Prime time legend Tony Jordan, joined producer Nik Powell and the London Screenwriters’ Festival delegates once again this year, to discuss the writing style that led him to a long and successful career in television. Both frank and entertaining, the discussion revealed Tony’s insights into some of the things he’s learned help writing and story connect with an audience.
Understand What You Bring To Your Writing
Tony Jordan started out as a market trader and got into screenwriting through a neighbour who was an aspiring writer. Hired by EastEnders at a time when they were looking for more ‘authentic’ East End voices (Tony’s actually a scouser) what he actually brought to the show was years of talking to hundreds of people a day, hearing their stories and learning to understand character.
Weave Story in Innovative Ways
Part of bringing authentic characters to screen led Tony to look at fresh and intricate ways to express his own voice, helping the audience to connect with the joys and pains of the characters lives. In one ‘EastEnders’ scene, Tony had to write a moment of confession where one character learns that his wife has been unfaithful with his brother. The famous Sharongate storyline, a slow burn love triangle that played out over a significant period of the 1990s embroiled many other characters and plot points in it’s turns and twists and brought numerous story threads together to peak in a moment of raw revelation and it’s long aftermath.
To find a new way to bring the truth to light rather than the standard confession face to face or finding out via a third party, methods that had become stale, Tony realised that if the truth were somehow recorded and the revelation listened to, the camera could stay with one character during a moment of intense pain and realisation without looking away bringing a bigger emotional impact to viewers after the long slow build of story. This was an approach that was new to television at the time and resulted in the moment being considered one of the most memorable ever in episodic TV.
Writing is a Process Understood Best by Other Writers
Tony feels that the things writers learn as they begin to work more in the industry are all part of the process of becoming a writer and he learned more from speaking to other experienced writers than from producers notes. The move from half hour soaps to hour long dramas wasn’t an easy one until he got a break writing for ‘Boom.’ When he got to the point where he was pitching new series ideas to commissioners his successes have been a mixture of personal passions and ideas worked out with other writers, perhaps most notably hit show ‘Life on Mars’ inspired by brainstorming trip to Blackpool with writers Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham and a few carrier bags full of cash.
Take Opportunities and Never Give Up on Your Work
‘Life on Mars’ and many of Tony’s other hit shows took a long time to find the right home and get made, but Tony never gives up on an idea, he keeps them and pitches them and re-writes and adjusts them to suit when necessary and this is an approach he takes to other people’s work that he wants to help and promote, such as Red Planet scripts he believes in. He never forgets good ideas or that his ideas can be good given the right circumstance.
If an opportunity to pitch something presents itself he’ll come up with an idea on the fly if he has to, his ‘The Nativity’ adaptation being one such off the cuff pitch that paid off, he thinks because of the passion he put into sharing an idea he was making up on the spot and the humility he takes in making an idea work, admitting when ‘The Nativity’ wasn’t working from his initial angle and finding a new way forward, always trying to come at stories and characters with a tangible aspect that audience can relate to, utilising his own voice and serving the core of the story. ‘What is it?’ and ‘What makes it mine?’ are questions he asks himself about all his projects. So far, it’s paid off for him and the writers he helps very well indeed.
Posted by a member of the London Screenwriters’ Festival team.
