BBC Writersroom

Here is the BBC's Writers room - a place to encourage screenwriting, with examples of scripts, tips and inspiration for writing for television drama, comedy, and children’s programmes...
May be of interest to budding screen writers ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/

Writing tips http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writing/tips.shtml

Inspiration from successful writers http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/index.shtml

I read the interview with Ashley Pharoah, c0-creator of Life on Mars amongst other series, which ends with the question
What's the secret of a successful drama series?

Ashley: It has to be in the premise. It's not difficult to come up with an exciting episode one of series one, you have to work out what you're going to be doing in series three, episode six. And the great shows, the great British dramas, have never been about stories. Stories are just the delivery mechanism for the characters. I can't think of a single storyline for Minder. I can probably guess what the storylines of Minder were but what I remember is Terry and Arthur and how they interacted. No-one ever contacts us and says I love the story with the armed robber, or the one where they're trying to stop the jewellery heist, or the one on the train. They say I like the bit where Gene does this, or the bit where Sam crashes the car or the bit where Chris falls down a hole. And it's these character moments that people want to re-live, and the banter.