PD James / Ruth Madoc

From the collection of

Northern Ireland Screen's Digital Film Archive
Launched in 2000, Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive spans from 1897 to the present day and currently contains an ever-expanding catalogue of 13,000 items. It comprises material from a variety of depositors including feature films, sport, documentaries, animation, amateur footage, light entertainment, and a significant proportion of broadcast material from the UTV Archive.

PD James / Ruth Madoc (The Write Stuff)

This video can only be viewed in libraries

Find your nearest library

EV Thompson and fantasy author Storm Constantine also feature in the weekly books series.

Presenter Henry Kelly goes to the Pan Bookshop in London to meet up with author E V Thompson and discuss his career. He talks about his early struggles to make a living from writing and his breakthrough when moving from Cornwall to London. As well as his famous works set in colony-era Africa, he discusses his new romantic novel, Becky.

Henry talks to the famous crime author PD James. Along with her breakthrough works she discusses whether she is happy with the process of writing and her surprise at her international success.

Henry interviews Jimmy Harris about his parents. His father, Herman Tarnower, had written the famous health book, The Scarsdale Diet, only for his mother to murder him and go to prison. Jimmy discusses his attempts to gain parole for his mother. Henry then presents the Top Ten US Fiction Chart.

Henry visits the Andromeda science-fiction and fantasy bookshop in Birmingham to speak to upcoming fantasy author Storm Constantine. She shares how a chance meeting in that very shop led to her getting her debut novel published and discusses the setting for her fantasy trilogy.

Reporter Jill Cochrane talks to Ruth Madoc who is this week's celebrity talking about the books they enjoy reading. Among her choices are books about the Dalai Lama and Lana Turner. Henry closes the programme by running through the UK Top Ten Paperback Fiction Chart.

The Write Stuff was a weekly round-up of the world of books, authors and publishing and was a contribution from Ulster Television to the ITV network's daytime schedules. Each week, presenter Henry Kelly and reporter Jill Cochrane interviewed prominent authors, sought out celebrities for the latest books they'd read and ran through the weekly book charts.


Tags

From the collection

The Write Stuff

Take a trip back in time to the literary landscape of the 1980s, full of spy and romantic blockbusters, in this series made for Channel 4 and presented by Henry Kelly and Anne Robinson.
Think Top of the Pops for the book world. For two series, this Channel 4 look at the world of 1980s literature, made by Green Apple/UTV, gave viewers the chart countdown for both fiction and non-fiction interspersed with interviews with the top authors of the day. Hosted by Henry Kelly for the first series and Anne Robinson for the second, The Write Stuff visited authors both in the UK and the USA to gain insights into their crafts or even just for juicy details on stars being covered by biographers. Lovers of books will find much to fascinate them here, with bestselling authors of yesteryear interviewed in their prime, from Jeffrey Archer to Clive Barker and from Ruby Wax to Jackie Collins. How many of the titles featured have lasted the course of popular and critical acclaim? Indulge yourself in this literary series to find out.

17 videos in this collection

1

Barbara Taylor Bradford / Jack Higgins

2

Noel Barber / Joss Ackland

3

Craig Thomas / Ruby Wax

4

Sally Beauman / Ned Sherrin

5

Rosemary Conley / Griff Rhys Jones

6

Mary Higgins Clark / Willy Russell

7

PD James / Ruth Madoc

8

Jilly Cooper / Walter Coblenz

9

Gerald Seymour / Neil Tennant

10

Jackie Collins / Ben Elton

11

Danielle Steel / Ken Kercheval

12

Evan Hunter / Douglas Fairbanks Jr

13

Ruth Rendell / Frederick Forsyth

14

Margaret Forster / James Herbert

15

Jeffrey Archer / Jonathan Kellerman

16

Dick Francis / Leon Uris

17

Maeve Binchy / Clive Barker

View full collection