I settled down to an interview with
Frank Cottrell Boyce, a writer with whom I have been keen to interview for ever
such a long time. We always seem to miss each other, what with one thing or
another, but tonight I managed to put my questions to him before he relaxed for
the evening.
I made my apologies for
not having seen the new film 'Goodbye Christopher Robin' but knowing my Mum had
already seen it, and had given me more or less the blow by blow account, that I
already knew the ending before reaching the steps of the cinema with my popcorn
- I was at least certain of the questions I wanted to put to Frank.
I also thanked him for his
novel 'Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth', which is aimed at the 9-12-year-old age
group. This book told me the ingredients of vinegar, which I'd never really known
before, so it was educational, not just for the many children who read his
books, but also for this big kid here. *waves*
So, armed with my
questions, I began the interview...
Hi
Frank, you're a screenwriter as well as a children's novelist, what came first?
Frank: Oh, screenwriting, straight away. I
worked on Brookside to start with. I've worked in television for a long time.
My first book was Millions which was 2004 and set in Liverpool.
You
wrote the 'Debbie & Damon' story, the spin off series from 'Brookside'?
Frank: (laughs), How do you know that, oh God.
I confessed to have done a
little research of my own! I loved Brookside, it was one of those early soaps
on Channel 4, before HollyOaks came into being. It was one of those dramas that
dealt with real life issues, as far as I was concerned, it was much better than
Corrie and Eastenders in my humble opinion. So, when Debbie & Damon covered
the story of the two teenage lovers, heading out on their own, I was distraught
to say the least, when one of them died at the end of the spin off series. So,
it sparked the question...
Was
it your idea, and that of the creator Phil Redmond's, to kill off Damon at the
end of the series, or was it because the actor was leaving the show and you had
to write him out?
Frank: He must have been. I don't remember
now. He must have been. I don't have that level of power, you know. It must
have been a way of writing him out. I still see him Simon O’Brien, he's great.
He's got a DIY programme and just built this beautiful library for his kid's
school. It's just stunning. He's a great guy.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
musical was a classic, but apart from that I didn't realise other novels had
been written, and then I happened to internet search Frank's career and found a
few extra books that weren't listed elsewhere, and so had to ask.
Frank: It was originally a book by Ian
Fleming, and I think it was the last thing that Fleming wrote, he was very ill
when he wrote it. He intended to write it, and if you think about it, it is
James Bond for kids. You've got the car. You've got a weird foreign dictator,
it's got caper, and all those things. He wrote it for his son but he sadly
died, and he always intended to write more. His niece got in touch with me and
asked if I'd write the sequels, so I did, and it was fun to do.
I
like the Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth as it's set around Dumfries, and I
know that area quite well, but there were a few places in the book that I
wasn't sure if they were real, or not.
Frank: I probably made up the name. I think of
it as, if you think of the Robbie Burns Centre, those flats behind there.
That's what I see in my head.
When I read the story
about Sputnik, there was a sense of personal attachment to the Grandad in the
book and I had a feeling that Frank was writing about someone he knew, because
it resonated with someone close to me.
Frank: Yeah, I think that is the most personal
I've written in that book and I've never written about a family member before
but he's kind of gone beyond being able to read, so it’s not going to impact on
him at all. And I wanted to get something down, you know. It's funny, I've
genuinely never written about a family member before that book, it's sort of
all in there. And I think, I couldn't have written anything else, because
you'll know, it takes up all of your head space. I look after him like one and
a half days a week and for the rest of the week I'm thinking about him, you
know.
You
also know a lot, from the book, about life on other planets, and all the
planetary stuff, that I'm learning so much about, that I'm going to have to
pick your brains when it comes to writing my sci fi novel. So, is that
something you're passionate about?
Frank: Yes, I really like my sci fi as you
know, and I read a lot of science as well, as that is my thing and I do read a
lot of science books. There's one physics book. French one. (Frank delves down
the side of desk and lifts a huge book, holding it to the screen and can't
recommend it enough - so naturally, that's on my next book list for
Waterstones).
"The Universe in Your
Hand" but honestly, if you write sci fi, you should read that book. It's
like an imaginary trip to the end of the universe using what physics we have
and it's really, really great.
In
Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth, the young girl Jessie blows a dog whistle
loudly, and Sputnik responds by pulling a gun from his rucksack, with plans of
shooting the 'whistle blower'. In an ordinary story aimed for a much older
audience that sort of thing wouldn't bother me, but a story aimed at the 9-12
age group, I felt really uncomfortable reading this part, so I put this
question to Frank.
Frank: We've had lots of arguments about that.
Not with my publisher actually just with my kids in fact who were more
sensitive about it than I was. I didn't come across any rules about it and I
would normally be very against that. I mean, I've never written a villain and I
don't really believe in villains, or anything like that but it just seemed to
come out of him. He just seemed to be a completely lawless character.
