Donna Bamks

I started off from disparate career paths in journalism and the music business: a full on multi-tasker - I was freelancing for the SLP newspaper group, sound engineering at the Marquee Club and organizing the ‘Music Industry Soccer Six’ celebrity football matches, all whilst studying for a psychology degree. After a brief period of researching my eligibility to join the FBI (I wasn’t), a light came on as I sipped sea-breezes at the Chateau Marmont: surely my path to true happiness was to realize my childhood dream of becoming a screenwriter.

So, a couple of years ago, producer Jake Lushington got hold of a ‘prototype’ copy of my script "And the Greatest of These" about a young Priest and his friendship with a learning- disabled young girl. He passed the script onto Hania Elkington, who worked for agent Sean Gascoine at United. Saying it was one of the best scripts he had read for a long time – even though the subject matter was “controversial” – he signed me up.

Optioned, but temporarily shelved, I started work on some other projects, an adaptation of The Diceman (with input from it's author Luke Rhinehart), and a more commercially viable feature "The Executioner”. Sean loved both of these, but said, realistically, I should write a British TV drama, as he didn't have the US connections to make these projects viable.

I finally did just that. I wrote a treatment and the first few episodes of a 'class divide' TV drama, which I really believed in. Everyone I knew who read it (especially Sean) absolutely loved it, and I had a lot of personal investment in the characters, which was usually a good sign for me. Sean said he would put it forward to Channel Four, who were looking for a replacement for the old Brookside slot. I had my reservations, as I remember Brookside was broadcast at 8:00 pm, and my script was definitely post watershed. Channel Four thought the same.

So now I move to the next chapter – here I am at Stage 32, excited in anticipation that the future will connect me with like-minded people who want to create something great.