Behind the news: can the show-runner concept work in the UK?

The UK often looks to the US for the next big thing, but it's not looking hard enough, according to writer Dominic Minghella. Speaking at Broadcast's first TV Drama Forum last week, Minghella argued that the time is ripe for the UK to embrace the concept of a show-runner, so widespread in the US.

He argued that as tariffs fall in the UK, there is an increasing need for co-production funding. And, for indies, exploiting the terms of trade effectively means finding shows with international, and particularly American, appeal. Typically, the shows that are interesting to US broadcasters have much longer runs than the average British series, points out Minghella, who was writer/exec producer on the 13-part Robin Hood. Finding the budget for such series is one thing, but retaining control, ensuring consistency and a strong authorial voice is another, he says. Enter the show-runner.

The show-runner is a writer who literally runs the show. In the US, this usually includes all the hiring, firing and directing decisions and probably some of the marketing ones too. But in the UK - where budgets are smaller and the role is only just taking hold - a show-runner is anything upwards of a lead writer who stays on set and helps to shape the direction of the shoot.

“There are as many show-runner models as there are practitioners doing it,” explains Foz Allan, executive producer at Tiger Aspect and co-creator of BBC1's Robin Hood, working alongside Minghella in his show-runner role. “The key thing is someone who is responsible for the vision of a series - an overarching creative mind that seeks out those collisions and characters that make a series feel ‘now'.”

Julian Friedman, joint managing director of writers' agency Blake Freidman, agrees that it's a flexible job title: “It's the term that screws people up. The fact is there is a move for writers to be more involved than in the past and there has been for some time now.”

That move is set to accelerate in the UK as tariffs shrink and producers look for co-production partners in the international markets, where long-running series are de rigeur. “It's all about long-running shows,” says BBC head of drama production Ben Stephenson. “For something that is genre-driven, it helps to have one person who holds down the tone.”

Existing successes

In Britain, Russell T Davies has famously made the model work on the revived Doctor Who series and, while Minghella was show-runner on Robin Hood, Adrian Hodges took the reins at Primeval. All three brought an extra energy and focus that shows on screen, Allan says. “Their ability to say ‘that story works for us' is invaluable. It's not hard to come up with stories, but it's really hard to say what ingredients fit into our mix and keeps it feeling fresh.”

Clive Dawson, a writer on Casualty, The Bill and London's Burning, agrees: “Show-runners are almost like screenwriting auteurs. They can keep a guiding hand and can stop a show being knocked off course. People such as Tony Jordan (EastEnders) and Russell T Davies are showing that writers can be trusted and are the best people to be trusted with their own vision.”

For fixed-length series, it is a long overdue development, he adds. “There is a feeling that for too long writers have been kept in their place - that they aren't quite trusted, even with their own work.”

But the wariness cuts both ways. Historically, many writers have been reluctant to take on long-form dramas - preferring the critical acclaim and variety that come with one-offs or short-run series. The show-runner model and its promise of creative control makes volume TV a much more attractive proposition.

“Writers are beginning to see the long-form series as somewhere that they can really send out a personal message,” says Hodges, who is also readying to showrun BBC's forthcoming Survivors remake.

According to Minghella, writers are by nature “suspicious, anxious creatures” but Russell T Davies has led a culture shift and given them faith in new formats. “Russell has brought kudos to volume TV. Like a god, a real deity, he's made it a noble art form,” he says.

The write stuff?

But even if the writers are happy, are these “suspicious creatures” always the best people to make production decisions? The US has had its screenwriters working on set for the past four decades and they have inevitably picked up a degree of technical expertise along the way. They are also more accustomed to working as part of a team, whereas writers in the UK are more isolated and don't always have the practised social skills needed to command scores of people on set.

“Some writers are not good at collaborating and show-running is about a massive amount of collaboration,” says Hodges. “It is not about power or imposing your will on a production team.”

Julie Gardner, head of drama at BBC Wales and executive producer on Doctor Who and spin-off Torchwood, found working with show-runners to be “entirely positive” but is wary of applying it as a blanket model. “I don't think it can be rolled out widely across all long-running series. A lot of the writing community are writers because they want to be at home. They don't necessarily want to be on set all day or to know about production mechanics.”

Long-run reality

But for those who do? In general, producers need long-form series to make sense of a show-running role - and are reliant on commissioning broadcasters to get those off the ground. Many producers predict that budgets will eventually force a culture shift, but until that happens Davies' advice is to get on and run the show.

“Get into the edit or get into the dub and get there by your talent or your nagging or whatever it takes. Even if you're not called the show-runner, it's about getting more authority over what you want to put on screen. Whatever you're working on, show-run it.”

See broadcastnow.co.uk for a videocast of the Drama Forum

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