Inspired by a Sonnet...

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Writer Dale Overton on Sonnet 29

"The easy part was choosing the Sonnet. As I was quick to point out to Peter (Lloyd, Series Producer), 29 is quite simply, the story of my life!

“When in Disgrace with Fortune?” Tell me about it, mate! This is a writer’s cry of pain, the purest distillation of Shakespeare’s genius both as a poet and a storyteller. Eight lines of supremely elegant, heartfelt railing against the world. Followed by a hard-won but ultimately soaring message of Hope.

So how does a humble Doctors writer come anywhere close to such “Art” and “Scope”? Well, the structure is actually pretty much the same fourteen scenes, like the fourteen lines. Just keep each one brief, make it count and then flow into the whole, with a telling twist at the end. Simple! Nothing short of life-or-death would suffice for the story, so I drew on the personal experience of a cancer scare.

"Then it had to be set in a real-word context, to avoid any sense of pretension. But that still left me needing a genuinely surprising twist, Shakespeare having already used up the best option! Always a tall order but I hope we managed to find it and in some small way, capture the spirit of the original."