Neil Forsyth is the writer of the Bob Servant books which he later adapted for BBC Radio 4 and television. He has also written two episodes of the Urban Myths series. His new drama Eric, Ernie and Me, the story of Eddie Braben, the writer behind the immense success of comedy duo Morecambe and Wise, is on BBC Four on 29th December.
You’ve moved from journalism to novel writing and then scriptwriting. What are the key differences and challenges moving between them?
Ultimately, all are about storytelling. When I started in journalism I was writing reports of Scottish football games, which would mean filing perhaps 500 words within half an hour of the end of the match. That was a great training in being concise and disciplined. Novel writing can be daunting, it’s such a vast canvas that you can’t possibly keep the whole story in your head so it teaches you to think in broad strokes and then lose yourself in the detail. With scriptwriting you have to think of the script as more of a living document. To consider performance, movement, unspoken interaction, and all the other aspects that will be working alongside your words.
Did you always want to move from journalism into other forms of writing?
Yes, but I’m not sure I’d have had much choice. The freelance journalist job I did ten years - keeping busy, travelling extensively, and writing long pieces for a wide number of publications, sadly doesn’t exist now.
How did you get your first publishing deal?
I read a small piece in a Scottish paper about a teenage credit card fraudster called Elliot Castro. I wrote to Elliot in prison and interviewed him for a magazine. That article attracted a book agent, then a publisher and became my first book, a biography of Elliot called Other People’s Money.
How did you manage to adapt your Bob Servant books for radio and then TV?
I had an email from Owen Bell, a comedy producer at BBC Scotland who had read the books and asked if I’d be interested in adapting the character. And then I managed to get the books to Brian Cox who said he would play Bob. He’d left the books in his toilet and one day heard his teenage son laughing in there. I owe a decent amount of my career to Brian Cox’s son’s choice of toilet reading material.
You adapted Bob Servant yourself for Radio and TV but how was it with Eric, Ernie and Me to write a screenplay based on real people and events which really happened?
It felt very similar to writing longer features as a journalist, or Other People’s Money. It was about doing lots of research and then finding the story within it.
What was the process of pitching and developing the show and getting it commissioned?
About a year ago I read Eddie Braben’s memoirs The Book What I Wrote. I was fascinated that he produced such life-affirming comedy through a writing process so torturous that he had to step away from the show on two occasions due to nervous exhaustion. I thought Eddie’s story would be a way to shine a light on the role of the writer, against the backdrop of an iconic television show. My producer Ben Farrell agreed, as did the BBC. So I wrote the first draft of the script and Ben and I went to Pwllheli on the Welsh coast to visit Eddie’s widow Dee. We gave her the script and shuffled off for a walk along the beach. When we returned, Dee smiled and said “I seem to spend a lot of time washing the dishes.” Once I’d corrected my lazy misogyny we were off to the races.
What is particularly interesting or unexpected about the story of Eddie Braben and the way he worked with Morecambe and Wise?
I think the majority of people, like me before I read his book, might recognise Eddie’s name but know little else about him. Many would assume Morecambe and Wise wrote their own material, if it was written at all. As Eddie said, “People thought they made it up as they went along”. The truth, as we show, is that he was absolutely integral to making Morecambe and Wise the double act they became in the Seventies.
Have you had a lot of setbacks in your writing career and how have you dealt with them?
Of course. Setbacks and failures are a vital part of a writing career. They are little nudges towards helping you find your true voice as a writer, towards the stories you should really be telling, and towards the people you should really be working with.
What would be your biggest piece of writing advice?
Always know what you’re going to write tomorrow.
Eric, Ernie and Me is on Friday 29th December at 9pm on BBC Four and on BBC iPlayer
Find out more about Neil Forsyth on his website and read more about Eric, Ernie and Me on his blog
Listen to Neil Forsyth and Deirdree Braben on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme (2'49'38" into the programme)