Chris Chibnall

Chris: (On the UK version of Law & Order and the tone it will have before its launch) The series will very much take American storylines and anglicise them. Obviously not all of the storylines will work for a UK audience, but we have been able to draw a lot from what has already worked; Our show will be very faithful to the US version in that respect, and in its style and tone. It is an urban show, very modern and of the streets. It is quite gritty. Viewers should prepare themselves for classic Law and Order drama with a modern, gritty, British twist.

Chris: (On developing HTML Help) I've got a great writing team on board. I got my first choice writers, first choice producers, first choice designers... it's very exciting. We've been over to the States and met with Dick Wolf a couple of times. I've seen how they make the show over there, and their production team are so phenomenally excited that there's a British version being done. They've been so fantastically helpful. It's a very exciting project to be part of.

Chris: (About his first memory) My first memory is, literally, of Doctor Who, of The Sea Devils, and I checked back – and I can't have been more than two, or three at most, when that was on. How can I possibly remember them, coming out of the sea? But the show was always on in our house, so it just kind of got into me, in the way that the show does.

Chris: (About the process a script goes even once "finished") You aim for a completed script at the beginning of pre-production, which is about four to five weeks before we shoot it. Then you have the discussions and meetings and along the way you might make tweaks or changes – say a better location to what has been suggested – so things evolve up until the last minute, even when shooting sometimes. It's a constant collaboration.

Chris: (Talking about his first experience in the theater world) My first 'play', in inverted commas, was a 45-minute piece I wrote when I was eighteen. I submitted it as part of Contract Theatre in Manchester, who were running a young playwrights festival in about 1988-89. It was accepted and they workshopped it and put it on as part of their festival. So this is all their fault! That was the first time I'd been in a rehearsal room with actors and a director, and seeing what that was like, and writing drama. So that was a big thing, and from then, it's one of those things that once you start doing that, once you've been in a rehearsal room with actors, it's kind of like you're infected for ever! There's something very addictive about it.

Chris: (On how working on the second series of Torchwood was different than working on the first series) As writers and producers we've got to grips with the show, we've been able to build on the huge success of series one – a spin off from Doctor Who was a big ask. I think we wanted to make it bigger, better, have more fun and build on the foundations of the first series, maximising everything. You have more of a laugh with the second series, definitely.

Chris: (On how hard it is to break into the business of writing) It's so hard to get into writing, it's not like there's a training school to go to. Now there are degrees in script writing and stuff, but even if you do that, you're still going to spend years having to earn some money elsewhere before you end up writing full time.

Chris: (Commenting of his appearance on television on the show Open Air in 1986 to criticize John Nathan-Turner - the then producer of Doctor Who) If you give a 17 year old DW fan a camera and ask them to talk their mind, I think there would have been a lot of harsh voices around at the time, but also, it was much harder to get on the telly in those days, so nobody, including me, had any idea of TV etiquette. I haven't seen it in 20 years and I really don't intend to ever again!

Chris: (On how James Marsters came to play a character in Torchwood) We had a character who we knew we'd bring into the show, nearly brought him in at the end of Season One, but didn't feel right given the other stories that were jostling for and then James contacted Russell saying, 'I love the show, I love the shows, if there's any chance of being able to work with you, that would be great'. So we literally had a phone conversation where we went, 'That character, if we had him played by James Marsters, that would be fantastic'. It was so simple, one of those rare moments of serendipity where you think it's a gift, as a writer, enormous fun.

Chris: (After being asked how he would explain Torchwood to someone who had never heard of it) I would say it's a group of mates in Wales, who hunt down aliens and gather alien technology to arm the human race against the future. It's an informal, roguish group led by Captain Jack Harkness, who's an omni-sexual, 51st Century ex-time agent. It's the greatest show in the world. And it's enormous fun!

Chris: (Speaking of Torchwood's cast) The whole cast is absolutely a delight to work with. Brilliant professionals and such fun. It's such a joyous set to be on and they have great chemistry.

Chris: (On Jack in series two of Torchwood) We learn a lot about Jack, about all aspects of his life - more about the time agency, more about where Jack comes from. And he has [romantic] entanglements this year. I wish I could tell you who with, but you'll have to wait and see!

Chris: (On why he chose the subject for his one man play Gaffer!) Managers are fascinating: dedicated, passionate and obsessive. They wear their hearts on their sleeves – which, as a dramatist, is a gift. They let you inside their mind and their heart all too quickly: it's both their strength and their downfall.

Chris: (Answering a comment that series two of Torchwood was supposed to be more fun before the airing of it) I think once you make that decision it infuses everything. It's not as specific as saying more jokes in the dialogue, it's just an approach that you start that infuses everything from story structure to character decisions to the visual palette of the show, and it's not a huge shift... but when you decide to do that you start briefing the writers, when we're making decisions about what stories to tell, when we're saying what journey the characters are going to go on... it infuses that right from the start.