Illness = Focus... Short Script Second Draft... Hustle...

Am I the only one who can see the positive side of getting a cold? I rather like the way it forces you to slow down a little. Apart from that, of course, it's utterly annoying.

At the end of last week, I got a chance to look over a print-out of the first draft of my Doomsayer short story script, while on a train from London to Brighton (gotta grab those free moments when you can - even if it means refusing to accept one of those free London newspapers which are thrust in your direction every five minutes in the capital these days). I still like it, thankfully, but after daubing those pages with red corrective pen, I started having plenty of ideas for how to make it better and give it more depth. I'll be making the corrections and improvements later today, all being well, while high on a potentially lethal cocktail of Lemsip and Benylin.

Just reviewed Hustle episode five for heat magazine. I'm a very late convert to this show, but it's a wonderful thing from the scripts to the performances to the glitzy way in which it's shot. It also has a consistently bright-and-breezy, nothing-too-dangerous-is-going-to-happen tone, which is challenged by the goings-on in episode five. I won't be spoilering it for anyone, but let's just say that the viewer's expectations of formula (the crew con someone and get away with it at the last minute) are subverted. It's an especially great script this week. Written by Nick Fisher, its opening minutes demonstrate a really imaginative way to set up a story and make use of having five main characters. Check it out when it's broadcast on BBC1 on May 31.