I guess he's sort of not
real. You kind of know that if he did fire that gun, that it wouldn't hurt, do
you know what I mean? I don't know how to kind of untangle this. It's still
kind of working at the moment with him, with that character because I'm working
on the film at the moment and it's like 'how would that work?'
So, I kind of think, you
know how that's not a serious threat to the kid because whatever's going on
with that gun is not really a gun somehow.
The
lightsaber seemed to be MUCH worse however (laughs)
Frank: The lightsaber is what I read when I go
to the schools. I read that section out loud and kids love that. And they love
the fact that it's transgressive, that it's scary and its horror and stuff, so…
Well,
kids love scary stuff though. The things that kids watch these days which is
pretty much more than I would watch, I'm either behind a cushion or peering
through my fingers!!! (Wimp, me? Yes)
It
was something I always wondered, especially as a new writer, as to how far you
could push the boundaries before someone said, no, no, no you can't write it.
You're going to have to have a cut off point.
Frank: You are cautious. I am cautious, but
Sputnik just takes over. I guess it's an instinctive thing. If it works, it
works, you know.
You've
written two Doctor Who episodes, Smile and In the Forest of the Night - which
instantly made me think of the poem, Tiger. Back in the early days of Who, the
story Human Nature was written for the Seventh Doctor in book form, but was
made into an episode for the 10th Doctor. Was In the Forest of the Night
written for any other Doctor or specifically for the 12th?
Frank: No, it was written very much for the
12th Doctor. It had quite a specific place in the arc of the series because if
you remember it was the episode before the death of Danny Pink. So, I had this
basic idea for a story and what Steven wanted me to, as he called it 'take a
big back swing' for that character Danny Pink, so we knew we were going to kill
him in the next episode, so we were giving him an episode that was part of the
brief. So, it had a specific slot in the arc of the series.
In
the episode 'Smile', the idea of the nano things that all came apart from the
whole building, where did that idea come from?
Frank: Right, that's a very specific thing, I
work on part of a project, where a writer works with a scientist, and I was
working with a guy called Andrew Vardy, who those robots are named after, who
works at the University of Newfoundland and Andrew works on tiny robots. Not
Nano robots which are the size of a molecule but very small robots like the
size of my fingernail, that perform tasks and they swarm in order to perform
the tasks.
Ahh,
got you, as originally I was thinking along the lines of the Vashta Nerada,
Silence in the library.
Frank: Ahh yes, a lot of people have said
that, but honestly, it was Gretna starlings and Andrew Vardy's real robots.
Will
you be writing more Doctor Who episodes?
Frank: I don't know really. I haven't been
asked, so...I guess that's not for the next series anyway. I think Chris is wanting
to really, really wipe the slate clean, you know like, you probably know by now
that Bill isn't in the next series?
I
had heard something about that.
Frank: Yeah, that's quite unusual to get rid
of a companion if you're getting a new Doctor, because you usually keep a
companion. And, I'm insanely busy at the
moment and happy not to be doing it to be honest.
My
next question was going to be, if you were going to be writing any more, could
you bring the Sea Devils back?
Frank: I loved the Sea Devils you know. I
thought they were amazing. They've really really stayed with me, yeah, and any
time I see those offshore fortresses I'm always a little bit spooked by them.
And please don't tell me anything about it because all I've got is a couple of
childhood images that if I looked it up or watched it on YT I'm sure it would
be rubbish
Are
you looking forward to the 13th Doctor?
Frank: Yeah, who isn't? I look forward to
every Doctor to be honest. All my life I've always wanted to know who the next
Doctor was going to be but she's going to be fantastic isn't she?
I confessed that although
I was looking forward to Jodie appearing as the new Doctor, that my initial
thoughts regarding a female Doctor were more or less, the same as many of the
people who were less positive. But then I
had to look beyond that, and with so much talk regarding transgender these days in the news, on social media and television that perhaps the change
of gender for the Doctor was no different to that of the transgender community,
and when I looked at it that way, I could accept that, and I had no issues
regarding the 13th Doctor.
Frank:
We didn't care when the
Master was a woman did we?
Yeah, but she wasn't the Master, she was the wife of the Master. When that was
finally revealed that kind of killed it for me. I thought 'dammit' I was
waiting for the regeneration. Missy was great, just a pity she was killed off
really.
Who
was your Doctor when you were growing up?
Frank: Jon Pertwee.
If
you had to choose from the new Who, who would it be?
Frank: Favourite? I absolutely love Peter
Capaldi. I mean, obviously, I've enjoyed all of them, but I like the idea of
the Doctor as the teacher. Do you know what I mean, the Doctor not as a
potential boyfriend. You've got someone who is a mentor - that wiser, older,
more damaged, more flawed. I love him. I think he's fantastic.
Goodbye Christopher Robin
You
know when you're writing about a real person, how much research do you have to
cover about that one character?
