Andrew Davies Quotes
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I got quite cross when I heard about Emma Thompson adapting 'Sense and Sensibility.' It was absolutely childish of me, but I thought, 'I should be doing that. They didn't even ask me.' Some mistake, surely.
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The older I get, the more fun it is to write young people. It's just a holiday from what is becoming old age, really.
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The writer in movies is about as low as you can get and you really are a hired hand. You are paid a lot of money to be treated like dirt.
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From time to time there is a move to do a little less in the way of period dramas, but people rebel. Audiences say we want them. There is a big hunger for them. I don't think it's sentimentality or nostalgia, it's often that they are simply the best stories.
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I adore doing classic adaptations, but I also feel their frustrations and their limitations.
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Look at Jane Austen. Her characters derive in a reasonably straight line from fairy tales.
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I'm not one of these people who say how much better American drama is than English. I find it mostly too American, except for The Sopranos, which I think is the best thing.
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I was getting rewarded for writing well, from about the age of five or six. A teacher would say, "Look what Andrew has written," and I thought, "Maybe I could be a writer."
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I prefer love scenes to be shot up close with a lot of focus on eyes and mouths. Otherwise it can feel uncomfortable and voyeuristic.
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The most moving scene for me in 'Pride and Prejudice' is the Pemberley music room scene: Elizabeth has just saved Darcy's sister from embarrassment and confusion, and as the music plays on, Darcy's look of gratitude becomes a look of love, which we see reciprocated in Elizabeth's eyes.
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I always do like to write love stories, even if they end tragically.
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Novels often have leisurely openings; a TV drama needs an arresting opening.
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I would love it if anyone gave me the job of adapting 'The Great Gatsby,' but nobody ever does.
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Othello' is the most domestic of Shakespeare's tragedies and the one that's likely to strike a personal note with a lot of people watching it.
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I suppose I have the tastes of someone who teaches at a university in the provinces.
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Most actors hate readthroughs - they're exposing themselves before they're ready to, and before they've bonded. But I love them because they give us all the first inkling of what the whole show is going to be like, how each part affects every other part, and we won't see that again until it's all edited together.
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'Affinity' is beautiful and intense, with no laughs. It's a rather delicate and emotional love story, with a spooky element.
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The joy of writing drama is putting yourself into different people's heads.
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I know that a ridiculous number of classic serials have been commissioned, and that reviews show a reaction against them. The critics seem fed up.
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An adaptation I was working on of Trollope's 'The Pallisers' has been axed by the BBC... I was also going to do Dickens' 'Dombey and Son' but they've asked me to do 'David Copperfield' instead.
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When you see two writers named on a movie, one of them did some drafts and got the boot.
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My wife likes history and documentaries, but I'm not so keen on them. I generally go and do some work if there's one of those on.
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People like bonnets. I don't think you can under-estimate that.
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I had a mother who was very emotionally demanding, wanting to be the centre of attention. As they say in EastEnders, she thought it was all about 'er. I spent a lot of time trying to work out what was going on.
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I remain, however, fairly optimistic for the future of period drama because it's just such a popular thing.
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Be careful about the advice you give, especially to your children.
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Plan for each episode to be a satisfying experience, but still leave the audience thinking, 'Oh, my God! Now what?
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I'm glad nobody has asked me to adapt 'Wuthering Heights' because I think I would make a mess of it. Everybody makes a mess of it. I think the Bronte Sisters are mad.
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A distinguished producer called Kenith Trodd actually lived in his office for over a year - the cleaners refused to go in because it was such a tip.
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People in the BBC are always dying to get out of their open-plan offices.
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