spooks writer howard brenton at everyword

By Catherine Jones on Jul 1, 09 09:08 AM

Sir Peter Hall once advised paywright Howard Brenton not to "dine out" on his successes by becoming a regular on the chat show circuit.
Sage advice from the theatrical knight, but what a shame for audiences to be deprived of the thoughts of this genial raconteur.

Luckily for the Everyword festival (if not his multiple deadlines), the writer made an exception for Liverpool yesterday afternoon. And he kept us happily entertained for the best part of an hour-and-a-half.
You may not be instantly familiar with the name, but the chances are you'll have seen some of Howard Brenton's work - BBC spy drama Spooks for example, or the play Pravda which he wrote with David Hare.
Incidently, for all collaborative playwrights out there, a handy tip from Howard - try not to be the one who ends up on the typewriter/computer.
He must be a pretty driven individual, after admitting, with a big smile, how despite his first play as a student at Cambridge bombing horribly (he was panned by contemporary Germaine Greer in the student press) he immediately started writing a second play which was a) completely different and b) because he'd learned from the inaugural disaster, a roaring success.
You can't argue either with the likes of The Churchill Play, Weapons of Happiness, The Romans in Britain, Iranian Nights (which he wrote with Tariq Ali in a single week and I am SURE I saw at the Royal Court in London 20 odd years ago - unless I am dreaming) or of course Pravda.
But of course Spooks is the name that leaps out for most, and he had a few interesting tit bits to tell about the series which he agreed to do because he "needed the money" but then came to really enjoy.
I loved the fact that he wrote a role specifically for Hugh Laurie and at first the producers said: "don't you know he's enormously expensive?!" but then they got him anyway.
Brenton wrote 13 episodes - some of the best such as the departure of Matthew Macfadyen's Tom Quinn who had a spectacular breakdown. I don't know if he was responsible for Lisa Faulkner's early departure courtesy of a deep fat fryer, but I suspect he was.
He gave up the series eventually because as he said, he was just writing variations of the same story. "There's really only one story which you're telling again and again," he admitted. "And that's the story of the double agent. Someone who isn't who they say they are."
It was a joy to listen to this erudite man who has definitely got more than one story to tell.