Novels often have leisurely openings; a TV drama needs an arresting opening.

As a fairly innocent teenager, growing up in a village in Wales, I just thought, "God, I would like to go and hang about Soho and write great poetry and try to avoid drinking myself to death."

The older I get, the more fun it is to write young people. It's just a holiday from what is becoming old age, really.

Plan for each episode to be a satisfying experience, but still leave the audience thinking, 'Oh, my God! Now what?

I know that a ridiculous number of classic serials have been commissioned, and that reviews show a reaction against them. The critics seem fed up.

Look at Jane Austen. Her characters derive in a reasonably straight line from fairy tales.

When you see two writers named on a movie, one of them did some drafts and got the boot.