Andrew Davies
Andrew Davies
Andrew Wynford Daviesis a Welsh writer of screenplays and novels, best known for House of Cards and A Very Peculiar Practice, and his adaptations of Vanity Fair, Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch and War & Peace. He was made a BAFTA Fellow in 2002...
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth20 September 1936
expecting fast miracles people realistic
It is a fascinating period, but people are expecting miracles - and miracles just don't happen, ... We have to be realistic about how fast we can change.
access allow benefit bus buses cannot community conscious continues disabled elderly extent free hugely improve local meet nature needs people persons project scheme services severity test transport travel
Our scheme guaranteeing free travel for elderly and disabled people on local bus services continues to be hugely successful. Nevertheless, we are conscious it cannot benefit people who are not able to use even low-floor buses because of the nature or severity of their disability. This project will not only immediately improve access for these passengers, it will also allow us to test the extent to which community transport is able to meet the transport needs of persons who cannot use conventional buses.
baggy bleak boils characters chuck comic extra flavor great himself horrible house include lose nice plot related sorts spine stick stop tinker work
Bleak House is a great baggy thing, the plot doesn't work in all sorts of parts, so you've got to tinker with it. Usually I tell myself, find the spine of the story and stick to that and chuck out anything not related to the spine of the story, but that doesn't work with Dickens. You lose the flavor of him if you don't include all those other extra comic characters that he couldn't stop himself from creating. The plot bulges out. It's like horrible boils or something, but in a nice way.
eye focus mouths
I prefer love scenes to be shot up close with a lot of focus on eyes and mouths. Otherwise it can feel uncomfortable and voyeuristic.
numbers classic ridiculous
I know that a ridiculous number of classic serials have been commissioned, and that reviews show a reaction against them. The critics seem fed up.
growing-up teenager drinking
As a fairly innocent teenager, growing up in a village in Wales, I just thought, "God, I would like to go and hang about Soho and write great poetry and try to avoid drinking myself to death."
drama optimistic periods
I remain, however, fairly optimistic for the future of period drama because it's just such a popular thing.
hands dirt lows
The writer in movies is about as low as you can get and you really are a hired hand. You are paid a lot of money to be treated like dirt.
needs wonderful problem
The BBC fulfils a wonderful cultural function. Maybe the problem is that it feels it needs to be everything to everybody.
teacher writing age
I was getting rewarded for writing well, from about the age of five or six. A teacher would say, "Look what Andrew has written," and I thought, "Maybe I could be a writer."
humour dickens
Taking the humour out of Dickens, it's not Dickens any more.
drama moving thinking
From time to time there is a move to do a little less in the way of period dramas, but people rebel. Audiences say we want them. There is a big hunger for them. I don't think it's sentimentality or nostalgia, it's often that they are simply the best stories.
two boots
When you see two writers named on a movie, one of them did some drafts and got the boot.
being-yourself people important
You're stuck with being yourself, so the important thing is to find people who like that.