Writing for presenters as themselves

BBCi: When writing the screenplay, were you aware that Michael Parkinson, Mike Smith, Sarah Greene, and Craig Charles were all on board? What were the challenges of write for them playing themselves?

Stephen Volk: It was written with PRESENTER, FEMALE REPORTER, PHONE-IN PRESENTER in the script, but with a note on the cover saying these would be real TV presenters.

It made for a clumsy read but I got tired of taking out Jonathon Dimbleby and putting in John Humphries or Anneka Rice (who I seem to remember turned it down, by the way!) and every change of name affected the way you read the programme.

We wanted Nick Ross but the Powers That Be said "No way!" Luckily Sarah Greene trained as an actress, we were lucky there and her experience of live TV was invaluable. She was offered it and showed it to hubbie Mike Smith and he wanted to be in it too. Ruth phoned me and said: "What do you think, the two of them in it, one in the studio, one in the house?" And after about two seconds I said, "Fantastic!" So I reshaped the script to reflect the husband-wife thing.

Sarah�s true story about seeing the ghost was true, by the way. I was all for that. Craig Charles was a great choice and I think re-did his lines pretty much which is great. I said to Michael Parkinson (who loved the script and "got it" completely): "Look, you�ve been doing this lark for 25 years, if it doesn�t sound right, do what does sound right!" and he was fantastic, absolutely a brilliant anchor for the show.

The BBC at one point wanted to seriously chicken out and have it all actors! Can you imagine how shitty that would have been? But I salute Ruth and Lesley for fighting for that all the way through.

Incidentally when we started shooting it was by no means certain we�d get the Halloween night slot. But Lesley took the huge gamble and decorated the house with pumpkins, etc anyway, which was always the intention. Again, her handle on the material was astute and she knew exactly what had to be done and what shouldn�t be compromised for stupid BBC reasons.

Read our review of Ghostwatch >>