The Peter Harness Interview
So, I interviewed Peter Harness yesterday.
You can hear the results here. Thanks to Kevin and James at Pex Lives for hosting it, and obviously, massive thanks to Peter for sitting down with me.
And please do check it out, if only to help me attain the moral victory of having this be more popular than my Vox Day.
August 21, 2015 @ 10:00 am
What was it like interviewing a future showrunner (hopefully)?
August 21, 2015 @ 10:09 am
Good fun. I kind of want to try it with a current one now.
August 21, 2015 @ 10:47 am
Well, if the recent Private Eye speculation has any truth to it, you might need to get on that quick.
August 21, 2015 @ 2:56 pm
Um… link? :-/
August 21, 2015 @ 8:37 pm
Link to the Private Eye stuff? http://io9.com/wait-is-there-really-going-to-be-no-new-season-of-doct-1722268951
Relevant paragraph:
"The report also alleges that the decision comes from an ongoing tussle between the BBC and Steven Moffat, who is under pressure from the corporation to stand down from Doctor Who and commit his time to Sherlock, instead of attempting to manage two of the BBC’s most popular dramas at the same time."
It might be utter nonsense, but there's usually a grain of truth in Private Eye reports, so I'll bet that 2016 will be shaken up in some way, and that Moffat will soon be leaving for some reason or another.
August 23, 2015 @ 8:26 pm
…well, that's absurd. It's not like Sherlock is the regularly-running series, of the two, and it's pretty clear that Gatiss could take the load of writing scripts — not that his would be any good, but the BBC don't need to force Moffat to Sherlock to Doctor Who's detriment.
August 24, 2015 @ 12:34 am
Sherlock is Moffat and Gatiss's baby, and Moffat's the talent – there's no reason to think it would keep laying golden eggs without him. Him and Gatiss being mates, it's also doubtful whether Gatiss would play along with an arrangement Moffat wasn't happy with. Whereas Doctor Who is an institution that has been run by umpteen different people in the past, on which Moffat is inevitably going to be replaced at some point anyway. And if push comes to shove, it belongs to the BBC and they can employ whoever they like on it, whereas I don't know what the IP situation is with Sherlock. If they want to keep both series running while restricting Moffat to running one of them, it can only realistically work that way round.
Given that they've lived with the situation this long, presumably if they really are getting restive now it's because of the current financial menaces increasing the pressure to crank as much as they can out of profitable properties.
August 24, 2015 @ 12:38 am
Especially given the Top Gear situation.
August 24, 2015 @ 12:42 am
Moreover, Sherlock is made for the BBC by Hartwood, Moffat's family's production company. He can't really be forced out of it.
August 28, 2015 @ 1:59 am
Really enjoyed the interview – he would make a great showrunner!