In this extra special edition, Jan Caston interviews TV comedy legend John Lloyd, best known for his work on programmes the Nine O'Clock News, Spitting Image, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Blackadder and QI.

In this episode, Danny talks to filmmaker Nev Pierce about his transition from film journalist (Empire, Total Film etc, interviewing top directors around the world) to an emerging writer/director in his own right. Nev has made 4 short films to-date, and has a few feature films in development.

Watch & Find out more at Nev's site
http://nevpierce.com
Twitter: twitter.com/nevpierce
Facebook: http://facebook.com/Nevillepiercefilm

Support the podcast and buy our ESSENTIAL UK Scriptwriter's Survival Handbook - http://amzn.to/2umyLGJ

Danny talks to writer / director Justin Trefgarne who gives the most amazingly candid and detailed story of his debut feature. How it almost never happened, but was saved by a chance meeting. How it ran out of money. How his lead actor had to leave due to having a baby! If you are thinking of writing, directing and producing your first feature then this is a MUST listen for sure.

Some links:
Justin's website - http://justintrefgarne.com/
His twitter - https://twitter.com/handheldcamera
Our book (buy it!) - http://amzn.to/2umyLGJ

In this episode we talk about some nuts and bolts issues. How to gain more work as a writer and how to get your finances in order, so you keep your working life on the straight and narrow.

NETWORKING: Some writers dread the idea of talking to new people. But of course new people can mean new business. What tips are there to make networking less stressful and to ensure these kind of events work in your favour?

BUSINESS: What do you actually need to do when you start earning money from writing. Do you need to set up a company? How?

BONUS: We also give a shout out to a new festival near us - http://shortsounds.co.uk - a festival dedicated to the hidden art of sound in film.

INFO: Photo is of a group of us from our own local networking event who met up in Cannes to celebrate the release of local short film Faithless - https://www.facebook.com/faithlessmovie/

LINKS: Find us on iTunes - tinyurl.com/ukscriptpodcast
And on twitter - https://twitter.com/UKscriptwriters
And on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ukscriptwriterspodcast/

Is there a career ladder that writers can move up on anymore? It used to be that you would start on regular 'soaps' and then move into ongoing drama and then onto your own shows. Is that even possible anymore? Experienced TV writer and WGGB rep for the South West, Martin Day, talks about his own career. It's had ups and downs of course, but most interestingly, what has changed most has been the business of TV writing.

See more about Martin at www.martinday.co.uk and find him on twitter - @sirdigbychicken

This episode we talk to Joe Martin about something a bit different - documentaries. Although Joe's latest film (Us and Them) is fiction he has previously created many documentaries, including the doc feature "Keep Quiet" about far right politician Csanád Szegedi. So he is ideally placed to talk about drama-docs and the increase use of story consultants within the doc world.

His IMBD = http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5630563/

This episode we interview Peter Stanley-Ward and Natalie Conway from Treehouse Digital. A couple of writers who are also an actual couple!

They made their way via a low budget horror feature into launching a production company and making fantastic shorts.

How did they do it? Who helped? What lessons have they learned? Is it better to make a feature and learn that way, rather than go to Uni? And we compare our self / crowd funded movie with their one funded via Creative England - which way is better?

LINKS FEATURED:
Treehouse Digital: http://www.treehousedigital.com
Litterbugs (their short): http://www.litterbugsthemovie.com

This episode is in two halves. In the first half we talk about how we are extending our network, who we are meeting and what preparation we do. A nuts and bolts, down to earth summary of how we are making progress as writers. In the second half we talk about keeping strong mentally. How do you take knock backs? How can you find support? What happens when you doubt yourself?

As mentioned:
Our book - tinyurl.com/UKscripthandbook AND ALSO tinyurl.com/ukscriptsmash
Now on iBooks too - tinyurl.com/ukscriptibook
Our movie - www.nelsonnutmeg.com
Our production company - www.nelsonnutmegpictures.com

Do you need an agent? What do they do anyway? What are YOU supposed to do anyway?

There are a lot of rumours and pieces of 'good advice' around this topic. So here we bypass all that and talk direct to Danny's agent, Jean Kitson from kitsonpress.co.uk. What she is looking for from a writer who approaches her? Catch Jean at the LSWF too!

A lot of scriptwriters move into being a writer-director. This has it's own challenges when it comes to developing a script.

Here we talk to two old friends of ours, Dan Pringle and Suki Singh about the journey with there respective movies.

Dan's is an elevated horror / gory drama called K-Shop - out now on DVD http://amzn.to/2aSpAov and also via Amazon Prime http://amzn.to/2b5h2b1

Suki's is a psychological noir called Emulsion. He has a special edition available direct. http://www.emulsion.tv