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Post by Chloe (admin) on Apr 7, 2024 18:16:28 GMT
• The latest developments and Producer Interviews from Linford & Newben •
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Post by Chloe (admin) on Apr 7, 2024 18:17:07 GMT
• PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT & PRODUCER INTERVIEW •
It has been a tumultuos time in the forum's history in the past couple of years. Its most major revamp ever saw the forum rebranded from 'Writers Express' to 'Pure Drama', and content transfer to a completely new home. And alongside this new era comes a brand new version of a forum favourite - These Days! We caught up with show guru Chloe Esyllt Jones to find out more...
• Hi, Chloe! So can you give us some background about 'These Days' as a project?Hi! So just to give a little recap, These Days was one of the original forum projects which ran for three years between 2011 and 2014. I originally began working on it in the autumn of 2001, and did about nine episode templates, just playing around and seeing where it went really. But I realised I was on to something and started over soon after. In the end I did about 210 templates over the course of six years or so, before abandoning it as at the time I felt it had run its course, but also I had other things going on in life, as often happens! Then Writers Express came along in August 2011, and quite simply changed my life. The original concept and name of that forum was Belleview, which was to be a forum soap worked on by all forum members.
Unfortunately that idea collapsed eventually under the sheer weight of people's ideas, on which we couldn't really get a coherent consensus. At the time though it was very exciting just reading people's thought processes and character ideas. But I quickly realised that the forum had potential beyond Belleview, and so suggested to the admin of the day that maybe people could post their own projects as well. I felt that idea had the potential to give the forum legs, and would help the creative process generally with Belleview. As a result, three major projects started within two months - The Avenue (2011-16), Uncertain Nights (2011-14) and the first online version of These Days (2011-14).
• What did if feel like posting 'These Days' to an audience for the very first time? Surreal but exciting! This project had been my baby for ten years, and now putting it out there and seeing what others thought about it was kind of scary but in a good way. I wasn't prepared for the response at all, it was just overwhelmingly positive and continued in that fashion for a long time. I've worked on all sorts of writing projects since the 1990s, but I always felt that Days was a bit special. So to have that affirmed by others - and then some - was just magical and meant so much to me. It really gave me the impetus to develop the project as well. The first 40-odd episodes on the forum were more-or-less faithful interpretations of the paper version I wrote back in the day. But I felt if Days was going to continue long-term, it needed some fresh ideas which perhaps the paper version wouldn't live up to.
There was a storyline in that version where Danielle (Harvey, later Parfitt) runs away from home and goes missing, and this is the point where the paper version and forum version of the project started to diverge. I introduced the character of Holly Wainwright, whom Danielle was secretly staying with at their old children's home when Danielle ran away. There was no Holly or children's home in the paper version. I was a bit nervous about introducing Holly because she was a bit wild due to her difficult childhood, and she was the first truly new character I'd written for the forum version. But she just took off like a rocket and the forum took her to their hearts, which was so uplifting for me as a writer. It really gave me the confidence to carry on developing the project in new ways and deviating from the paper version. Several aspects of it remained though, like the Ben Warren storyline. In the paper version though his showdown is only with Rosy, and in the heat of it he goes hurtling out of a window!
• Can you explain what inspired 'These Days' in the first place? Oh, definitely other soaps. I think writers do magpie bits and pieces of things they like in other media and then make it their own, which is what I do. Back then I was still writing a coastal soap called Sandstorms, which I'd been doing for a couple of years. Although I'd written for ages before then, Sandstorms was the first relatively serious project I'd written. It was quite experimental and in some ways foreshadowed what was to come in These Days. The character of Rosy Lyons in Days was basically another character in Sandstorms who had a different name, but was essentially the same kind of person, just less developed. But Sandstorms was fairly lighthearted and romantic, and I think as a writer I was ready for something darker and more sophisticated. At that time ITV had just launched two new teatime soaps - a reboot of Crossroads (2001-3) and this hip, dark, twisted little young adult serial called Night And Day (2001-3).
I enjoyed the rhythm of Crossroads and how easily it segued from one story development to the next, so that was an inspiration. It also very much inspired the hotel set which was used in early versions of Days (Hotel Republic). But Night And Day just completely blew my mind! It may not seem particularly special to modern eyes, but at the time it was just so wildly different to any other soap. It felt more like a drama than a soap, it looked expensive, it had a kind of ethereal feel to it, and the sets actually looked like real homes. It was colourful and dark and bonkers, and it just excited me! At that point I realised I wanted to write something that drew inspiration from Night And Day; not the same, but that emulated and developed that style and sophistication. There was a superbitch character called Jane Harper, and she was the inspiration for Anita Johnson. Lysette Anthony was a cast member in Night And Day, and she inspired the character of Liz Doyle. The minute I started writing These Days, it gave me a buzz that Sandstorms never had done. That's when I knew it was time to leave Sandstorms behind and focus on These Days.
