For projects in development and the latest commissions, visit http://greenlight.broadcastnow.co.uk


6 Neil McKay


Appropriate Adult; The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher


Neil McKay is the writer who goes where others fear to tread. After penning dramas based on the Yorkshire Ripper and the Moors Murderers, it was perhaps natural that he would turn his attention to Fred and Rose West. What made Appropriate Adult so effective, and sensitive to the horrors of the story it depicted, was McKay’s realisa- tion that the key to unlocking the Wests’ story was to view it through the eyes of Gloucestershire house- wife Janet Leach, the ‘appropriate adult’ who sat in on the couple’s police interviews. The drama achieved the impossible in gar- nering near-universal praise for nailing the right tone. McKay also explored an earlier era of real-life crime in bringing the true Victo- rian detective story The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher to life for ITV1.


7 Horrible Histories team


Where to start? Probably the one show on our list that unites audi- ences young and old – and one you have to look really hard to find a bad word about. Launched in


2009, winning Baftas and Comedy Awards, it asks a lot of its writing team, with spoof TV formats (Pirate MasterChef, Stone Age Apprentice), songs (courtesy largely of Dave Cohen), advert pas- tiches, news bulletins and a variety of sketches – all underpinned by historical fact. It never puts a foot wrong, thanks to its resolutely unpatronising tone, irreverence and pitch-perfect parodies (look up the Take That-spoofing Pilots song, any Stupid Death sketch, or any appearance of the force of nature that is Bob Hale – think Peter Snow, only more so – on YouTube). Its consistency of tone and hit rate – envied by writers of more adult shows – is testament to this team, which includes Greg Jenner, Steve Punt, Charlie Martin, Rosanna Lowe, Laurence Rickard (who also stars), Giles Pilbrow and Ben Ward.


Holy Flying Circus 8 Tony Roche


Holy Flying Circus; Fresh Meat; The Cricklewood Greats; Veep


The only writer to receive three Bafta nominations this year, Tony Roche is still far from a house- hold name. But thanks largely to his association with Armando Iannucci, he’s been responsible


9 Sally Wainwright Scott & Bailey Horrible Histories www.broadcastnow.co.uk


Sally Wainwright maintains her place in the Broadcast Hot 100 thanks to the runaway success of Scott & Bailey. The ITV1 crime drama – her first foray into the genre – has been much heralded for giving the oversubscribed genre a new lease of life, with female characters centre stage, each of them coping with believ able and compelling personal lives while trying to solve murders. Though


for some of the most innovative comedy of recent times. After Gash and then Time Trumpet, he joined the The Thick Of It writing team and shared in the Oscar nomination for the spin-off movie In The Loop, while also col- laborating with Jack Thorne on Channel 4 disability drama Cast- Offs and writing for Miranda. In the past year, he’s written for Fresh Meat and devised two labours of love for BBC4: The Cricklewood Greats, a lovingly constructed tribute to a fictional film studio with Peter Capaldi, and Holy Flying Circus, which gleefully applied Monty Python’s freewheeling style to the conventional TV biopic. Now he’s back with Iannucci on HBO’s Veep.


it is often compared – lazily, she believes – to Cagney & Lacey, Wainwright has cited US show Nurse Jackie as an inspiration for her decision to level out the often dark subject matter with humour. Coming soon is Last Tango In Halifax for BBC1, a drama about a couple who get together in the 70s.


10 Robert Popper Friday Night Dinner


“Shit on it!” Popper mined his own family’s rich seam of quirks, traditions and catchphrases for Channel 4’s Friday Night Dinner. The acclaimed sitcom is Popper’s closest brush with what could loosely be called mainstream; his previous work, from Look Around You to Bellamy’s People and his spoof complainer Robin Cooper, leans towards the surreal, much of it with partner in crime Peter Serafinowicz. But like Father Ted and The IT Crowd before it, the former C4 commissioner’s sitcom sits slightly left of centre – it’s recognisably a ‘normal’ Jewish London family, but we’re privy to the odd traits that become most apparent behind closed doors. He’s also lent his script-editing talents to Peep Show, The Inbe- tweeners and Him & Her, and even did a stint on South Park.


➤ Hot 100 | Broadcast | 17


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