LoveLove Films’ Managing Director Georgina Hurcombe and resident writer Oliver Selby recently sat down to chat with novelist, TV writer and BAFTA judge James Andrew Hall, who has been in the industry for over 50 years and recently celebrated his 81st birthday.

TV writer James Andrew Hall has written screenplays, soaps, novels and even children’s books over his long career. Some of his most well known ventures include BBC movie The Snow Queen, children’s book The Curse of Brian’s Brick and he even had a stint as a writer on the popular soap opera, Crossroads.

James Andrew was an absolute delight to talk to, very fun and full of life. He had a lot of great tips for people wanting to write and also spoke about how he first got into the business, his views on the BAFTA nominated films and how he ended up residing in Bournemouth.

Before we started on the questions, James Andrew confessed that he was “quite bad at being interviewed” and his partner, Raymond, told us a funny story of a time James Andrew was once interviewed on the radio and only gave yes/no answers – “My heart went out to the woman interviewing. Poor woman, I could see her face”. Cunningly, we didn’t plan any yes/no questions, so we knew we were off to a good start.

TV Writer – James Andrew Hall

Oliver: Tell me how you got started as a writer?

James Andrew: My first short story was published when I was still at school. I was 15 and it was written as a school essay. The teacher suggested that I send it off to a magazine, which I did. To my astonishment, they published it and I gave up all thoughts of being an astronaut or anything else. From that moment on, I wanted to be a writer and since then I have always enjoyed it. I’ve never felt it to be a chore, whatever I was doing; I’ve always loved it. That’s really how I got started. I had my first novel published in 1965, which was terrific, really good critics and write-ups. It didn’t sell (he laughs) but it did well in the reviews.

Georgina: So how did you get into that step of getting the novel?

James Andrew: We lived next door to the editor of The Tatler, whose wife was a thriller writer. And she sort of took me under her wing and introduced me to all sorts of people, including an agent who was really wonderful. I’ve still got the same agent now that I had then and they’re tatting around, I’ve just finished another novel that is tatting around the publishers now.

Georgina: That’s amazing.

James Andrew: Her daughter is running it now. So that helped. ‘Who you know’ helps enormously when you’re starting out. It really does. You can be brilliant but not get anywhere.

Georgina: That’s so true. I’m always saying in university talks and things that its really important to actually go and do placements and talk to people because you can be really talented but end up working in a bar for instance.

James Andrew: Well you won’t be surprised to know that I ended up working on the editorial staff of The Tatler, which was not good at all. It was the wrong end of the business to start. But it introduced me to a lot of other writers and people who I had never met before, which helped. And then I had to do two years national service, which finished everything for two years, but it was after that I started doing TV work. My agent got me into it. The first thing I did was Crossroads, quite a few episodes. It wasn’t expected to last very long but it did quite well.

Georgina: It was really successful.

James Andrew: I loved it, it was a bit silly at times but I really loved it, and things multiplied after that, if you had a bit of a CV. The novel helped enormously because it added a bit of class.

Oliver: How was it having three well-received novels in the sixties? Did it affect you in any way?

James Andrew: Well, I got really big headed for a start (he laughs). I decided to emigrate to Malta with the proceeds so that I could ‘grow’ without British influences into an ‘International Author’. I have no idea why I chose Malta but, boy, did I have a good time! For three years I did absolutely no work at all whilst lying to my agent about the incredible new novel I was writing. I lay around in the sun and drank a lot and actually ‘came out’ as a fully-fledged gay man. As a result, of course, the decent reputation I’d built up as a novelist evaporated entirely over my three years of the good life and when I eventually returned home, penniless and contrite, I also discovered that several other writers with very similar names were producing good stuff – Adam Hall, Allan Hall, Adrian Hall and so on. Which is why I changed my writing name to James Andrew Hall from that moment on.

Oliver: You’ve written a lot of different things over your career, what would you say is your biggest achievement?

James Andrew: I am most satisfied about the novels, I must admit. Possibly because they take me longer and require more input, I suppose. I’m pleased about the fact that they’ve been published. I’m very pleased I’ve finished this one; I mean I’m ancient now in my 80s so I doubt there will be another one.

Georgina: And you still do it on your typewriter, don’t you?

James Andrew: I do, I hate computers.

Raymond : And then I type it!

James Andrew: I mean I’ve got a computer and I use it, but I don’t like working on it – I really don’t. So I just type everything out and Raymond types it into the computer. It’s the old fashioned type too. Tippy tap tip tip tip.

