Coventry Conversations

Coventry Conversations: Trevor Morris. Ex Owner of Chime PR.

Trevor Morris, the former CEO of Chime PR,

Coventry Conversations: Paul Abbott. Writer of Shameless, Cracker, Clocking Off, etc.

Out of all the Cov Convo’s that have gone on whilst i have been at Coventry Uni, this was the one that i knew i had to attend over all others. I have admired Paul Abbott’s work, back from the days of Cracker in the mid nineties. The one episode that springs to mind is ‘Best Boys’ starring John Simm as Bill Preece, it is the way in which Abbott creates suspense  and is able to keep you hanging on the edge of your seat all the way through the whole episode. As well as this i have also liked other shows that he has worked on like; ‘Clocking Off’, ‘State Of Play’ and my favorite of all his work ‘Shameless’. I love ‘Shameless’ i have watched it ever since the first episode was aired in January 2004. Although i have watched it ever since series 1 i do agree with what Abbott said that ‘series 1 and 2 were art and truly good Television’ where as series 3 and there after ‘the producers of the show where just making TV’.

One of the things that i enjoyed about Abbott’s conversation was the little intricate details about his writing, for instance when he explained the character of ‘Frank Gallagher’ and how he was a composite of his father, his brother and his uncle, and how ‘Shameless’ is his comment on his own life. What i also liked was the fact that the character of ‘Monica’ was based solely upon his own mother and that he, like the kids in the show, was bought up by his sister, just like ‘Fiona’. I think that this proves what Abbott says about that a ‘GOOD’ writer has to use emotional honesty when writing in order to be a success at it. I also believe that this is the reason why Paul Abbott is not only one of the most respected writers in the UK, but also one of the most powerful.

I also like the insight that Abbott gave to us into the world of professional writing. Abbott told us, that to be good writer, that you have to surround yourself with ‘excellence’ in order to inspire your own ideas, which i totally agree with because if you surround yourself with cheaply made media then you, in turn, will create equally poor and cheap media. I also enjoyed learning about aspects of writing which i had never really thought about myself, like when you are writing any character, then you have to step into their shoes in order to do them justice. Also liked the way in which Abbott explained the difference between plot and story, Plot- ‘the King dies then the Queen dies’ where as Story- ‘the King dies then the Queen dies of a broken heart’ this is so simple but such a good example of the difference between the two.

All in all i thought Paul Abbott’s conversation was incredibly insightful and interesting, and it was also good to hear of his future projects like ‘Shameless US’.