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I'm not one of these people who say how much better American drama is than English. I find it mostly too American, except for The Sopranos, which I think is the best thing.

Andrew Davies

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Andrew Davies
Age: 88
Born: 1936
Born: September 30
Screenwriter
Writer
Rhiwbeina
Andrew Wynford Davies
Best
Better
Find
Sopranos
Thing
Mostly
Much
English
Think
Drama
Thinking
Except
People
American

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Look at Jane Austen. Her characters derive in a reasonably straight line from fairy tales.
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Plan for each episode to be a satisfying experience, but still leave the audience thinking, 'Oh, my God! Now what?
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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.
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I had a very high opinion of my father's judgement of things and he said, You better get a job that pays the bills because a writer doesn't make any money. If possible, get a job that allows you to write in your spare time.
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I had a mother who was very emotionally demanding, wanting to be the centre of attention. As they say in EastEnders, she thought it was all about 'er. I spent a lot of time trying to work out what was going on.
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Taking the humour out of Dickens, it's not Dickens any more.
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You're stuck with being yourself, so the important thing is to find people who like that.
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I'd love to adapt more contemporary novels. But there isn't really enough story and character to make a really satisfying serial, so they tend to be single dramas.
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I was getting rewarded for writing well, from about the age of five or six. A teacher would say, Look what Andrew has written, and I thought, Maybe I could be a writer.
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Novels often have leisurely openings a TV drama needs an arresting opening.
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'Affinity' is beautiful and intense, with no laughs. It's a rather delicate and emotional love story, with a spooky element.
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The writer in movies is about as low as you can get and you really are a hired hand. You are paid a lot of money to be treated like dirt.
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The most moving scene for me in 'Pride and Prejudice' is the Pemberley music room scene: Elizabeth has just saved Darcy's sister from embarrassment and confusion, and as the music plays on, Darcy's look of gratitude becomes a look of love, which we see reciprocated in Elizabeth's eyes.
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I prefer love scenes to be shot up close with a lot of focus on eyes and mouths. Otherwise it can feel uncomfortable and voyeuristic.
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A distinguished producer called Kenith Trodd actually lived in his office for over a year - the cleaners refused to go in because it was such a tip.
Andrew Davies
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From time to time there is a move to do a little less in the way of period dramas, but people rebel. Audiences say we want them. There is a big hunger for them. I don't think it's sentimentality or nostalgia, it's often that they are simply the best stories.
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I got quite cross when I heard about Emma Thompson adapting 'Sense and Sensibility.' It was absolutely childish of me, but I thought, 'I should be doing that. They didn't even ask me.' Some mistake, surely.
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Most actors hate readthroughs - they're exposing themselves before they're ready to, and before they've bonded. But I love them because they give us all the first inkling of what the whole show is going to be like, how each part affects every other part, and we won't see that again until it's all edited together.
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An adaptation I was working on of Trollope's 'The Pallisers' has been axed by the BBC... I was also going to do Dickens' 'Dombey and Son' but they've asked me to do 'David Copperfield' instead.
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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.
Andrew Davies