EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH WRITER RUSSELL LEWIS

Interview copyright © Damian Michael Barcroft 2020

DAMIAN: There were various sources reporting on the potential severity of the Coronavirus from about late December of last year but it wasn’t until I read that the new James Bond film, No Time to Die, had been postponed – a move which apparently cost an estimated $30-50 million according to The Hollywood Reporter (5th March) – that I realised the situation must be very much more serious than many people were initially anticipating. Can you describe the mood in the entertainment industry from your own perspective pre-lockdown?

RUSS: Uncertainty. A fair bit of whistling past the graveyard. It’ll all be over by Easter, &c. But, perhaps because I always tend towards expecting the worst case, I thought it would be pretty catastrophic.

DAMIAN: When was filming of the eighth series of ENDEAVOUR originally scheduled to start filming and to what extent had pre-production already begun?

RUSS: I’m trying to think back now. We were aiming for late summer, I think. So, it sort of had and hadn’t. In any event, lockdown arrived. Shaun and Roger had asked that I put something together – a document outlining the remaining grand arc and individual stories. So – I did that, and after a Zoom and some further conference calls back and forth, they were both content to commit. What was it Lennon said on the roof of Apple? “I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we’ve passed the audition.”

I was putting the second GRACE film together – the Peter James/Roy Grace/John Simm show for ITV with my old buddy Andrew O’Connor – and that needed my attention until we’d got that to a happy place. We were very much in pre-production on that – and should have been shooting April/May/June — so, that took priority for the Network, as that was shooting first. And then – that got mothballed with the Lockdown.

So – it’s been a case of stop and start across the board. But we’re in a good place with the ENDEAVOUR stories. If we get it right, I think it could be our strongest run.  Something about moving into the new decade… It’s so incredibly gruesome on many levels – socially, politically, aesthetically. You know – we’ve talked before about ‘68 being the comedown from that optimism and a sense of hopeful ‘anything is possible’. Well…  Boy! Multiply that by ten moving from the 60s into early 70s. A great disturbance in the Force. But there’s a lot of excitement, too. There’s darkness and danger in the air — and ‘71, the shape of much of the rest of the decade starts to come into focus.  

DAMIAN: Had you written all of the series 8 scripts at that point or just the first episode?

RUSS: We were really just on the nursery slopes.

DAMIAN: And to what extent have you had to adapt your original vision for series 8 because of the delay in filming?

RUSS: It’s not 100% clear yet – but I think we might get away with the design more or less intact. But I’m revising it constantly in my head.

DAMIAN: How have you kept yourself busy during lockdown?

RUSS: Writing. Really. Lockdown for people that do what I do is pretty much what life is like the rest of the time. It’s nice not to be doing it with a gun in one’s mouth, though.

DAMIAN: BBC News recently posted a piece on its website (5th August) quoting figures from Ofcom revealing the extent of the surge in TV watching and online streaming during the lockdown: ‘adults spent nearly six and a half hours a day watching TV and online video’ (at least 45 hours per week), ‘1 hour and 11 minutes per day watching streaming services’ (double what it was before the pandemic), ‘12 million customers signed up to a new services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+’ (making viewing figures for video streaming services up 71% on last year) and public service broadcasters such as BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, ‘achieved their highest combined monthly share of broadcast TV viewing (59%) in more than six years in March.’

Now, the reason I mention this is that every film or TV show has a vast cast and crew that needs to earn a living just like anyone else and it might be worth pointing out that – in comparison to the hundreds of artists credited during end titles – it is only a minority of big names in the industry who might be able to survive financially without work for months on end. Given that many actors and freelancing crew won’t be in regular employment until next year at best, do you think the government is doing enough to support the entertainment industry during this crisis?

RUSS: Really. You don’t want to get me started on the government. It wouldn’t be helpful. People will make their own minds up as to whether they think they’re competent or not. It won’t come as any surprise that I’m against just about everything they are, do, and stand for. It’s been horrendously grim for freelancers across the board – not just in media. The first duty of any government in such circumstances is to lend aid and support to all who need it.    

DAMIAN: Realistically, when is series 8 of ENDEAVOUR likely to begin filming?

RUSS: Unhelpfully, all I can say is ‘as soon as it’s safe to do so.’

