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"Television programme making is now dictated more by management consultants and advertisers and the dreaded focus groups..... In theatre, you can take glorious risks, and people do every day. Television, by contrast, has become tame and predictable."
Biography
Glenn Chandler won a BAFTA as creator and lead writer of Taggart, the world’s longest running TV detective series. He’s also contributed well-known TV shows and written several one-off dramas. He began his career as a young playwright in London, working with the Soho Theatre Company.
Boys of the Empire, a satirical comedy about British Imperialism and Chandler’s first play in 25 years, won critical and popular acclaim at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival. Its London transfer sold out completely and extended its run. His follow-up, Scouts In Bondage, runs at the King’s Head Theatre for two months from November.
So what’s the new play about?
It's about a group of English boy scouts in the 1930s who fly off to a jamboree in India, but get hijacked and land in Afghanistan. They come up against Afghan warlords, Russian spies and British military officers, but leave behind them a country safe to camp in – rather like England!
Scouts In Bondage is a wonderful title – where did the idea come from?
There was a book written by a scoutmaster, Geoffrey Prout, in the 1930s called Scouts In Bondage. It is now quite scarce. The story was completely innocent, almost dull, one of many examples of boys' imperial fiction of that period. The title was really too good not to borrow. The author followed it up with an equally innocuous tale, Trawler Boy Dick, of which the least said the better.
You’ve had a very successful career in television, including a BAFTA for Taggart, so what attracted you back to the theatre?
Television programme making is now dictated more by management consultants and advertisers and the dreaded focus groups. When I created Taggart in 1983, it was myself and one producer making all the creative decisions. Now, no-one wants to take risks so everything is done by committee. In theatre, you can take glorious risks, and people do every day. Television, by contrast, has become tame and predictable.
You’re famous for detective drama but in the last two years you’ve mostly written comedy. Do you prefer writing comedy or drama?
I never consciously set out to write comedy. I put a lot of humour into Taggart to lift it above the average detective show – it's difficult to take severed heads and murder by snake venom totally seriously – with the result that Taggart in its early days was just as much grand guignol and black comedy as it was detective drama. Likewise, in Scouts in Bondage, there is a lot of comedy (in the title alone!) but there is drama too as four intrepid British bulldog boy scouts adventure up the Khyber Pass. Oops, there I go.
What piece of work are you the most proud of?
It has to be Taggart. At twenty six years old, it is now the longest running detective series in the world. I'm proud of the achievement, but it's the talents of many others that have kept it going.
What is the best piece of theatre you’ve seen recently? Why?
Warhorse. The huge life-size puppets blew me away. I want one.
What is your opinion of Off West End theatre in general at the moment, and is there anything you think that needs to be done differently?
Off-West-End theatre is more healthy than ever. Find another capital city with as much choice. I wouldn't mind my own one, but that's a pipe dream.
If you could pick any one person to work with on your next project, who would it be?
Kevin Spacey. He's a terrific actor and he's done so much for London theatre. Or any of my lovely actors who are in Scouts in Bondage.
Finally, can you tell our readers about what you’re doing after Scouts In Bondage is over?
Don't tempt me. Trawler Boy Dick? Seriously though, I want to do a musical, simply because I've never written one before, and I'm a great believer in doing things you've never done before. Try that on British television.....
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