Nasreen Ahmed Interview

Tell us about yourself, and how were you involved in Home?

I’m a Script Editor on Doctors. I put together the storyline for our special homeless week under Peter [Lloyd]’s guidance and also did the script editing on all five episodes.

Why have a Home week? How did it come about?

Peter mentioned to me that he and Claire Bennett had been talking about doing a special week on homelessness. It’s a huge issue in the Midlands as well as the rest of the UK right now and is also a subject that was dear to all our hearts. All this coincided with my fresh return from Coronation Street where I had been working as a storyliner for six months. I was really keen to show off my new skill set and that’s how the opportunity came about – thanks to Peter!

How much planning went into the week, how did you find your stories?

Our first story meeting was brilliant. We sat in a room and literally threw ideas out while I scribbled furiously on a blank piece of paper. Between us, by the end of a massively creative yet exhausting day we had a pretty clear picture of the stories we wanted to tell. We also had a rough idea about our main guest characters and how they would interact with the regulars. I think I delivered my first draft storylines two days later!

How do you research into an issue like this?

It’s a challenge. You have to arm yourself with all the current statistics and information about homelessness and then use it in the most dramatic way possible whilst ensuring it remains accurate. Our researchers were constantly bombarded with ‘what ifs’ and requests for new information – they handled it brilliantly and played a major part in how these episodes turned out.

Was it a difficult issue to cover considering your daytime restraints?

It was tricky. You want character voices that are true to life for people who live on the streets. You want to play out their frustrations and anger and delve into the darker stuff so you can really get the impact of what it means to be homeless. But you have to stay within the remit of daytime so as much as you know they’d be swearing and cursing we only took it so far. We got the gritty look we wanted though and it really stands out visually for daytime drama in my opinion.

Why/how is Doctors a good platform for this kind of story?

Doctors is the perfect platform for this kind of story. We have a strong regular cast who are based in a medical practice. Via them, we were able to get some strong medical themes in and link our guest characters to them comfortably. We also have the police station and were able to put Rob Hollins at the heart of some of the story strands. Most importantly, historically we are simply good with these types of stories and we have delivered successfully on them time and time again.

How did you decide on Al’s storyline?

We knew the main story following characters who have been turfed out of a hostel would enter some dark and dangerous territory as you would expect with the subject of homelessness. So right from the beginning, we were keen to have a lighter strand with Al. Ian Midlane is such a brilliant and versatile actor with great comedy timing – he was the perfect choice to have a much lighter story running alongside the main one. So, we set up a ‘pilgrimage’ for him in which voluntarily makes himself homeless as he embarks on a walk from Letherbridge to Lichfield. But despite the natural comedy that ensues, we have also given him some strands in which things go wrong and he gets a real feel of what it means to be out there and alone.

Is it hard to have a comical storyline like Al’s alongside other harder hitting storylines?

It’s not as hard as you might think. You look for resonance between all the story strands and as long as it is structured well, the whole thing comes together beautifully.

Are you happy with how the episodes turned out?

I couldn’t be happier. It is everything I personally wanted it to be and I think it really played to my storylining strengths. The feedback has been really positive too. Two episodes in – I have laughed, cried and sat on the edge of my seat (even though I knew what was going to happen). What more could you want?!

Any future weekly specials in the pipeline?

I hope so, and I would love the opportunity to be asked to do something this amazing again.