Support Your Local Screenwriters' Festival

Margaret Thatcher famously survived on four hours sleep a night. Unlike her, I wasn’t sent to the planet Earth to destroy the human race, so I’m finding it harder to cope after a couple of late nights / early mornings.

Maybe future historians won’t judge her as harshly as we do now. “Maggie Thatcher: Not Evil. Just Needed A Nap.”

Anyway, the reason for my most recent late night was the 2009 Screenwriters' Festival launch shindig, held at the offices of Channel 4, where the great and the good of British screenwriting gathered to score some free wine.

After David Pearson, the festival’s grand fromage, welcomed us and the mighty Julian Fellowes provided some well-received randomness, David Thompson, producer of “Billy Elliot”, gave a fun talk touching on a range of topics from the difficulty of getting a film made to how a cat named Poppy nearly became the head of drama at the BBC (Insert your own bitter comment here).

Is it wrong that, when you have the producer of some of the most successful British films of the last twenty years stood in front of you, all you can think to ask is “You say you went to Charterhouse school. Did you get the opportunity to punch any members of Genesis in the face?”?

As one of the ten pitchers at the upcoming festival, I took a particular interest in David Pearson’s conversation with previous pitchers Simon Sayce and Elena Fuller and what has happened with their careers in the last six months. It was encouraging and terrifying in equal measure. I really must develop my idea more, rather than shrugging my shoulders and saying “I dunno,” when someone asks an intelligent question.

Olivia Hetreed (“Girl With A Pearl Earring”) then talked honestly about the sometimes uneasy relationship between the writer and director, which could be played out as a farce entitled “Whoops! Where’s My Per Diem?”

The highlight for me, though, was the bar afterwards where I ran into some people I hadn't seen in a while and got to meet fellow bloggers Stuart Perry, Phill Barron and David Lemon. Being new to the blogosphere, sometimes I wonder whether I’m gate-crashing a very nice party, but they are gentleman all. And it’s always great to see someone you recognise in three dimensions.

And that’s the beauty of the Screenwriters Festival, as far as I can see. Sometimes, tapping away at the MacBook, you start to worry that you’re some kind of delusional weirdo hermetically sealed from the rest of the world. Meeting and talking with other writers, you realise that you’re not. Or, at least, they don’t mind that you’re a delusional weirdo.

So, roll on October and the festival proper. Get your early bird ticket here. I’ll see you at the bar. Mine’s a Guinness.