I
was on an oil rig and I was researching a drama
series...I guess I was becoming slightly sick of
the smell of diesel oil and the constant daylight.
I just thought 'I would rather be anywhere but here
right now but where I'd really like to be is down
in the south of Ireland where my father used to
take us all on holiday when we were kids.' I just
thought 'yeah, well tough, 'cause you're not there!'
I didn't seriously consider it as a drama series.
But it wouldn't go away and I just started to doodle
around with some characters. You think 'well what
would I like to write?' or 'what would I like to
watch?' and I think that's the best way to do it.
On writing the series
I will sit in my office, even if I can't
write a word. You just have to discipline yourself
and I will sometimes write gobbledygook rather than
write nothing. Every day I turn on the word processor
I'm afraid that this time they're going to find
me out. It seems such a fragile thing that it's
easily lost, whatever it is. One of the things which
does keep me going is discipline and order and you
just force yourself to sit down, nine o'clock in
the morning - write. I don't care if it's garbage
- write. Sometimes it's fantastic and sometimes
it's really hard and you think 'why don't I just
drive a truck?' And then you realise there are no
jobs for truck drivers so you might as well write.
