Tommy Murphy started as a playwright, with a residency at Sydney's Griffin Theatre where he wrote Strangers In Between and Holding The Man, which won the NSW Premiers Literary Award for Best Play two years running.  It was Holding the Man which would divert his career to screenwriting.  After many drafts and years of development, the film was released in 2014 to much acclaim.

Tommy discusses his journey from playwright to screenwriter, the reason his wi-fi doesn't stretch to the room out the back and how he came to write both the stage screen versions of Holding The Man.

My guest this Episode is Shaun Grant.  He won an AACTA award in 2012 for his first screenplay, the chilling Snowtown and since then has worked on acclaimed TV shows Killing Time and Deadline Gallipoli.

In the podcast Shaun talks about why he had to quit his school teacher job on a Friday to start work on Killing Time the following Monday, how he came to write Snowtown and projects he's working on now, amongst other topics.

Margot Nash is a very accomplished screenwriter and director.  Her feature films have been nominated for many AFI awards and the NSW Premiers Literary Award.  She's run documentary training workshops for Pacific Island women and mentorships for Indigenous filmmakers.  She currently teaches screenwriting at University of Technology in Sydney while her latest film 'The Silences' is a personal account of repressed and hidden histories in Margot's family.  Not only do we discuss her career, but Margot educates us with some great writing concepts and methodologies.

Andrew Anastasios co-wrote the hit film The Water Diviner and is currently working on the Jack Irish TV series as writer and Producer.

We begin talking about how one small line in a war diary prompted him to create this story.  We're soon joined by his co-writer of the film Andrew Knight.

We learn heaps about the background of the Water Diviner before the discussion turns to all aspects of the industry and how writers benefit from getting away from their desks and learning to collaborate with all areas of a production.

This Ep is something very different.  Instead of a sitdown interview, thanks to the AWG I was lucky enough to interview winners backstage at the 48th Annual Australian Writers Guild Awards (Awgies) last Friday night, 11th September 2015.  There are 21 short clips which encompass most of the winners on the night.  

1. Andrew Anastasios
2. Tommy Murphy
3. Brendan Cowell
4. Dave Wade
5. Tim Pye
6. Aden Rolfe
7. Josh Thomas (for Kate McCartney & Kate McLennan)
8. Bruce Griffiths
9. Sandy Cameron
10. Joel Slacksmith & Nazeem Hussain
11. Josh Thomas
12. Michael Lucas & Stuart Page
13. Louise Bowes
14. Nicole Ash (for Alan Seymour)
15. Charlotte Rose Hamlyn
16. David Witt
17. Nicki Bloom
18. Katherine Thomson
19. Jan Sardi & Mac Gudgeon
20. Shaun Grant
21. Andrew Anastasios

The Sullivans, Prisoner, The Man From Snowy River, All The Rivers Run, The Far Country, Seachange and Underbelly, to name but a few.

This episode of the podcast we take a look at screenwriting from a different perspective.  That of the actress.  I was privileged to talk to acting legend Sigrid Thornton.  We talk about what she looks for in a script and find out some favourite memories from her career. 

Senior Drama Producer at Screentime Peter Gawler has had a long and successful career writing and producing numerous shows, most notably the Underbelly franchise.  Peter talks about his path into the industry via some less than safe stunt shooting and then as a trainee at Crawfords.  He also discusses how the upcoming Wolf Creek series came about and his enjoyment of writing in the horror genre.

This episode is something a bit different than normal in that my guest is a living legend of Australian Screenwriting, Tom Hegarty.

Tom was a writer during the glory years of Crawfords during the 60's, 70's and 80's, working on such influential shows as Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police, Eureka Stockade, A Town Like Alice. Tom also worked through the 90's on E Street, Stingers and Blue Heelers.

Tom talks about his journey into screenwriting (via theatre and BBC radio plays) and tells some great stories of working at Crawfords and especially with Hector Crawford himself.  

Debra Oswald has written on many local shows, Police Rescue, Wildside and even Bananas in Pyjamas to name but a few.  She has also written numerous plays, young adult novels and has another novel Useful, out now.  But it's as creator and head-writer of the highly successful Offspring that she is best known.

We delve into all things writing; Debra talks about tips and tricks to get into writing each day and of course we discuss Offspring. 

Kelly Lefever comes from a long line of screenwriters and got her start on Prisoner as a 17 year old.  From there she has written for numerous productions including Neighbours, Blue Heelers, The Circuit and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries to name but a few.  

In this episode Kelly discusses many topics including her writing routine, dealing with the anxiety of delivering scripts, the benefits of the Writers Guild and her life-changing experience working on The Circuit.