Raymond: One of the things he was nominated for was for a Smarties award for children’s books. I’d been writing to a girl in Finland since I was 15 and this one book was translated into Finnish and, funnily enough, last year we found out she’s got that very book and reads it to her grandchildren.

Georgina: Which one is that?

James Andrew: The Curse of Brian’s Brick, which is a really horrible title as you can imagine all these horrible little nine-year-old boys going into the library and asking for The Curse of Brian’s ‘Prick’. It was strongly suggested that I choose my titles with more care after that, haha!

Oliver: So when you’re writing a novel – first of all you come up with the ideas, and I’m sure you have a lot of ideas but how do you hone in one?

James Andrew: Something just grabs your attention. I don’t know what it is, something catches your attention and it won’t go and it sticks in the back of your head. And there is a point where you think ‘I’ve got to sit down and write that as I’m fed up with just making notes.’

Oliver: And what is your writing process when you do write it out?

James Andrew: It’s certainly not straightforward. I’d love to be able to sit down with Chapter One and go all the way through. With TV work I can sort of image the whole lot the whole way through, all the scenes. What’s going to be high, low, soft and loud and all the rest of it. I can sort of see it in my head because I’ve watched so many TV shows and films and things. You pick it up, you pick up the techniques and this probably isn’t the right word, but the feel for it.

Oliver: You’ve also done a lot of adaptation work, how do you find is best to go about adapting someone else’s work for screen?

James Andrew: With a mental note to myself to be true to the other writers work because you are dealing with someone else’s work which is always difficult. Don’t impose too much of yourself on it, which is not always easy!. So from that point of view I am conscious of it all the time when I’m working on an adaptation. I have done a lot and I like it because at times I’m good on dialogue but bad on plot haha. So it’s always good to be given a plot.

Oliver: You’ve had a successful career writing for TV, film and literature. What are the key differences you find in writing these?

James Andrew: With the novels and short stories it’s mine, I regard it as mine and I argue until I’m blue in the face if anyone disagrees with anything I’ve written. With something for television, it is definitely a group effort – you’re part of a team or writers, which you’re not when writing a book. It’s yours. So you sort of hope to blend in with the group producing – you argue as much as you like and then listen. So, what I’m saying is that it’s much easier to write your own stuff and even when I’ve written something original for TV, I’m conscious of the fact that it is a team effort, whatever appears on the TV is a team effort and the director is more important than I am. There are so many factors like production costs, is that do-able, how much will that cost, is that going to come out well. It’s going to cost somebody a lot of money. I mean a lot of the stuff I did was period stuff and adapting period pieces like that. They cost a fortune! the sets and costumes. I don’t give a damn about that, that’s their problem but I’ve got to remember all of these things.

Oliver: So of all the genres you’ve written: dramas, children’s, horror/thriller – which is your favourite?

James Andrew: I enjoy writing for kids. I think it helps that I haven’t got any of my own. So I’ve never really grown up in some respects and I still enjoy reading children’s books too. I like that. I was once or twice taken to schools with children who have actually read the book and are reading something I’ve written. And it’s wonderful to see they are so enthusiastic reading it and are laughing in the right places. I love all that.

Oliver: That does sound great.

James Andrew: But from the satisfaction point of view from the ‘I’m a star’ point of view then it’s always the novels.

Raymond: And your ‘Coming Out’ produced a lot of discussion in Parliament.

James Andrew: Oh God yes. I did this play for the BBC and Nigel Havers, who was one of the stars, his father was the Attorney General at the time and was really upset that his son was appearing in this TV play which garnished all these headlines in the papers like “Gay Sex Shocker” and things like that. It was very tame by today’s standards but it was just the first time the BBC had done something like this. I loved it, it was wonderful. The publicity was terrific!

Oliver: I bet!

James Andrew: After I had my first novel published, Man in Aspic, which had a gay theme – I began to get some very strange fan mail and phone calls. One day I was contacted by a quite well-known Australian artist who lived in London. He told me that he’d been commissioned by an Australian millionaire, who wished to remain anonymous, to paint my portrait! Would I consider sitting for him? Well, I’m afraid flattery got the better of me so I agreed – but only after suggesting that he told the mysterious millionaire that he didn’t have to pay for a portrait when he could have me for nothing! Anyway, the end result was pretty good and is now presumably handing on a wall in Australia. I still have the excellent preliminary sketch the artist did hanging over my desk!

