My Dream Job (To The End Of Time)

[dotinthesky]

I've got an idea for a new American TV drama. It centres around Muslim teenagers in the U.S. and it has Kim Wilde's "Kids in America" as its theme song. And yes, it's set in the 80s.

I also want to know why there are no hauntings or poltergeists in EastEnders seeing that so many corpses litter its history? (Even going so far, as margotmetroland pointed out, of having one open the show's first episode?) I want to write for EastEnders and have the recently murdered Archie haunt the Queen Vic. Mirrors cracked from side to side. People thrown down stairs. Heads spinning. Projectile vomitings. Just another Christmas Special. I'd get those ratings through the roof.

When wink_martindale and I first moved to London, we lived with some crazy lesbians in Stoke Newington. Two of them were big EastEnders fans and they immediately set about unraveling for us the show's Gordian Knot. Somebody gave birth without knowing they were pregnant in the first place? Someone discovered their sister was actually their mom? Sounded like your typical brasilian soap!

My favourite character was Janine, a sort of village punchbag who couldn't help being malicious and starting trouble wherever she went. Her high point came when she "accidentally" killed off her husband Barry after enduring a descent into homelessness and prostitution. But elsewhere, the characters and storylines didn't grab me. Where were the qualities that I loved in brasilian soaps? The magic realism? The werewolves? It was all a bit miserable to the sound of the wrong soundtrack. (Characters listening to Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' "Perfect Skin" while eating their toast at the local caf would have kept me hooked.)

I gave up on EastEnders and went on my merry way downloading brasilian soaps and the great American series of this past decade.

Then a few months ago, I took a writing workshop for a Pakistani soap opera... and I loved it! Why couldn't I get paid to do this every day? Create a whole universe of characters then put them through the grill? Having so many years of LJ Drama under my belt, it all came very easily to me. Coincidentally, my brasilian friend Vini Bambini alerted me at the time to EastEnders introducing a gay romance involving a British Muslim, with flagrant kisses before the watershed thrown into the mix. At the start of these holidays I finally caught an episode and was hooked. Would the two unbelievably good looking men elope to Barcelona? Or would the young Muslim continue to live a lie for the sake of his family and get married to a woman? And to complicate matters, a major murder plot was introduced making nearly every character in the show a suspect.

Now I've got wink_martindale moaning at me because I'm not only hooked on A Favorita but now I need to know who killed Archie in EastEnders and if Janine is going to have a bad end (as my gut seems to tell me.) What I really should be doing is working on my CV and applying for jobs.

2010? Script Writing for TV courses here I come!

Comments

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Corrie always struck me as having somebody-missed-an-umbrella type of plotlines. How does it compare to EastEnders? Does it have similar types of storylines or is the viewership purely based on Northern allegiance?

I remember hearing from the Todd and Karl plotline but never saw any of it. Oh well...

[millionreasons.livejournal.com]

There's been a husband murders wife's lover and then gets engaged to the widow storyline this year...but it was done over a year. They have slow-boiling stories which seem ridiculous when I read them in the spoilers but become more believable as they are fleshed out.

It's far more character based and has brilliant one liners and little flashes of detail that I think Enders misses out on. And when Jonathan Harvey (Beautiful Thing) writes an episode, it's always a camp classic.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I caught a bit of Corrie when Sir Ian Mckellen joined the soap and I can see what you mean - there was this slow burning story of him conning the characters, etc. I didn't get to see the end of that but I imagine he was eventually found out and killed or jailed. Beautiful Thing is one of my fave films! I'll try to check any episodes he writes.