No Pain, No Gein17/10/2025  "A theatrical and visceral essay in moral transgression and society's reaction to the most extreme outsiders who break its norms" - could be the unweildy elevator pitch for the continuing Ryan Murphy-produced MONSTER franchise. The very idea of which is repugnant, or interesting - depending. As I've just written a novel on almost the same subject of moral transgression and society, you could say, I had - ahem - "skin in the game" watching it. A potential chainsaw to grind. But people seemed divided. Always a good sign.
Putting one's personal preferance (and "taste", for god's sake) to one side, there is no questioning (and even Lucy Mangan doesn't question) that MONSTER: THE ED GEIN STORY is the kind of powerful, cinematic storytelling that makes BBC drama look as if it's 40 years out of date. It's polished and incredibly well-crafted "entertainment" (Mother said to add the quote marks. Quiet, Mother!). What's more, in its blurring of fact and fiction, sometimes venturing into Ken Russell or Dennis Potter extravagance, THE ED GEIN STORY is finally about the stories we tell and about the story that is ourselves. While I'd quibble about some of the detail - did Hitchcock ever meet Bloch? Did he press an eye to the peep hole? And the Weegee girl stuff... - in the end it doesn't matter. The theme is a potent one for anyone brave enough to look in the mirror. Whether writing a best seller, reading the headlines of the latest mass killer, or dressing up in Halloween cosplay, we are all culpable for creating monsters. If you find that uncomfortable, look away now.
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Ambagious Tactics6/10/2025  Nice to see my contribution "Think Hitchcock" made it into the deck of Ambagious Tactics for aiding creative thinking outside the box. The project, created by Northampton Arts Lab, is a celebration of Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's original Oblique Strategies, created 50 years ago, and was made with the involvement of the Schmidt family. Thank you to Alistair Fruish.
If anyone wants to get hold of a set of Ambagious Tactics, please email [email protected] TV Anniversary of the Week #26/10/2025  It is hard for me to believe that it is *20 years ago* that the show I created, Afterlife, starring the magificent * Lesley Sharp * and the marvellous * Andrew Lincoln * first appeared on ITV. I've never been more blessed by a production team (Clerkenwell Films), by those who helped me write it (Charlie Fletcher, Mark Greig, Mike Cullen, Guy Burt), by the directors who realised it so brilliantly, or those tremendous guest stars who appeared in it over two seasons (we still called them "series" in them days!):
* Anna Wilson Jones * Kate Duchene * Adrian Lester * Kevin Doyle * Saskia Reeves * Mark Benton * Rosemary Leach * Mark Bonnar * Nikki Amuku-Bird * Phillida Law * David Threlfall * Aidan McArdle * Zoe Telford * Liam Cunningham * Natalie Tena * Kenneth Cranham * Craig Kelly * Claire Rushbrook * Julie Graham * and many others RIP directors Maurice Phillips, Charles Beeson After 14 episodes (2005-2006), I picked up the story of psychic medium Alison Mundy with my story "Lost Loved Ones", now available as an audio production by Bafflegab Productions read by Lesley Sharp. "Lost Loved Ones" is also one of the stories in my collection THE GOOD UNKNOWN AND OTHER GHOST STORIES, available now from Tartarus Press Stephen VolkScreenwriter and author Archives
October 2025
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