BAFTA Writers - In Conversation with Jimmy McGovern and writers from The Street

07 April 08

Watch BAFTA-winner Jimmy McGovern and his team of writers talk about their work on the drama-series The Street.

Supported by The Farm Group.

The event was run in partnership with Northwest Vision and Media .

The godfather of television drama, Jimmy McGovern, tells fellow writer Laurence Marks about his unique approach to making 'The Street', working with people who had ideas for stories but in some cases had never written before. Two of the new writers, Alice Nutter and Arthur Ellison, join him for the BAFTA and North West Vision+Media event, held at FACT in Liverpool.

McGovern tells the packed audience that most television drama lacks originality: "The more experienced the writer, the more hackneyed and clichéd the idea. They see what's on TV, they regurgitate what's on TV because that's what commissioning editors want."

You need fresh, vibrant, unclichéd story - and you will not get that from experienced writers...

'The Street', made by Granada Productions and featuring a different story about different residents in each episode, and has become a hit for BBC One and was recently nominated at the British Academy Television Awards supported by Sky+ (Drama Series).

McGovern also explains why, unlike his previous work, 'The Street' is not set in Liverpool but a mythical North West town, because of attacks in the local press.

BAFTA Writers

The BAFTA Writers series offers opportunities for writers, students, industry and the general public to celebrate the last 50 years of TV with the creative minds behind the shows, to discover how they work together, and to find inspiration for their own ideas.