In a scenario akin to a low budget Brit version of the Ocean’s N films (where N>11), I have somehow managed to get involved in a bit of hustling thanks to the Stellar Network. A week from today, I will be pitching a drama series concept to an audience of indie production companies, which I believe will happen down at Channel 4.

Needless to say, this is quite the opportunity. I thought at first I’d won it as a loyalty bonus for drinking reassuringly expensive continental lager in my boozing days, then recalled that I’d entered a competition forwarded by friend G, revolving around sending in a 100 word pitch for a new tv concept. Hadn’t got a 100 word one to hand for the project in mind, but I had done 50 and 500 word versions of same, so it was a question of doing a bit of a nip and tuck on them.

It is all rather exciting, but blocked up by a cold as I am, and whelmed if not overwhelmed by a number of writing projects, I have not yet got all fizzy about it. Friend S is offering to let me rehearse my pitching technique with him, which will be a novelty since I’m not at all sure I have a pitching technique. But it’s a generous offer, and I’ll take him up on it, opportunities like this being few and far between.

The project I’m pitching is my drug worker series, and S has been urging me to use certain buzzwords about it. So if I start referring to The Sharp End as an opportunity for a production company to consolidate its interests with a flagship state of the nation drama begging the question what if the Chatsworth Estate in Shameless were to have its drug issues addressed seriously rather than in essentially comedic form, you’ll know I’ve taken S’s coaching seriously.

Interestingly, friend A will also be in London on the same day for a conference on drugs. The lovely A is one of The Sharp End’s inspirations, a Yorkshire-based drug worker whose passion and experience was one of the starting points for this drama, and who helped me with an extensive research process that inspired much of the action and dynamics of the writing. With any luck, we’ll get together in the evening and give this excellent and inexpensive Mexican restaurant in Covent Garden my second visit in a month.

I hope things work out with The Sharp End. Certainly, the industry response so far has been favourable. My intention is to be its show-runner rather than to write it all myself, a proposition that I’m hoping will itself be appealing to some forward thinking production companies. And I have had some limited experience in this direction, having successfully steered a table of writers to getting more and better results than any of our peers in a workshop event at De Montfort University, an experience I thoroughly enjoyed.

Given the opportunity, I’d like to kickstart The Sharp End’s development process by pampering A and a couple of other drug worker friends in a spa for a weekend, and recording the stories they tell. It’s a rich world to work in, with a lot to understand for people new to it. As well as service user stories that are moving, funny, and tragic, there’s a big picture to comprehend about multi-agency working, the role of the NHS and other bodies in tackling drug use, and much more besides. I find it all fascinating, which is why I enjoyed writing the pilot episode so much, and why people are responding well to it.

So, wish me luck for next Monday, and I’ll keep you posted about what happens. Obviously my wish is for the series to actually reach the screen, since I’m more passionate about this than any other television project I’ve been involved with. But I’m realistic enough to know that its fate may instead be to serve as a calling card script that gets me work elsewhere, which may yet happen as a result of the impact it’s already made, and is one of my outcomes for next Monday. Watch this space…