• 'These Days' was an incredibly successful forum project in its first incarnation. So why did you walk away from it? Lots of reasons, really. Most long-running projects go through a 'midas era' where they can't seem to put a foot wrong and people just lap it up and it's great. TD's was exceptionally long, and to tell you the truth, I wasn't ready for the comedown and I wasn't mature enough to deal with that. There's a famous soap trope, 'kill your darlings', which means writers should kill off the most popular characters from time to time, lest they overshadow the show as a whole. So I decided to kill off Holly Wainwright, who was phenomenally popular! Was that the right way to go? I think it was at the time. Holly had been written into a corner to some degree, and I felt if ever there was an opportunity to kill her off, this was probably it. She had developed a sexual relationship with Glen Wright, which was controversial, and her continued presence thwarted any future prospect of Glen and his estranged wife Lisa ever reuniting. So she had to go! The response to her exit and its aftermath was fantastic. They were some of the most emotional episodes of anything I've ever written, and I loved it.
After her exit though, the focus of the show had to change. But Holly's exit marked the end of TD's midas era, and slowly the buzz around the show began to fade, shifting to other forum projects and at times becoming mixed. That was hard to deal with and knocked my confidence, which is petty and immature because it was! I would never react like that now. But it was a wobble. In spite of this, new characters continued joining, some more popular than others. And then came Episode 173, which was the final episode of the original run. I'd reached a crossroads by then, I think. I wasn't sure where the show was going or that I was invested in the ideas I had.
It was also the dying days of Uncertain Nights, which I worked on as well. I think I was also a part of The Avenue at this point too, so evidently a bit over-committed! 2014 was also the year I published my first dramas, The You In Me and Miscarriage, both of which went down really well which was reassuring. I guess my mind just wasn't on the job anymore where These Days was concerned, and I was disillusioned with it. I was also experimenting with a new version for the first time, and found that really cathartic. There were things I wanted to do and things I wish I hadn't done. It wasn't a happy time really but that was no-one's fault. It was what it was.
• A new version of 'These Days' ran for a few years, but produced far fewer episodes. Since then there has been no successful relaunch of the project, despite a few attempts. Why do you think that is? Although there wasn't quite as much buzz about the second version, it still performed well. The feedback was good and the changes were seen as positive and welcomed. But ultimately I think there was a lot of drama promised, but not enough delivered. If anything the original had the opposite problem - too much drama too often which eventually saw it burn out. The balance was just off. Feedback isn't the be all and end all, but it's important to listen and take people's views on board. At the end of the day it's your project, your characters, your stories. But if people aren't vibing with it then the sensible thing to do is to switch it up a bit. There's no point foisting things on the audience they don't enjoy! You've got to strike a balance I think. The most recent attempt changed the show to a weekly, one-hour format. However I didn't enjoy that and I don't think the audience did either, hence it only lasted four episodes! But it was interesting. In terms of narrative and pace, an hour is so different to half an hour. This is where we are up to with These Days, going back about two years here.
• So now we have come full circle! 23 years since the project was born and 13 years since the original run started on the forum. How are you feeling about what is ostensibly These Days 3.0? Yeah, I'm feeling optimistic! A lot of the ideas I had in the previous test run will be carried on, but there are some changes, some of which are quite significant! Lisa and Glen are characters who are dear to my heart, but I've always felt that Glen was the stronger of the two. So I've been working hard on developing Lisa, because I think Glen and Lisa always work best when they are equals. As in the previous test run, there is a permanent hospital set which replaces the hotel set. A hospital I think has much more scope as a community set, for both staff and patients. One thing I definitely want to improve on is pacing. In the past I think I am a bit guilty of squeezing as much into a scene as possible, rather than letting it breathe naturally or spread it out a bit more. As a writer I'm always learning, always listening and hopefully always improving!
• Finally, the scheduling is a bit different this time isn't it? Indeed - Days is going four episodes a week! Historically it's been three, but I think it needs that extra episode with so many characters and stories to explore. Also both myself and the audience have had to wait a long time for this new version, which is why I've decided to do a 'hard launch...!'
• The first episode of 'These Days' is up now •
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