TV SCRIPTWRITING

27     Writing the script

‘I was doing a story for the news at 5.45. I was so late back I had to do it live. You sit in a little booth behind the studios and as they broadcast the piece, when the pictures come you read into a microphone off your printed script.

‘Because it was such a last-minute thing I had to scribble my script in pencil on the back of a couple of envelopes. I had one minute before the bulletin and mine was the lead story. With 30 seconds to go, somebody came in to check my headphones were on and everything was OK, and they slammed the door and my two envelopes were blown out beneath it.

‘Then the newsreader went straight into my story, and I was sitting there thinking, ‘‘Oh, my God, I’ve got nothing, but ...

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