Don't Forget to Write

I’ve decided to write this post about a series I only have very distant, foggy memories of and which does not exist in the public domain unless you live in Australia or have access to the archives of York University! The first episode is on YouTube – probably copied somehow from the Aussie release- which is some help though why the person who uploaded couldn’t have done the others I don’t know. The series is about writing. In fact it’s called Don’t Forget To Write` and it is its content which apparently caused it to be shunted off to a shady late evening slot in which it was destined not to be remembered. So is it that writing about writing is boring for anyone who doesn’t write? Or is it that creatives don’t enjoy seeing their foibles on display? How much information can I find about this obscure programme? Whatever happened, the series was once in the `Financial Times' TV critic's list of the 10 best sitcoms ever made. Not that it is really a sitcom either! I have a feeling that it’s main character Gordon Maple would appreciate the whole situation.

Don’t Forget to Write was written by Charles Wood, starred George Cole and was made between 1977 and 1979 just before Minder. Cole plays George Maple, “a lesser known English dramatist” struggling with writer’s block as he tries to pen Hollywood blockbusters and support his eccentric family; during the first series he is attempting a script titled `Thundering Hooves`.  Though technically a TV comedy series it was produced by the BBC's drama rather than comedy department hence each episode ran 50 minutes, not half-an-hour, and there was no audience or laughter track. In some ways it prefigures the trend for so called dramedy that is seen as a more recent development.

Born in 1932, it was Charles Wood’s five years in the army that inspired his first television plays, Prisoner and Escort in 1963 and Drill Pig in 1964. During his varied career he wrote  film scripts including The Beatles' Help, How I Won the War and The Charge of the Light Brigade. His TV work includes Drums Along the Avon for The Wednesday Play, Death or Glory Boy, about a young recruit in the writer's old regiment, Red Monarch, a black comedy about the last days of the Soviet dictator Stalin as well as epic biographies of both Wagner and Puccini. 1988 finally saw transmission of a project Wood had been nurturing for a number of years, Tumbledown based on the experiences of Robert Lawrence, in the Falklands war. This production won a BAFTA for Best Single Drama.  Wood also adapted Sharpe's Regiment and Sharpe's Waterloo for ITV and A Breed of Heroes for the BBC and wrote an episode of Inspector Morse amongst several tv series.  He was also nominated for BAFTAs in 1995 for A Breed of Heroes and in 2002 (with Richard Eyre) for his adaptation of Iris. He died last year aged 87. In contrast to much of the above mentioned work, Don’t Forget To Write is less frequently recalled in assessments of his career. Whilst there are aspects of the production that date it having seen just one episode I am reasonably convinced of its greatness as a lost classic.

Unusually the characters of Gordon Maple played by George Cole alongside his wife Mable (Gwen Watford) had already appeared in an ITV comedy penned by Charles Wood called The Root of All Evil in which he is in Rome for the filming of a script he’s written. A follow up A Bit of a Family Feeling saw Maple putting up with his aged parents coming to live with his family. However it was the BBC who eventually signed up the idea of a Maple series.

Broadcast in 1977 the first season saw Maple trying to pen his script `Thundering Hooves` based on the life of Genghis Khan. However he has writers block and spends the time avoiding work while also dealing with his near hysterical wife Mabel and their grown up but eccentric offspring Kate (Claire Walker) and Wilfred (Ron Elmslie).  Gordon’s writer block becomes a constant concern and in one episode he complains that he’s had to make some money by writing episodes of a sitcom based on his own family! He is also obsessed with bettering neighbour and playwright Tom Lawrence (Francis Matthews). The series also featured the maid Mrs Field played by the redoubtable Daphne Heard and shared between the two families. In all four directors worked on the show across two series each of six episodes- Allan Dossor (4 episodes) and David Askey (2 episodes) did the first series, with the second helmed by Christopher Baker (4 episodes) and John Bruce (2 episodes).

The drama was partially inspired by Wood’s own life; notice the link with the Wood / Maple surnames.  Tom Lawrence was reportedly based on playwright Peter Nichols - one of Lawrence’s plays is named as Soldiers In Spurts - Nichols had recently written Privates On Parade. Also, Lawrence is said to be the author of plays called Elephant and Dog - Wood had written a play called Dingo. The first series featured a famous actor obviously based on John Gielgud, who had starred in Wood's script for The Charge Of The Light Brigade. By episode six of the first series, Wood had apparently deliberately written himself into an ending that would avoid a second series, but it nonetheless appeared in 1979. However it was transmitted in a much later slot and suffered lower ratings as a result. The BBC’s official reason for cancelling the show was that the humour of a writer's life was too esoteric for a mainstream audience though quite why they didn’t see that from the start- and market it appropriately -is uncertain.

 

With only episode one in the public domain there are snippets of information from people who have posted memories online.  Like that archaeologist discovering fragments these shed some light onto what the show was like. There are specific mentions of a scene where George goes through the motions of shaving while trying to hold a conversation but actually not shaving at all. Several people remember that every time George went into detailed explanations of why he hadn’t done any work, Mabel would initially under-react. “Yes, I see” she would say and then explode in anger once out of earshot. Son Wilfred is said to have had a probation officer who was only about 19 and would just listen to records with him.

The BBC is notorious for wiping old series from history but presumably didn’t wipe this enabling the Australian release. In 2003, Simon Anthony, a former BBC Video Tape engineer, said on IMDB that he had made copies of several Phillips VCR recordings of episodes from both series.  He also reckoned that all the episodes do still exist in the BBC archives, but had failed to find them when he searched.  In 2005, it was claimed – also on IMDB- that recordings of the series exist in the archives of York University which seems a suitably random place for them to live!

