitalisation that we can put on screen. I think Torchwood made Cardiff look like Chicago, it made it look beautiful and it is a beautiful city and it deserves that kind of treatment. The people who live there deserve to have something that is their voice and says ‘Hello! This is us.’

What kind of stories will you be looking for?

I don’t know if we want to limit ourselves in any way. Obviously the Holy Grail is the returning series, the 9pm big impact shows such as Spooks or Life On Mars that are modern and have something to say about the world we live in today. At the same time, hopefully we’ll also do low budget shows for BBC3 that are equally important because as a department it means you can grow new writers and let them experiment with 30 minutes.

What kind of opportunities are out there for new writers to get into the BBC?

John Yorke is running a big new writers scheme, the Writers’ Academy, which is just about to expand and has a base in all of the regions, so we will be tapping into that to a certain extent. But I understand how difficult it is for new writers to get a break. Often when I’m asked by writers about how to get in I say well, actually you’ve just got to write. You’ve got to go home, sit down and write – because often people don’t. They might have an ambition to be a writer but quite often haven’t done anything to show anyone. There’s a real discipline involved in the process and you have to write and give yourself a calling card script. Of course, there are many people who have their calling card and are still trying to break in, so it’s not easy. Doctors on BBC One has been brilliant for allowing new people to come in and shine or, even to realise that it’s not for them. It’s not going to be for everyone because the turn-around on shows like that is incredible and the schedules tight and it’s not an easy option for television in any way.

Is the Writers’ Academy mainly aimed at nurturing writers for Holby, Casualty and Eastenders?

I think those are the first calling point shows but it’s not just about writing for those shows, it’s also about getting to write for bigger stuff. Writers who have come up through the Holby and Casualty ranks may go on to work on period dramas such as Lark Rise To Candleford. Also, writers are encouraged to come up with ideas of their own, so it really is a chance for the very best people, the ones who are serious about it and ready to work and be creative, to get through. It’s also the chance for the BBC to get a bit of ownership of them. I don’t mean by that a ‘you have to write for us’ attitude, I mean, in a way, for the drama department to take an interest in the writers and foster those relationships right from the beginnings of people’s careers. That’s the point of the Writers’ Academy.

What do you think about the view that soaps aren’t the best place to start because new writers have to find their own voice and style?

I don’t agree with that because, apart from the fantastic discipline you learn writing on such shows, you can put your own voice and style in there and make your episodes distinctive and stand out. It’s like the way that different directors also create their own style with episodes of the same show they are working on. I can’t think of a better grounding than to work on long running series where you really do learn about story and characterisation. Plus it’s a springboard to bigger things.

This article first appeared in the Guild’s magazine, UK Writer (Winter 2008)