Last Contact : Blog 9 : The Series

Last Contact : Blog 9 : The Series

I can’t recall exactly when I decided on the date I wanted to start filming Last Contact. It must have been around the same time as the casting calls went out, as I had to have some sort of sensible answer when potential cast members asked ‘If I got the part, when would I be needed for filming?’

But once it was decided for February, there was yet another, more pressing, factor. Will I have the whole series written by then? Or even half of it? I seem to work best under pressure, but four episodes in a few months was even pushing it for me.

Then reality, like a falling elephant, hit me; I didn’t really have a few months. Sensibly, I needed to have the series finished by Christmas (2012) so we could sit down and have a read through to make sure it was funny to other people who weren’t me.

That left about six weeks. I got to work.

Fortunately, I long ago learned that to write something of any significant length required the ability to just sit down anywhere you are, and write.

This also coincided with a new contract (in the day job) that meant I could journey by train. I like the train, it means I have to think less about what I’m doing, plus it’s not illegal to use a laptop whilst you’re doing it.

So, that’s what I did. I got on the train, sat down and wrote whatever was in my brain. I’m not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, so it took extra effort (though it’s quite clearly not manual labour, so you don’t have to feel sorry for me or anything). As with everything, some of it was very good, and some of it was very not.

Trains being what they are, there were a few occasions where I missed my connecting train, and so had to wait at Horsham station with my laptop, a cup of coffee and a Tunnock’s wafer biscuit (this is so nearly heaven on earth). I wrote some good lines in the cafe on that station.

It was hard. It was a lot of work. But it was writing. And writing is fun. To me, anyway.

So, a week before Christmas I put the final dot and crosses on the i’s and the t’s of the final episode. I went through each episode several times, adding stuff, correcting stuff, changing stuff so that it was as funny as possible.

And what I was left with was really quite good. I’m very pleased with it. Especially when we had the read through and…

Wait a minute, that’s another blog post entirely…