Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Writer best known as the creator of the hugely successful TV drama Peaky Blinders.
On the island
Eight records
I grew up in a house that didn't have many books in it but I did have older brothers who were starting to bring in very different sorts of music which my dad didn't approve of and one of them was bringing in Bob Dylan and for me that was an introduction to the power of words not just music but words because it's all about the imagery and poetry.
This is the song that my mum used to sing. She had a fantastic voice actually and sang it with great passion. And it was her song all through her life. So whenever I hear it I think of her.
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
I'm not religious in any way, but. Whenever I'm writing anything and it's set in a church and there's a hymn being sung, I always say Immortal, Invisible. And they never do it for some reason. They always do a different one. But. Because I love it so much. And it reminds me of autumn mornings at the school I went to, where we used to have assembly, boys on one side, girls on the other.
Reflecting the introduction of politics into one's life, this is one of my favourite songs of all time, so finding an excuse is not difficult. But this was just of the time, of the 70s, early 80s, when politics was an integral part of a young person's life, which maybe it isn't anymore. But this is just a beautiful song.
When I was at Capital, there was a charity that we did every year and you get a star to say, I really support this charity, blah, blah, blah. And I was sent to see Wham at the Brixton Academy and get George Michael and Andrew Ridgely to record something for the charity. And I arrived early and the place is empty and they're rehearsing on stage. And I was thinking, Wham, really? You know, have I really got to go and do this? … And I'm sitting in the auditorium on my own and George Michael is going to each musician and telling them what to do, how to do it. Totally in command. And he starts singing different corner and it was unbelievable. It was so beautiful. The words are great. … So that's why I like this song.
I just find it absolutely beautiful. There was a particular time when I was writing, if I'm writing I can't have anybody talking or the radio or TV or music with lyrics. This I can put on and I can write. with this on because it's so evocative and it's got such a beautiful mood. I don't know what the words are, which is why it helps, but it's sung by choirs of people who inherit their bit of the song. Their mother sang this part of the song and their grandmother sang this part of the song and the harmonies I just find absolutely beautiful.
Well, when we were first putting the thing together, there's an opening scene where Killian rides a black horse through the streets of Small Heath. But what had happened is that a lot of the editors had been using contemporary music to give the mood of the thing while they're cutting it. And it was so good that in the end, it didn't feel like a decision at the time. You know, it didn't feel like let's do something radical. It actually felt as if this was the most natural thing in the world. So contemporary music on a 1920s show, and that became a really important part of it.
Keep Right On to the End of the RoadFavourite
Oh, everything. I mean this is the song of my team, Birmingham City. All my extended family are Blues fans. All grandparents were Blues fans. My granddad was at the Battle of the Somme before he went over the top. They gave him a card saying leave a message for a loved one in case she gets killed. And his first words were, Give the Blues a shout for me. … For me, it's the thing that's the glue that, you know, all in the past, all the uncles and aunties, we all used to go as a great big tribe to the match. And we have this song that we sing called Keep Your Unto the End of the Road. And it was written by Harry Lauder, who wrote it for his son, who was killed in the First World War. And it's just the words of it are very plain, very simple, very practical. It's like, this is what you should do with your life. And if you're a blues fan, any blues fans listening know that it's been a long, hard road. But we're getting there.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:15Are you someone who finds it quite difficult to switch off?
Yeah, it's it's not even I don't feel as as if it's switching off, it's like um switching over to something else. In other words, I find it relaxing to write and the discipline is to stop, usually.
Presenter asks
3:36What does a good day's writing look like for you then? When do you like to start? Where do you like to write?
Early start always. For me, that's the best time when just as you are becoming awake. So it's probably where there's still a bit of echo of. Whatever the dreamland is, yeah. And then start writing. I try to end the day before knowing what I'm gonna do next rather than stopping when I've stuck. … Exactly. So you get yourself into it by with something you know you're going to do and then just let it happen and then run out of petrol probably about two o'clock.
Presenter asks
6:21How would you describe him [your dad]?
He was a farrier, a blackbird. So that's that shoe. Shoeing horses, yeah. I mean, he was a horse person. And he died when I was quite young. He was born in Small Heath, so was my mum. And he told me lots of stories about the old days, and Peaky Blinders came from that. But his working life began when he was working at the co-op bakery shoeing horses. There's like a production line of horses and shoeing and hard work and fire and forges. just a very evocative period. And then when the horses ran out, they moved out to the country to a blacksmith shop. And we were a family with lots of connections through my dad to lots of Romani people. When they were living in the small village, there was a camp nearby. And those people who were living there were the only reason that we survived as a family because they used to pay in cash.
