Business
Lisa Holdsworth is Chair of the Writers Guild of Great Britain and represents TV Writers. She talks to Stephanie Rosilio about ways that writers can embed more sustainable themes into our most loved TV programmes. Lisa passionately touches on social inclusion and how important it is to allow a multitude of voices access the power of writing for TV in order to represent more authentic and diverse realities. (3m40) Intro to the role of the Writers Guild and Lisa’s mission as its Chair. Does TV imitate reality of does reality influence TV? (4m20) “whilst we are a mirror held up to society....we are also a blackboard and if we can make a positive influence then I genuinely think it’s our responsibility to do that” (5m20) How can we get it “right” when portraying complex issues in a useful and helpful way for society. (6m20) “we don’t always get it right..we’ve set up dangerous stereotypes ” “we have to make sure we get a multitude of voices so things can be corrected..the will of most people is for the good.” (7m20) Representation of women – how can we show more diverse and empowering role models (10m20) It is a slow process in terms of impacting social change – does TV have a chance to have an impact regarding climate crisis? (11m04) Popular TV needs to embed more sustainable themes into their storylines “We have to start letting the reality of our environment filter in..Eastenders should be talking about air quality… Emmerdale should be looking at questions on sustainable farming…” (12m28) The Writers Guild have announced that they are defining the environmental crisis as an emergency (13m30) “the demands of young people today puts in in writers head, front of mind” (14.50) Most human beings want to do good – building awareness of key issues is important and TV has had a great positive influence – Lisa gives examples (15m38) "We’ve had a great influence from understanding things from the point of view of the survivors not the perpetrators and that’s how we can get people to tackle the climate emergency, how can we get people to understand the human cost of this, and that’s a great challenge in front of us” (16m30) Can we offer solutions by changing the imagery, language used in TV by making more sustainable choices? (16m40) “it has to be integral to the storyline” (18m30) The explosion of TV content with new platforms is offering new more diverse representations of communities – the future is bright if we are prepared to shake off our pre conceptions of who we think we want to see on television. (19m40) We talk about Lisa’s own creative influences and family background. (22m30) Is the UK ahead of the curve in terms of tackling social issues in TV? (24m30) “the future is bright, we are pushing forward, we are changing, but that pace could always be faster” (25m25) We explore how people get access to the power of TV and how we need systems in place to open up these opportunities to people from a multitude of backgrounds (25m30) The reality is still that most people get to where they want thanks to who they know not what they know. (27m40) Lisa’s magic wand wishes. (28m30) What magical alternatives can we explore to give more access to TV? (29m00) How to become a writer – how to pursue a writing dream. (32m38) “real writing is re-writing” This podcast is brought to you by Stephanie Rosilio, find out more about the host and our coaching packages at: https://stephanierosilio.com/ The podcast is produced by Chris Huskins: https://huskinsmarketing.com/