Biography:
- Kay Mellor was born on 11th May 1951 in Leeds, England.
- She studied at Brenton Hall College which is now part of University of Leeds.
- In 2009 she received an OBE for her services to drama.
- In 2015 Kay Mellor was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Writing Award at the Writer's Guild Awards.
- Kay Mellor's writing career started in the 1980's when she worked on Coronation Street and Brookside.
Kay Mellor's Key Work:
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| The Syndicate (Series 3) |
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| In The Club (Series 1) |
- In an interview for the BBC, Kay Mellor revealed that for the second series of The Syndicate, she had the option to either carry on the cast of the first series and show their lives one year on from winning the lottery or starting over with a new cast. She chose to start over with a new cast winning the lottery in order to capture the moment where they win and follow their lives as they make plans / decisions with the money. This way of starting over with a new cast allowed Mellor to explore the different ways people react to coming into large amounts of money.
- Mellor's inspiration for The Syndicate was actually the times we are living in, "where people are desperate and holding on to the dream of winning the lottery as the only solution available". [1] Mellor then took this inspiration and conducted some research into the lives of real life lottery winner. She noticed how sometimes their lives weren't made better by their win, their new wealth actually made their lives more complicated and put strains on relationships.
(In a similar way to Mellor, I took inspiration from real life for my short film. I found a newspaper article about a man contemplating ending his life following a diagnosis of schizophrenia. I then took inspiration from this real life story to create a fictional dramatic piece about a schizophrenic man and his disruptive hallucination / alter ego.)
- Mellor received a great amount of feedback on her first series of the syndicate, especially about her character Bob who suffered with cancer. Bob's story resonated with so many people, making the story have a bigger impact on the audience and therefore making the show the success it was.
(By making storylines relatable, Mellor was able to attract a bigger audience. This suggests the great significance of having relatable characters on the reception of the drama. This has inspired my short film because the more relatable I make my main character John, the more interested and captivated my audience will be within the story.)
- Mellor's inspiration for In The Club came from her own early pregnancy at age 15. However, she admits that maternity has changed over the years since she had her children so she had to conduct a lot of research into the subject all over again (they even had a team of midwives on the show to give advice).
(This again shows the importance of gaining inspiration from real life. Stories can be found anywhere, and with extensive research and development they can be transformed into an enthralling drama series or short film).
- Something which is notable in all of Kay Mellor's work is her use of realistic characters. This shows that story lines do not need to be extravagant to capture the audience's attention. Due to the captivating characters and storylines Mellor produced, The Syndicate was re-comissioned for a third series and In The Club for a second series. A new Kay Mellor drama series called Love, Lies and Records has been commissioned for BBC One, putting a hold on In The Club and The Syndicate.
I can't wait to see the characters and storylines Mellor has created for her new series, I'm also very excited to see if she will write any more series of In The Club and The Syndicate!
Bibliography:
[1] BBC Media Centre, 2012. Interview with Kay Mellor [online] Available at: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/syndicate/mellor> [Accessed on: 17/11/2016]
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