Head writer
Head writer, lead writer and show runner are all unofficial tiles that are generally synonymous in the production of shows in the BBC Wales family of DWU programmes. The terms refer to the person who is the principal member of the above the line staff. He — for as of 2012[update] the office has always been held by a male — is the person who guides the show by commissioning scripts, conceiving of the overall story arcs, and settling many creative — as opposed to technical — disputes.
In the opinion of David Tennant, the position was somewhat foreign to the British television industry prior to Russell T Davies' tour on Doctor Who, with the possible exception of people like Julia Smith on EastEnders and Paul Abbott on Shameless. As Russell T Davies opined in his 2009 "exit interview" on BBC Radio 2:
Instead of just writing the scripts, it means that the writer is also a producer on it, normally an executive producer. You're overseeing every aspect of production.
Davies went on to described how a show with a show runner operated under a "co-ordinated system" of production, in which the various departments were brought together to understand the creative needs of the script. Finding the right way to impart the "tone" of the script, Davies reckoned, was amongst the show runner's main tasks. If the word used to describe, for instance, the Sycorax was "voodoo", then that suggested to the prosthetics designer something made of bone, not metal. It would then suggest to the costume designer robes rather than silver space suits. The fact that the costume department would be using robes would mean that the casting director might cast taller actors rather than shorter ones. Thus, from making a key decision about the overall tone of an episode, the show runner could lead his below the line personnel in significant ways, but still allow them great freedom to carry out the details. (BBCR: Who on Who?)
So what happens is that we have these things call tone I always describe my job as "transmitting". I just repeat myself and repeat myself and repeat myself about what the tone of it is. That approaches who you cast. So every aspect of the job is coordinated. The good thing about this "coordinated system" is that there very rarely is blame — very little does go wrong.
is a writer assigned with writing the majority of scripts for a television series, particularly those considered the most important to a given series. The duties of a head writer may extend to writing entire seasons of a programme, as Terry Nation did for the first series of Blake's 7. Doctor Who did not have a head writer before its return with a new series in 2005, though a script editor served a similar function.
Head Writers
Doctor Who
- Series 5 -
Torchwood
The Sarah Jane Adventures
- Series 1 -
See Also