The keepsakes
The book
Robert Graves
When I discovered the Greek myths quite a long time ago via that book, it was just a revelation in terms of amoral heroes, dreamlike events, visceral part of just human psychology, and it would keep me going for a long time.
The luxury
I'm afraid it's a laptop. No, I don't want the internet, just power.
Presenter asks
26:56How did [Who Wants to Be a Millionaire] actually happen?
Well, I was working at Capital and Chris Tarrant was the breakfast show DJ and there was a producer called David Briggs, another writer called Mike Whitehill. And together we used to come up with, first of all, with stuff for the breakfast show on Capital. You know, this is the days of going out at lunchtime and having a drink, so we'd go to the pub and just talk about stuff and talk about ideas for games and things. And David Briggs originally came up with this idea of an unlimited prize. It began with the thing about the grains of rice on the chessboard, where if you double the amount, the grains of rice with each square on the chessboard, by the end of it, you can cover the whole of India with rice. And we just started working on ways of making it a simple quiz. The problem we kept facing was that people… … But the problem was they kept keeping the money. They wouldn't get to a certain point and then and so we gave them the phone a friend, you know, ask somebody else in the room, 50-50, ask the audience. … It was great for the game'cause it was all working as a technique, but it wasn't keeping people in. And then somebody came up with let's show them the question before they decide. Really simple bit of technique, and it worked.
Presenter asks
31:46At the time, though, you did say you were very glad you didn't win the Oscar. Why?
It feels like the end when you win it. It's like you've done that. That's that. But yeah, no, it's fantastic to be nominated. And I will use the Leonard Cohen quote about all you need to be a writer is arrogance and inexperience. And I had both. You know, I didn't know what I shouldn't be doing. I did know what I shouldn't be doing. So I was writing it virtually in, well, in Word, not in final draft for a start off. So I was writing this script that I didn't know what I was doing, really. And then it got a lot of attention. So it was great.
Presenter asks
36:06For those who haven't seen it, how would you sum up Peaky Blinders?
What I try to do is tell stories of urban gangsters in Birmingham as if it were a Western, as if it were a myth. I was told stories by my mum and dad of things that they experienced when they were kids. So they were kids looking at this world. So there's the first mythology of it. Then when I'm a kid, they're telling me the stories, and it's doubly mythologised. … and instead of t like making it gritty and real and and isn't it a shame? And you know, most things about working class people I think are like either aren't they hilarious or Isn't it a shame? You never have that in your stories. No, because it's not true. That's why. I think that it misses the whole point that to see working class life from that perspective is so reductive. I experienced it with my dad when we used to go shoeing horses, like in the the gypsy scrap metal yard. The people that we would meet were just so larger than life. They were so rebellious. They were so the other side of the law. They were but really warm and great people. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but and I wanted to get some of that respect for one's own life into this, that these are these are people who are living big, glamorous. dramatic lives, that the emotions and passions of these people are the same as anybody else. And try to create what turned out to be fortunately like a global landscape where people in Eastern Europe and people in Buenos Aires and people in Rio are getting it and feeling the same thing.
“And sometimes you don't even know you've remembered it, but it's there somewhere. I mean, my theory that I've come up with is that everybody dreams. You know, you fall asleep, and some part of your brain takes the things that have happened and people you know and other events, puts them all together, and does this weird story. But the characters are spot-on. They never come in with a bit of implausible dialogue. So, some part of your brain is able to do that. And I've tried, where possible, to turn everything else off and just let it go.”
“He was a farrier, a blackbird. So that's that shoe. Shoeing horses, yeah. I mean, he was a horse person. And he died when I was quite young. He was born in Small Heath, so was my mum. And he told me lots of stories about the old days, and Peaky Blinders came from that.”
“She was great. I mean she was it was everything was a laugh. I'll give you an example of her thought processes. We lived on a state where the council didn't grit the roads for some reason. So when it snowed, which it did'cause it was quite high up, it was impassable. And so my mum got her shoes and super glued grit to the soles of her shoes.”
“I read in a book that there was a school built in 1888 called Little Rock School and it was on Standing Rock Reservation for Native American kids. And I wrote a letter that said, I'm very interested in American Indians and I'd love to have some pen friends. I was 12 at the time and posted it and about four months later this thick envelope arrived with letters from about 15 kids my age in the school which still existed by some miracle. talking about their lives. They sent me some stuff. They sent me like a bracelet thing that they'd made. You know, imagine if you read a lot of Harry Potter.”
“It feels like the end when you win it. It's like you've done that. That's that. But yeah, no, it's fantastic to be nominated. And I will use the Leonard Cohen quote about all you need to be a writer is arrogance and inexperience. And I had both.”
“What I try to do is tell stories of urban gangsters in Birmingham as if it were a Western, as if it were a myth.”