DAMIAN: First Bus to Woodstock (aka Pilot or Overture) was obviously just the one episode, series 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 had four episodes per series, series 5 contained a whopping six episodes while the last series had just three. Therefore, is it difficult to know how long a series will take to shoot and might this uncertainty make the availability of the regular cast problematic even during the best of times?

RUSS: No. Not how long it will take to shoot. Never that. That’s – pre-COVID – been worked out down to the second more or less. So much for prep – so much for shoot – so much for post. We’ve pretty much always been able to work around the commitments – real life and creative – of our regular cast. I missed Mx.Vickers last year. Desperately. But that really was force majeure.

DAMIAN: First Bus aired in January and series 3 and 4 also began their run in January. Series 5, 6 and 7 were broadcast between February and March while series 2 aired over March and April and series 1 across April and May. Why does the network always seem to favour broadcasts early in the year?

RUSS: Well — we had a massive hiatus between S2 & 3, due to – we were told at the time – the football across the summer having an impact on the schedule. So that shifted our production from summer/winter to spring/summer. As with INSPECTOR MORSE there’s something attractive about a big slice of green-gold Oxford when the trees are still bare in real life. Not exactly the first cuckoo, but certainly a promise of something just around the corner.

DAMIAN: I know you’re not allowed to say when series 8 is likely to be broadcast or how many episodes it will consist of. However, I’m wondering what amount you comfortably prefer as a writer because – and we’ve often talked about your countless nights of sleep deprivation scribbling away doing rewrites etc. – 6 episodes are possibly too many, both for you and the cast and crew. What’s a nice number of episodes to write per series do you think?

RUSS: I’d take 6 every time – because it allows a greater variety of stories, and gives you more time to explore character. But I think it’s highly improbable such an event would happen again for us. It takes a huge toll on cast and crew. They’re massively long days for all the firm. It’s physically and mentally demanding.  

People look at a film set and see what appears to be vast amounts of people standing around – but here’s the thing, and it’s often missed – all those people, and at the point of the sharp end, those front of camera – have to maintain a perpetual state of readiness.  You know when you watch the runners line up for the 100 metres, say. They get down on the blocks, and ‘On your marks…  Get set…’ Well — actors are perpetually caught between ‘Get set’ and the pistol shot for 12-14 hours a day. The emotional line they have to deliver in a scene – that has to be available to them whenever ‘Action’ is called.  They could have been cooped up in a trailer for eight hours due to bad weather. You get a break in the clouds and it’s 1.2.3. GO! Or worse — you got part of the scene at the top of the day — and unforeseen circumstances means you can’t pick it up until the back end of the day. They’ve got to hold on to that emotional energy, and be ready to go in a heartbeat. Some days are just on/off — on/off — on/off.  It’s not mine clearance in a war zone or operating as a medic in under shellfire, but it’s a particular demand upon the individuals involved.  

So — eight, nine months of that… which is what it takes for a 6 film run… That’s a big ask. A huge investment of everyone’s time and creativity. And the crew — first in, last out… Everybody has to bring the proverbial A-Game. So… Yeh. Lovely for me to have all that story to tell — but pretty brutal for everyone else to have to deliver it.

DAMIAN: Finally, one website recently posted an article with the headline, ‘Why Endeavour is likely to end after season eight’, and another one was less ambiguous with ‘Morse prequel Endeavour to end in 2021 after series eight’. Might devoted fans well be advised to ignore such clickbait?

RUSS: I’ve always said I’ll do it for as long as those involved want to make it and the audience want to see it. So. The only reliable information will come from the Network.  That’s it. Everything else is conjecture and surmise.

Here’s the thing. All three series have sprung from Colin. That’s where it starts, and where it will end.

His creation has been onscreen in one fashion or another across five decades now. If you go back to the writing and publication of Last Bus – that adds a sixth decade.

That’s quite some knock.  

So – the sun may be sinking behind the pavilion, and into the West away — but in a very real creative sense, C.Dexter is still at the crease – and no batsman likes to fall on 99.

DAMIAN: Thank you Russ, please stay safe and I hope to see you – and Oxford’s finest – back in action very soon.

RUSS: You too.

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© Damian Michael Barcroft 2020

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