He's known as the most influential television dramatist of his generation, but Alan Bleasdale also has a personal policy of promoting new writing talent, which he describes as "passing the baton".
Filmed around Dublin last year, Soft Sand, Blue Sea marks the TV screenwriting debut of Bleasdale's latest protege and fellow-Liverpudlian, Stephen Butchard. The feature-length drama examines the difficulties and emotional trauma of children in care through the eyes of 13-year-old David (Laurence Kinlan) and 10-yearold Danni (Aimee Mulligan), who decide to escape from the children's home where they live to the freedom of the beach.
"The idea for the film came to me from a photograph in a newspaper," says Butchard. "It was just three Russian orphans sitting in front of a Coca-Cola machine. One was smoking, the others were giving the camera the finger. They were about 10 years of age, they must have been freezing cold and they had slippers on their feet. It was just that image, really."
For Bleasdale and producer Keith Thompson, Soft Sand, Blue Sea marks a return to Ireland three years after shooting their award-winning drama series Jake's Progress in Dunmore East. Unlike Jake's Progress, which was an English drama shot in Ireland, this story is actually set here. "It was originally set in a northern English city," says Thompson. "But that wasn't ideal because we didn't want a grey, issue-led piece. We thought that setting it in Ireland would add a little bit of lyricism. Also, from past experience we knew that it would be easier to find kids to play the part."
Casting director John Hubbard scoured the country for potential young actors, whittling an initial list of 300 hopefuls down to 40 pairings for the roles of David and Danni. "This boy was a very clear winner," says Hubbard of young Laurence Kinlan, whose acting debut this is. Thompson describes him as "an absolute natural. He has a face that engages you and drags you in."
Was there much adjustment involved in shifting the story across the Irish Sea, in terms of the social context and the dialogue? According to Thompson, while the filmmakers did some research on the specifics of the Irish social services, that was never their primary concern. "It's entirely to do with the relationships and the boy's obsession. We certainly did some tweaking and adjusting in the language, and quite a lot more was done in rehearsal with the actors (who include Julia Ford, Brendan Coyle, Deirdre Molloy and Frank Kelly - as a Garda inspector). Any English view we might have of what Ireland is about would have been very peripheral to the story."
THOMPSON believes that British television is not really comfortable with single drama any more. "There are very, very few of them done." But ironically, Soft Sand, Blue Sea is up against tough competition on Monday night (a bank holiday in England) from two other, more populist, single dramas, the comedy My Summer With Des on BBC 1 and the psychological thriller, The Stalker's Apprentice, on ITV. For Bleasdale, though, there is still a vital need for tough, serious drama, a need which he sees addressed in Butchard's writing: "In all his work what he does is examine subject matters that have been beaten to a bloody pulp by soap operas with their crassness, their need for headlines and their lack of sensitivity. I don't know how he does it. It's as if he walked into our profession fully formed. The knowledge, the skill, the maturity of the man is absolutely remarkable."
