How did you become a professional script writer - what was your 'big break'?

1988 was the big break. I'd been sending unsolicited scripts and storylines to various production offices for years ( Doctor Who , Blake's 7 , Robin of Sherwood ) when Andrew Cartmel at the Who office invited me in for discussions. We worked on various ideas for about a year, and the final result was Ghost Light .

What are your memories of the original Blake's 7 show?

I always get a sort of rosy glow at the mention of Blake's 7 . At the time, it had a grubby, home grown edginess lacking in other TV space opera - at least the ideas did. There was always a seesaw battle going on between the imagination of the stories and lack of budget allocated. Just like Doctor Who really. But even when the budget might come close to scuppering a story, the characters could be relied on to rescue it. That's what really makes it work. I certainly didn't watch for the special effects. I watched for the interplay of Blake, Avon, Servalan and Travis, and the uncertainty of not knowing who you could trust.

You've heard the new cast perform your script - how did it feel, how did they sound?

I was really glad to see (and hear) how immediately the new cast made the characters their own. TV locks the performance of a well-loved character into a sort of amber. Gareth Thomas is always Roj Blake; Jacqueline Pearce is always Servalan. But if Blake's 7 had been a stage play, there might be the chance of different productions and interpretations of the same script. This may be a new script version, but there are plenty of nods to the original. The old relationships are still there (but with some new twists), and the new cast make it feel very fresh and alive. 

What will be your overriding memory of the recording?

The unforgettable sight of Carrie Dobro (Jenna) and Colin Salmon (Avon) physically crushing Dean Harris (Vila), one on each side, so that he got the right voice for being pinned to the floor by a gravity device. All three of them trying not to giggle. It's a really strong cast and crew. Everyone involved had real enthusiasm for the project. After a lot of hugely enjoyable slog on the scripts, you could see it all coming together and know it was in safe hands.

The five minute chapter format - how does this work, how did you fit your story into these bite sized chunks?

If all those five minute slices were initially a bit daunting, in practice they provided a strong structure and were a good discipline. No chance of waffle at all. In the three hours of material, there are nine separate interlinked stories of four times five minute chapters each. I've written the middle hour and because the regular characters are so well-established, there is room for development and nuance. There's also a strong overall arc as our heroes try to establish themselves away from Earth, form alliances and try to cope with living in an alien spaceship which has a very alien mind of its own.

How did you get involved with the project?

Ben Aaronovitch, whom I've known well since our days on Who, asked me to come up with some ideas for the new series. Initially we weren't sure whether we'd be writing an animated series (something in the style of Sin City in space) or the audio series. I've written a fair amount of audio drama. It's where I feel really comfortable and I'm sure it's a good place to start for a new look at Blake. With audio, no one says "but we can't afford a fire fight with five hundred spaceships on the busy civilian space lanes above the planet Vishnu." But the other options are still there, I think. So hopefully this is just the start.

How would you describe your script to someone who's never seen Blake's 7?

On one level, it's Robin Hood in space: a big fast epic space action adventure. On another, it's about one very upright and creditable man's battle against the Federation, the all-powerful totalitarian regime that governs Earth. As a fugitive from his own world, Blake gets embroiled with a dissolute rebel band of rebels and criminals, all with agendas of their own. In my central episodes, Blake and his crew start to learn about how far the malignant tentacles of the Federation stretch across the growing empire of worlds beyond the Earth. They also come up against the Liberator, the strange, alien ship they had commandeered and realise that it has a highly dangerous will of its own.

Who was your favourite character to write for?
Actually I like them all. None of them knows who else to trust. They
all have their own agendas, hopes and fears and that's great for playing the characters off against each other. The desire to stay alive unites them, but otherwise they are all pulling in their own directions. The character I really liked rediscovering was Jenna. Somehow I'd seemed to have overlooked her - maybe that's because she disappears after the second TV series - but she's the heart of the group, the one who keeps everyone else's feet on the ground. A feisty, ballsy and hugely likeable person, with great intuition too.

What was it like working with Ben and James?

As I've said, Ben and I first met working on Doctor Who . We hit it off from the start, both contributing ideas to each other's stories and I landed up novelising one of his. As an editor, Ben knows exactly what he wants. He always has all the basics plotted out so that I know where I'm aiming with a story, but he trusts enough to let me do the details. If I send him a draft script and he doesn't phone up laughing and saying "You're weird, but that's why I hired you," then I'm worried.

I first worked with Jim on the Space 1889 audio series for Noise Monster productions. What wouldn't I give for his experience and detailed knowledge of genre fiction and gossip! We've developed a very fluid way of working, bouncing ideas for each other's stories over lunch at Kenwood House Cafe, unravelling and spinning galactic events amid the tweedy ‘ladies who lunch' and dog-walkers of Hampstead.

How does your style of writing differ to Ben and James'?

Ben is meticulous over detail. He knows the drive system of every spaceship and the name of every planet in every star system (until I shoehorn in a few of my own.) He is so good at grounding space opera in gritty reality and his scripts have a fast, filmic reality to them. His character writing is also really strong. Jim has all these strengths too and because he's worked extensively in creating video games, he has a real grasp of action. The battle sequences in his stories have a real machine-gun momentum to them. The stories I've worked on deal essentially with the crew of the Liberator learning more about each other and forming alliances within the group. It's the exposition section. There are still action sequences, but it tends to be character-led as they realise that space is far wider and more dangerously complicated than they feared. And the Liberator, much more of a character than before, is possibly the most deadly of all.

Ghost Light, Time's Crucible, Spare Parts - they're all gloriously different - but what should people familiar with your work expect of your scripts; the depth of Ghost Light, the personal, intimate style of Spare Parts...?
I guess I adopt a different style for whatever I'm writing, but I'm not sure that it's a conscious effort. It's just what feels right. The theatre director Nick Hytner said that for every play he produces he has to find the right world. That's usually the case with me. I need to know the location inside out before I write the story. My particular interests are character and setting. Although sometimes I deliberately invent the wrong world and the poor old characters have to adapt to survive.

How does writing for Blake's 7 compare to writing for Doctor Who?

Doctor Who has a sense of fantastical wonder and great warmth. Even when dealing with horrors, it has a sense of certainty that in the main things will turn out for the best. Blake's 7 has a darkness and a real sense of uncertainty. It's a futuristic morality play. The characters aren't just good or bad or immortal. But however big the looming tidal wave of despair, there must be a flicker of hope somewhere. A sense that something good must come out of even the most terrible acts of oppression or violence. If you lose that, there's no point in staying with the story.

What do you think will get people excited about these audio adventures?

You can't forget the original Blake's 7 . If it hadn't been so good in the first place, we wouldn't be producing it again now. Times move on and it's still a great adventure story about endeavour and heroism. It deserves a new take. Audio allows Blake to open up whole new horizons. It puts it on a different scale. And with a genuinely exciting cast and a lot of new ideas, the series is going to re-emerge as fresh and thrilling as it ever was.

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