So, rather quicker than anticipated — or maybe I sent it to them longer ago than I recall — I got a response from the BBC Writersroom about The Sharp End.  After a bit of preamble to the effect that “only a relatively small proportion of the scripts we receive are given feedback”, it proceeds to give me exactly that, as follows:

“The Sharp End is a confidently written examination of recreational drug use — an interesting and topical premise which has evidently been extensively researched.  The eventful multistranded narrative emulates the tried and tested medical drama format, tracing the personal and professional lives of both the drug workers and their clients.  The writing demonstrates a sound sense of visual grammar.  The storytelling is pacy and concise, intercutting effectively between multiple storylines.  The dialogue is convincingly naturalistic and has commendable energy and immediacy.  However, this opening episode of a proposed series seems to have fallen victim to its own ambition.  Neither characters not situation are given sufficient time to be properly established.  So many characters are introduced that their depictions seem superficial and it is difficult to feel emotionally involved.  The narrative is also insufficiently driven and episodic.  The tone often feels too earnest and self consciously educational while the attempt to introduce a lighter element through the comedown club does not really manage to convince.”

Better, I guess, to fall victim to ambition than lack of it.

I’m starting to see The Sharp End as a failed experiment, albeit a really interesting one.  The whole business of the script’s busy-ness was intentional.  In my head, I was getting away from obvious A, B, C storylines and instead immersing the reader/viewer in a world stylistically influenced by documentaries as much as anything, cutting between different strands to produce a collage effect of a day in the life of a drug service.

All very well, but the feedback I’m picking up is that this isn’t what readers are getting from the script.  The notion that the characters are undernourished came up here and has been alluded to in other industry responses.  Is it true, I wonder, or are readers just used to looking at writing clearly emulating shows that are already on?  I set out not to do that, and am now being told that I sort of succeeded, but that what I did instead didn’t work.

Hmm.  Maybe I’m being stubborn, but I really would like to see an episode of The Sharp End made, just to see if it is as zippy and inconsequential as suggested, or if it’s just another way of presenting a story.  Anyone got a spare quarter million to help me test that theory?  You know you want to.

If I do have another go at writing The Sharp End, will I lose some of the energy I wanted to bring to it if I go for the route of more obviously charismatic characters with clearly delineated story arcs?  There are big emotions and big payoffs at stake in the series, but they’re not always immediately apparent.  But viewers, or readers, or at any rate this particular BBC reader, clearly believes that certain things need to be in place for an audience to commit to a drama.

So, where do I go from here?  I’m not in a woundlicking mood, partly because I don’t feel wounded.  Also because I’m just too busy and have lots of other projects to attend to.  It would have been nice to be invited in to talk to the BBC on the basis of The Sharp End, but I guess that pleasure awaits me another day.

Until then?  Watch this space.