Interviews
Tim Scott
Tim Scott is creator and principal writer of Dare To Believe.
This is the main man, the head honcho, the big cheese, the
man with the plan, The Great Architect and all round nice chap.
Recently he kindly answered our questions while we interviewed
at him. |
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Q. Where may we have seen/heard you before?
A.
Oh ..well apart from shouting at traffic at the Harlow Roundabout for
four
years um.. radio 4 many years back with 'And Now In Colour', then 'The
Skivers'. I made a TV appearance once in 'Riders' by Jilly Copper in
which I
was terrible. I've also written children's books and more recently I've
been
involved with the Ripley and Scuff team making a pre-school children's
programme which won the BAFTA on Sunday.
Q. How did the show come about?
A. It somehow sneaked under the radar. I wrote a treatment very late one
night,
passed it to the executive producer who passed it to ITV who passed it
to
David Liddament, the then head of ITV, who commissioned it himself.
Q. Why did ITV commission it?
A. Well there's a question. I think they thought...I think they
thought....no,
...I've no idea.
Q. What’s this?
A. A lemon.
Q. What is d2b like to make?
A. Its fun, exiting, surprising and pressurised. The schedule is so tight
that
I've often found myself trying to think what we're going to actually
record
on the way to a location in the car.
Q. The first series had several writers, as I remember, including Tim Firth and Michael Marshall Smith. Why are you the only credited writer for the second series?
A. That's not quite true. Both Nat Reed (who wrote the Neighbor) and Chris
and
Paul who wrote/improvised the scenes for Recognising Things are
credited in
the second series. ITV have a rule that names can't appear more than
once in
the credits so it was not straightforward to make it absolutely clear
who
did what.
In the first series Michael Smith wrote his own characters (the vicar,
postcard man and man who sets things free) and Tim Firth wrote his own
characters (piano man, and opposite thesis man) and a few other bits
too
which was very welcome, but they were too busy when it came to the
second
series.
Q. Why did you choose to make the show so repetitive (this is not to say its a bad thing!!)
A. It seemed a great chance to do something different by being repetitive.
I
thought if we don't really go for it now, and try something new then
when
would we? Also I liked the idea of people wondering what was going on
and
staying with it because they were so confused.
Q. Aren't those public service adverts great!
A. Yes, but think of the budget they had.
Q. What do the actors think of playing such left-of-field characters?
A. To a person they have all been terrific. For example, I worried
slightly the
first time I met Marios how I would explain about the Agua Moose but he
just
went for it without a second thought.
Q. What’s this?
A. Yacht hawser!
Q. Who are your comedy heroes?
A. Dr. Zeus, Paddington Bear, Spike Milligan, Michael Palin, Graham
Chapman,
French and Saunders, Steve Coogan, Michael Buerk, Ricky Gervais...
there are
a lot of very funny people out there.
Q. Do you enjoy making surrealist comedy? How does it compare to writing something more mainstream?
A. Um....hmm..I think it means getting your head adjusted to a different
gear...also I've tried not to be afraid of trying new things...not
everything in the programme works as well as it might...but if you're
trying
to push the boundaries a bit you're going to have a few casualties. Its
doubly pleasing when the things that sounded crazy do work.
Q. Could d2b ever be mainstream?
A. I don't think so somehow. I think it is destined to be cult viewing,
but
you never know.
Q. Has anyone in particular inspired any of the characters in the show?
A. I don't think there is any one specific character based on one specific
person.
Q. And in an attempt to avoid a cliché, where *don’t* you get your ideas from?
A. The ideas that seem to work best like the Agua Moose and the Bicycle
box are
ones that just appear fully formed, but then you need everything else
to
come together to fulfil that idea. For example, Marios is brilliant as
the
Agua Moose man and of course Rick shot it fantastically too.
Q. Did you misread that question?
A. Yes.
Q. How much of Dare To Believe is improvised? Or is it all carefully scripted?
A. Er..Nat improvised Office Man and Chris and Paul improvised Recognising
Things though they knew in their head what they were going to do, if
you see
what I mean. The Cave Man standing in the stream was also improvised as
was
some of Brahms Man now I come to think of it. It was good to have some
sort
of script, though it was often written the night before or in the car
on the
way there because the time and financial constraints were very tight.
Q. What sort of reaction do you get from people about the series?
A. Its generally extremes. Either people love it with a passion or they're
so
confused they run around in circles for four days with a bag on their
head.
Q. What sort of people do think you would enjoy d2b?
A. You've got me there. Possibly many wheat farmers. But I'm not certain.
Q. What’s this?
A. Second hand harp!
Q. What are your favourite parts of the show?
A. I've given that away already. Agua Moose and the bicycle box and man.
I
also have a soft spot for learn chess and Recognising Things.
Q. Will there be a third series?
A. We're hoping for a 4 million pound budget to relocate to somewhere like
the
Bahamas. If we don't get that we'll have to see.....
Do badger ITV because they probably can't make head nor tail of the
programme and wonder if anyone watches it.
Q. What’s this?
A. Poor quality yogurt!
Incidentally you don't ask about Rick Lee who filmed the whole thing. I
couldn't have done it without him. He gave the programme it's
destinctive
look with his brilliant lighting. He was tireless and deserves an MBE
in
recognition or at least some petrol tokens. Also Martin who edited the
programme (and did sound) took the whole programme to his heart and did
a
great job. They were instrumental in actually getting it to the screen
which
believe me was not easy. They bear the scars.
As well as them, Robert Howes who was the exectutive producer was bold
enough to let me just get on and make it despite the fact it was his
money,
and despite the fact that when I explained over the phone what we would
be
spending his money on that day, it never seemed to make a lot of sense,
even
to me.
Thanks to Tim for this interview and all his help with the site. Ta.
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