Post by starshining on May 23, 2006 18:23:02 GMT 1
Kath Beedles
Producer, Emmerdale, 30
Having worked as Emmerdale's story editor before she took over the producer's chair vacated by Steve Frost, Kath Beedles knows the Cinderella situation in which the soap finds itself. Despite creeping up on EastEnders in the ratings and anchoring ITV's primetime schedule six nights a week, she says the Farm-less saga of demented Yorkshire folk still does not get the recognition it deserves.
"We're quite lucky in a way because it makes you work harder. If you get told everything you do is fantastic even when it's not - which does happen; I worked on Corrie so I know the atmosphere there and I presume it's the same at EastEnders - you can get complacent very easily. When you're the underdog, you strive."
Beedles has been striving since she was 12 and was inspired to write after watching Monty Python. When she was a teenager, she sent scripts she had written to the makers of Birds of a Feather and despite being told by her English teacher she could not write, she persevered with her ambition. At 21, she did an MA in screenwriting. When she was 23, she got a storylining job on Coronation Street and then moved to Emmerdale.
"Corrie is the hardest place to work. It was one of those jobs you wouldn't choose on a personal level because it was horrendously difficult, but you learn so much."
With more than 300 episodes a year, she has plenty of characters and stories to work on. She has just added another, in fact - a new Dingle. Beedles says that chief among her soap's strengths is the consistency of its characters. "It all boils down to consistency. Zak is still the Zak he was 12 years ago. The stable moral things that drove him when he arrived still drive him today. And stories come from those consistent characters, stories that really reward the audience."
Beedles, who also has a drama idea in development with ITV, says one of the most important things she has learnt is that "even if it's wrong, it's OK".
"Sometimes an episode isn't going to turn out how you wanted," she says. "You have to live with that and learn from it, and not beat yourself up over it. The wheels don't come off when mistakes happen and mistakes happen. Having the balls to admit you've made a mistake and make a change - and while it's not ideal, we have made major changes at very late stages - is really important. You can do that and nobody dies, nobody loses respect for you."
Isn't that another way of saying that with such high volume, standards slip? "Not at all. Standards haven't fallen. The more pressure you're under, the better work you do."
Rest of the article with Steve Frost and Kate Harwood here
media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,1780010,00.html
Producer, Emmerdale, 30
Having worked as Emmerdale's story editor before she took over the producer's chair vacated by Steve Frost, Kath Beedles knows the Cinderella situation in which the soap finds itself. Despite creeping up on EastEnders in the ratings and anchoring ITV's primetime schedule six nights a week, she says the Farm-less saga of demented Yorkshire folk still does not get the recognition it deserves.
"We're quite lucky in a way because it makes you work harder. If you get told everything you do is fantastic even when it's not - which does happen; I worked on Corrie so I know the atmosphere there and I presume it's the same at EastEnders - you can get complacent very easily. When you're the underdog, you strive."
Beedles has been striving since she was 12 and was inspired to write after watching Monty Python. When she was a teenager, she sent scripts she had written to the makers of Birds of a Feather and despite being told by her English teacher she could not write, she persevered with her ambition. At 21, she did an MA in screenwriting. When she was 23, she got a storylining job on Coronation Street and then moved to Emmerdale.
"Corrie is the hardest place to work. It was one of those jobs you wouldn't choose on a personal level because it was horrendously difficult, but you learn so much."
With more than 300 episodes a year, she has plenty of characters and stories to work on. She has just added another, in fact - a new Dingle. Beedles says that chief among her soap's strengths is the consistency of its characters. "It all boils down to consistency. Zak is still the Zak he was 12 years ago. The stable moral things that drove him when he arrived still drive him today. And stories come from those consistent characters, stories that really reward the audience."
Beedles, who also has a drama idea in development with ITV, says one of the most important things she has learnt is that "even if it's wrong, it's OK".
"Sometimes an episode isn't going to turn out how you wanted," she says. "You have to live with that and learn from it, and not beat yourself up over it. The wheels don't come off when mistakes happen and mistakes happen. Having the balls to admit you've made a mistake and make a change - and while it's not ideal, we have made major changes at very late stages - is really important. You can do that and nobody dies, nobody loses respect for you."
Isn't that another way of saying that with such high volume, standards slip? "Not at all. Standards haven't fallen. The more pressure you're under, the better work you do."
Rest of the article with Steve Frost and Kate Harwood here
media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,1780010,00.html