Oliver: Amazing. So in your long career which has been your most challenging project?

James Andrew: I suppose being presented with a Dickens novel in particular, knowing that you’ve got to do it in six, eight, ten episodes or something. It’s a bit daunting because it’s Dickens for God sakes and I know other writers have done it before and I’ve done it before. I did three of his books, all of which had been done years before on television. I was just doing another version but still, its pretty daunting. I found it a bit of a problem I must admit.

Raymond: One of the amusing things you told me is that you were writing about King Wenceslas and nobody knows about him.

James Andrew: He’s a complete mystery the Good King Wenceslas.

Georgina: He went out into the snow?

Raymond: And they made a film about it, didn’t they?

James Andrew: It was rather silly really, It was an American film. Stephanie Powers as the wicked Queen and it was really Hollywoodised, it was great fun doing it because you were given like a Santa Claus character really. Write a film about Santa Claus, someone that everybody has heard of but nobody knows anything really about, so I just made it up. Although there was a real King Wenceslas and he died when he was 19 so this old man walking through the forest with his white beard Good King Wenceslas song is rubbish.

Georgina: That’s destroyed Christmas for all of us!

James Andrew: I really enjoyed it though, I must say. Looking back on a career, which is 90% writing, I love it. I’ve been very lucky. I have been able to do what I want to do.

Raymond: In other words he’s never worked for a living.

James Andrew: Your work is your hobby. I suppose it is, you are getting paid for your hobby.

Georgina: I like that too. So to a young person, what are the three things that they need to become a great writer?

James Andrew: Stamina. Not patience, you don’t so much need that. The ability to bounce back because there are going to be a lot of setbacks. There are going to be lot of times when you think this is the best thing I’ve written since whenever, which other people don’t like. Which is quite upsetting – I’ve got things in the drawer which I think should have been accepted years ago. And even now I think when looking at them, what didn’t they like?

Luck. Seriously a lot of luck! Lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time, like I was right from the start with the editor of The Tatler. It did make a difference and got me an agent for a start.

Be cheeky – I barnstormed the theatre and went round with one of my manuscripts and dumped it in Bryan Forbes’ dressing room – who had just started directing really good films. To my astonishment, he got back to me and took me out for dinner and then stayed a friend for nearly 40 years. He was a great help. He introduced me to a lot of people and made a lot of good suggestions. Yes – be cheeky.

Oliver: So which writers do you really like and respect now?

James Andrew: I think some of the best writing in television is in the soaps. I really do. A lot of very successful writers I don’t like at all (he laughs). A lot of female novelists actually that I admire. Beryl Bainbridge, who I love. Muriel Spark. Alan Bennett, of course. Children’s writer Joan Aiken too!

Oliver: As a BAFTA judge, you obviously had to watch a lot of films this year. Which ones stood out for you as being great screenplays?

James Andrew: Manchester by the Sea is extremely good. Depressing, but well written. Actually, a lot of them were depressing this year, really depressing films, all the hardship and suffering. Well acted and written, that said my favourite one was La La Land! Although that even has a sad ending!

Georgina: So what brought you to Bournemouth?

James Andrew: I was living in London. I know what it was – I got a lot of money. No seriously, for something I wrote, an unexpected amount of money. I thought, now I’m able now to buy a decent house, which I couldn’t buy in London as it’s too expensive and I did a sort of radius around London, which is about 40 minutes to an hour and half away out of London if I needed to get back in, and Bournemouth held within it. I’d been here on holiday once or twice before so I came down with a friend and we bought the house we’re in for pittance and spent a lot of money doing it up. And that’s how I ended up in Bournemouth and what a beautiful place Dorset is! Its really inspired me creatively!

Georgina: Do you think it’s quite nice to be out of the rat race and to have a bit of quiet time?

James Andrew: I was very happy to get away from London to be honest and to go there occasionally it was fairly easily. Good train service between Bournemouth and London. I like the feel and atmosphere of Bournemouth, I always have. It’s always had this reputation for being a retirement place but I think they are certainly beginning to lose that. It’s alive now, really alive with creativity, which is terrific and very exciting!

Oliver: Well thank you, that was great.

James Andrew: Thank you!

James Andrew Hall has just finished writing a novel about a dysfunctional Edwardian family, which he is particularly enthusiastic about. He was an absolute thrill to interview, really insightful, fun and full of life – it was an absolute pleasure talking to him.

To find out more about James Andrew Hall, visit his website: http://www.sweatandtearsbooks.com/index.html