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Christopher Golden - Co-writer/Director

Afterlife
  Do you believe in ghosts?

I'm not certain that I believe in ghosts. I want to believe in ghosts, however so that's always been a kind of interesting thing for me - and it's one of the reasons why I'm interested in writing supernatural stories.

One of the reasons I think people have so much affection for ghost stories and for things with demons in them is that if you can believe, just for an instant, that demons are real and that ghosts are real, that there are spirits, then it means that you believe in an afterlife. You believe that you're not done when you leave here, so I'd like to believe in ghosts.

Most of the time I think I do, although I've never seen one. I'm not sure that we can see them, but I don't think that necessarily means they aren't there.

How it all began
  Can you tell us about the genesis of Ghosts of Albion?

Well it actually all started to come together because of you [Rob of the Cult team]. I was at Eclipse, which was a Buffy and Angel convention here in London last summer, and you mentioned that the BBC wanted to do something that was period costume drama, but supernatural.

I had happened to have an idea floating around called Ghosts of Hollywood, about old-time Hollywood and things like that, and Amber and I had talked about that in the past. As soon as we started talking about it, [I went to a meeting] to discuss those things, and I think that after speaking to Amber I convinced everybody not necessarily that our idea was better, but our idea would be more fun.

Choosing the ghosts
  In terms of the ghosts that feature, what made you settle on those particular three?

I just love Nelson visually and heroically - he's such a great character, and I wanted somebody who would be stern and yet the perfect soldier. The idea is that they are soldiers in the greatest war of all in a sense, which I think is one of lines in the script. So Nelson was an easy choice.

Byron, I think, was probably Amber's idea. I'm not sure, but he's a perfect foil for Nelson in that way because he's the last person you would expect to be involved in the greatest war of all, or any war for that matter. So to have somebody who's so playful, who's childish in that way, [who's] lived such an interesting life [was good]. He knows that despite the fact that he's that way, there is something deeper inside him - he does have a lot more than he shows, and that he will participate in this.

As for Boadicea, we actually had a different queen originally in the concept - and I don't remember who suggested originally changing it to Boadicea, whom I wasn't familiar with at the time. Once I started doing research into who she was I said, 'Oh yes, we must use her.' Just the idea of the warrior queen was so wonderful and so apropos to what we were doing. And then because she was a queen, it just seemed natural that she should be the leader of the ghosts.

Location, location, location...
  Certain locations get featured quite heavily in the story. Were they places that you were familiar with, or places you just picked off the map?

In choosing the locations, really the only thing that I was focusing on was, 'What would be appropriate for the time period?'

There are places in the script where we use specific Americanisms, we use specific anachronisms as well, and that's quiet purposeful. The Americanisms are there on purpose, the anachronisms are there on purpose. If Shakespeare can have a clock in Julius Caesar, we can have people say, 'Stick up your bum,' in 1830s England, so those things are purposeful.

For the places, I wanted to make sure that we were choosing ones that would be visually interesting when they animated it, but also that would be accurate for the time period - that would stand out. The church at St Mary Le Strand is such an amazing location [as is] the Strand in general from that period.

Record mode
  Is the end result how you imagined it to be when you were writing the script?

It is extraordinary. I said to Amber last night that it is as good as I could ever have imagined it to be. It's due very much to Amber's efforts as the director, but I think if it weren't for the fact that we have got the most extraordinary cast, it just wouldn't work. I can't even begin to describe to you how pleased I am with the cast.

They're all so amazing. Patterson as Nigel is just incredible. What a voice - the guy has just got the most amazing voice. Emma and Joe and Anthony are doing everything we could possibly have hoped with the ghosts, but of course Rory and Jasmine are just perfect [too].

I just feel like, 'Maybe this happens all the time,' but I don't think so. I think if we'd gotten any other grouping it wouldn't have worked this well, so I think we really were fortunate in the way that this came together. They seemed to be having a really good time.

Writer on call
  Has it been useful to attend the recording sessions?

There are constant changes when you're sitting in the booth. You're making constant changes to this line here or the way this line was delivered, or we wrote it knowing in our heads what it was supposed to sound like, and why it was delivered a certain way to lead to the next bit and the actor might not have intuited everything. That's Amber's job.

I might whisper to her, but 99 per cent of the time she just nods because she's already got exactly what I was going to say. Because we wrote it together, she knows as well as I do how it's supposed to sound, and has a much better way of explaining it.

Then there are things that the actors have contributed too. Where Patterson has pointed out, you know, 'Nigel's afraid of fire, why is he lighting a lamp in this scene?' So he no longer lights a lamp. Things like that are why I'm really glad I'm here, because I want to be able to be there to respond and to make those quick adjustments.

To write a chant in 30 seconds because the actors are waiting for it, you know. So it has been a great experience. I've really enjoyed it - I don't think I would have known what I was missing if I wasn't here, but I'm really glad that I was.

Serial writer
  Where do you foresee Ghosts of Albion going if it catches the public's imagination?

One of the things I've never understood about the United Kingdom is the idea that you can make a television series last for six episodes, it does well and you never do any more again!

Not necessarily even as a writer, but as a member of the audience, if I'm getting something of a good thing I want more, and if it's still good, there's no reason to not do it. In fact, it seems ridiculous not to continue.

As a novelist I've written certain books that people keep asking me for sequels for that I don't think either require or would benefit from having any kind of follow-up. They seem to stand on their own. But I'm a child of television, so in addition to having books like that, I've also written books that sort of beg for continuation, and I have done so.

We've set up Ghosts of Albion so we could not only continue the adventures of William and Tamara Swift for several hundred episodes, but we could also do episodes set further in the past or in the present day, we could do stories set in every different part of the world because there are protectors in every region of the earth.

Branching out
  Do you think Ghosts of Albion is going to translate into other media, such as comic books, novels and possibly TV?

There have been discussions about all of those things. I suspect there will be novels at some point. The comics issue is a little bit more convoluted, and whether or not there's a live action television show I'm not sure, but hopefully the animation will be shown on television.

My hope is that the web site garners enough interest that we can build the franchise without ever going to live action TV, and then at some point somebody will have to say, 'Hey, that's really doing quite well, maybe we should make the television show.' But who knows? Right now we're focused on getting this to be the best it can be, and I think people are going to be very excited about it when they finally get the chance to look at it.

Web master
  Is Internet-based drama something that you're keen to explore?

Absolutely. Look at it this way - if they made a live-action television series and showed it on BBC1, the potential audience is, what is it, 57 million, in the UK? Now that would presume that every single person in the UK is going to watch it, and we know that's not going to happen. If you put it on the web, the potential audience is six and a half billion, is that right?

So obviously we're very pleased to be pursuing things on the Internet, and with the new technology and with the animators who are working on this, I think it's going to look great.

We have in mind interactive elements [for the] website - so that people can become a part of this fictional world that we're creating and the mythology, and enter into it almost in the same way that they would enter into a game like Everquest.

I think the potential is absolutely enormous, and so I think the Internet thing is cool. Frankly, if they did do live action television, I'd want to bring back every single person who's in the cast, though.

Who pays (for) The Ferryman?
  Has this project tempted you to develop other projects in the UK?

Amber and I have actually had a long conversation about various things that might be possible in the UK. One of the things we've talked about is my novel The Ferryman, which Amber and I have been talking about doing a screenplay for, [so] she can direct it.

She actually was urging me to try to pursue those avenues here, which I may do if they seem to be open. Aside from that I just enjoy it here. We were saying how we always feel welcome, and that's really nice. A lot of my favourite writers are English, so it feels comfortable in that sense.