Frank: I obviously like to research. I think
partly because that's the thing I most enjoy about writing. I really enjoy
finding stuff out. I enjoy interviewing people and I really enjoy kind of
looking for and finding things, because then you don't have to write them. I do
remember, years ago, one of the films I first made, it was called 'Hilary and
Jackie' and it was about the cellist, Jacqueline du Pré, and I remember going
to have supper with her sister and honestly, after an hour and a half of
chatting to her, coming out with three or four great scenes already in my head,
and the main thrust of the film just from talking to her. And I love that, when
you engage with the reality of something, you gain so much and it's all fresh,
it's all stuff you...I know it's an old cliche to say, but you couldn't make it
up.
I laughed at this point.
The phrase 'You couldn't make this up' reflected upon the job I do in my real
life (away from the website). So for a few minutes we discussed the
possibilities of writing my sci fi novel based around my day job, and the
characters, and the people who visit my place of work, and it truly was an
interesting topic which probably shocked Frank far more than I really intended.
Frank: The more truly autobiographical something
is the more fantastic it has to be. I think the most fantastical story the most
autobiographical story ever written is Metamorphosis where he changed into a
beetle. I think that's so like the way my Dad is at the moment. I just think
that's exactly right. That's what's happened. He's turned into a beetle,
basically.
But also, I'm thinking
it's like the housing estate which I grew up on, I moved to it when I was a
little boy, and it was so exciting and now it's full of old people. I wouldn't
want to write about it because I know everybody there and was thinking this is
what it will be like if we build a colony on Mars. The first inhabitants will
be young couples with kids, it would be dead exciting, and then they'll all grow
old together and that housing estate, if I was going to write about it, I would
definitely write about it as a Martian colony.
So, I think you're on the
right track, I love the idea of sci fi-ing the Gretna Blacksmith's thing,
that's a great idea, because it is a sci fi idea isn't it, because people are
stopping off there for whatever reason.
Also,
when you're writing about your characters for Christopher Robin, were there
some things you couldn't actually write, maybe some other details you couldn't
get a hold of, so you'd have to use poetic licence?
Frank: In the film we couldn't touch anything
to do with Winnie the Pooh because Disney owns it all. So, we couldn't go near
it, no. That was actually quite liberating though as it meant we had to write
something else. Most of the films I've made have been about real people, and
I've always been quite cautious and always gone to speak to the people involved
to see what they didn't want in it because I don't think anyone should be compromised
just to entertain everybody else.
So, in 24 Hour Party
People that was about the Manchester Music Scene, and there was one scene in it
that the two people involved in it that were still quite angry with each other,
so I just got one of the real people to play...it plays out his drama, and then
one of the real people who was really in that scene just walked onto camera and
goes 'this didn't happen like this, it happened like this, and this.'
What
prompted the idea for the film?
Frank: That film was already in development
when they came to me, and I think it was always going to come to me because I'm
an English screenwriter who likes writing about real people and I'm also a
children's novelist, so it was always a perfect fit for me. And I didn't want
to do it, and it came across my desk and I looked at it and thought, 'no I do
want to do this.'
I'd built such a strong
connection with Winnie the Pooh and with also the whole thing of Dads, you
know, and I've got lots of children, and as soon as I looked at it. ‘I know how
to do that’. which is a big thing, because normally you spend ages trying to
figure out how to do something, and the minute I saw that material I thought, I
know how to do this.
You
were co-writer on the movie,
Frank: Yeah, there was a guy, Simon Vaughan,
who had already written the script. We didn't write together as he had already
written the script, which did the job of explaining that there was a story
there and Simon would admit this but Simon's not really a writer, but he is a
huge Winnie the Pooh fan. He's a producer really. He'd already made a film
called 'A Bear Called Winnie' about the bear and then he wanted to go on to
make the one about the boy, and the script was just not good enough at all. And
so, I had free rein to re-write it.
Ahh,
I just wondered how the role of co-writer worked. Does one have the idea and the
other one writes it. I wasn't quite sure how that moulded together.
Frank: This is what they call a Page One
rewrite. It kept the same focus but I don't think there's a word to sandwich it
You
come back to South West Scotland quite a lot, do you get most of your ideas for
writing here? I know with Sputnik story but...
Frank: I never write when I'm there, but I
think that's quite a good thing, that is because you write pretty relentlessly
at home and I think I don't ever have time to think. And when we're in Dumfries
& Galloway I don't do any work. But actually, I think that's when you do
your most valuable work.
Except for the novel
Millions the book which I wrote, when my son, had a job at Mabie Farm Park and
getting there and back was a nightmare, so I used to drive him down and think,
'it's just not worth going home', so I would sit in the car park there at the
picnic table and that's where I wrote most of Millions.
Thank you, Frank, for an
awesome interview, and I look forward to seeing you very soon!
Photos courtesy of Frank
Cottrell Boyce, Pan Books, Goodbye Christopher Robin film poster, BBC News, and
BBC Doctor Who.
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