It wasn’t too long after the second series’ broadcast that George Cole became a household name, while Charles Wood still had some of his most acclaimed material ahead of him yet this series has fallen into obscurity. Curiously there are several other things in George Cole’s extensive cv that seem not to have been released in any format. Luckily the first episode `Lesser Known English Dramatists` is on YouTube and provides an intriguing idea of what the series was like which is rather unlike anything else around although the title sequence actually seems quite similar to The Good Life with a whimsical light tune and an animated sequence. Gordon is hiding behind various objects though it just looks like he’s hiding from his wife rather than writing.

Staged more or less entirely in the Maple house proceedings have the rhythm of a stage play with lengthy scenes filled with dialogue that appear to have been shot in take further giving the impression we're watching a play. The house itself is beige with white tiles in the kitchen, yet it has a futuristic look to it meaning it doesn’t seem as dated as most Seventies drama houses now do. It’s an interesting house too with plenty of doors and corners for characters to appear and disappear into.  It’s important to say that this is not a sitcom even though it has the occasional nod to the form. It’s what we now know as comedy-drama so the dialogue is sharp and by no means naturalistic.  The constant “tippy tappy” sound of a typewriter is the backdrop to almost the whole episode not that Gordon is doing any work. Instead he’s rigged up a tape recorder of himself typing while he sits in his greenhouse drinking tea and tending to the plants. Right away you’re glad it’s not a sitcom with an audience because when we see the recorder the absence of audience laughter means it takes on the quality of a lurking spectre rather than a gag. The characters are middle class; indeed for a struggling writer Gordon’s home seems well appointed and pricey so perhaps his creative malaise is recent.

George Cole delivers a different sort of performance to his best known roles. Gordon is like a child hiding from the world yet with a deadline to produce a film script about Tartars; “what do I know about Tarters?” he moans before immediately commenting on his son’s teeth. This low key word play and clever conversation would certainly baffle many modern viewers who would say that nothing happens. The episode pulls each character into the spotlight by way of how others see them. Mabel is very pleased about Gordon’s apparent splurge of creativity but as soon as she takes their daughter to school, he sneaks back in the house to be  confronted by an American student whereupon pretends to be the gardener. Mabel is on the brink of panic at every moment especially when she learns that Gordon is not really writing- she blames their son Wilfrid for encouraging lazy ways. Wilfrid on the other hand is an aspiring filmmaker even if his projects involve theft of ideas. He soon teams up with the American student who is also a filmmaker.

The visit of fellow writer Tom Lawrence with his cleaner Mrs Field whom the families will share ups the ante considerably and sees Gordon and Tom secretly delighting in each other’s foibles while outwardly giving the impression of being best friends. Francis Matthews deploys a string of pained expressions as he hears how well his rival is supposedly doing. Finally Gordon starts actual work on the script giggling to himself over what he is writing. 

As mentioned earlier the performances are of the kind that would be at home in a theatre and so may come over as forced on television. We forget that much tv drama was done like this in the 1970s; today’s more nuanced use of whispers, regional accents and especially silences was less common in drama of this vintage. Unfortunately in today’s climate people would also find the production non inclusive- nearly all the characters are resolutely white, middle class and well -spoken despite the setting being Bristol. Yet giving leeway for over forty years of development I think they’re excellent performances.

George Cole always knew how to give a lot by doing a little, anyone who saw Minder will know how well this comes over on tv. Gordon is a scared character who deflects, avoids and sneaks about yet there’s a mischievous playful side to him too. Mabel is played by Gwen Watford as neurotic and a good foil for Gordon. It’s the performance that’s perhaps dated the most being something of an archetypal worrying wife who relies on her husband’s money but sorts out his life for him. In a handful of scenes Daphne Heard almost steals the episode especially when she wants to see her cleaning cupboard.

Gwen Watford said: "Any time we need impetus we pop over to Charles Wood's home.  The atmosphere as he tries to write and his wife Val keeps things orderly with the world exploding under her feet is just what's needed on the set.” She reckoned Mabel “always goes to the brink of hysteria and Gordon is regularly on the point. of going berserk. Getting the characters to that pitch each week is physically demanding. But I'm quite at home really. My husband. Richard, also writes scripts." By an odd coincidence she wasn't the only cast member with a script writing partner. Renny Lister who played Jane Lawrence was married to a writer- her husband was Kenneth Cope.

Perhaps one day this rare series will get some sort of official release in some format or other; surely the involvement of both George Cole and Charles Wood merits it? In the meantime if anyone reading this can add information or reviews of other episodes please let me know. 

 Episode Titles / Transmission Dates

All episodes written by Charles Wood
First Season:

1.        Lesser Known English Dramatists (18/ 04 77)

2.        Thundering Hooves (25/04/77)

3.        The Tasting Of The Wine (2 05/ 77)

4.        A Friend In Need (9 /05/77)

5.        First Night (16/05/77)

6.        Going Up In The World (23/05/77)

Second Season:

1.        Enter Hitler (18/01/79)

2.        Exit Goering (25/01/79)

3.        In Place of Our Advertised Programme (1/02/ 79)

4.        The Greening Of Gordon (8/02/79)

5.        Gotterdammerung (15/02/79)

6.        We're Going To Maxim's (22/02/79)

 Main Cast:
George Maple – George Cole (12 eps)
Mabel Maple – Gwen Watford (12 eps)
Tom Lawrence – Francis Matthews (12 eps) 
Kate Maple – Claire Walker (12 eps)
Wilfrid Maple- Ron Emslie (11 eps)
Mrs Field- Daphne Heard (11 eps)
Jenny Lawrence – Renny Lister (8 eps)