I had no Plan B when I quit BBC
Salisbury Poisonings writer Declan Lawn on the gamble of his life
IT was the biggest gamble of Declan Lawn’s life — and it has paid off spectacularly.
So well, in fact, that if the journalist-turned-screenwriter and director pitched his own personal story to producers they might think it was too far-fetched to believe.
After all, it wasn’t so long ago that the 44-year-old Co Antrim man was fronting prime time live radio current affairs shows for the BBC.
For most of us, that would represent both success and continuous job satisfaction; if you are that far up the ladder in your profession, few would argue that you had made it.
But the father-of-four stunned his Good Morning Ulster and Evening Extra colleagues by turning his back on that cosy, lucrative and secure existence to follow a dream that could so easily have morphed into a nightmare.
Now, however, Declan and his family sleep comfortably in their south Belfast home.
He is reaping the rewards of a hit television drama — and turning away other lucrative work because he’s too busy.
Even so, he will never forget the trepidation that enveloped him when he opted to walk out of Ormeau Avenue and into the relative unknown.
“It was a huge risk,” he admitted.
“You certainly don’t take too many risks like that in life. That was probably the biggest career risk I’ve ever taken.”
And it couldn’t have happened without the unstinting support of wife Breige (“we were high school sweethearts”) and his children — Annie (14), Mary (13), Patrick (11) and five-year-old Liam — as the Lawns embarked on their uncertain future.
“It’s very difficult to get into the world of screenwriting,” said Declan.
“It’s also very difficult to sustain once you’re in it. It’s precarious, unpredictable.
“I think my primary concern was that I would let Breige and my family down — and I didn’t really have a Plan B.”
He won’t need one now. The Salisbury Poisonings — the fact-based drama starring Rafe Spall which Declan co-wrote with EX-BBC colleague Adam Patterson — was a huge hit when screened by the BBC last summer.
Although the story of the attempted 2018 assassination of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the Wiltshire town had been well documented, Declan and his writing partner still managed to turn it into a gripping three-part series that was later picked up by American and Australian networks.
And ever since it aired — in the middle of the first lockdown — the phone has hardly stopped.
“I’m not complaining; it’s a lovely position to be in,” said Declan.
“But ever since The Salisbury Poisonings we’ve found ourselves reluctantly having to turn down a lot of lovely projects because we simply don’t have the time.”
Writing scripts had always been a hobby for both Declan, a former investigative journalist for the corporation’s Spotlight and Panorama programmes, and Adam, a producer, director and photographer.
The pair got some of their scripts “noticed in London” and even hired an agent, but were not bringing in enough money to consider writing as a career change.
Then, however, they got an offer to go to a writers’ room for the big-budget BBC drama series Mcmafia, starring James Norton.
“It was quite a big time commitment — two three-week stints and it was going to seriously impinge on my BBC work, so Adam and I jumped off the diving board together.”
Ironically, he left during his most enjoyable time in broadcasting. He loved Radio Ulster — “the second best job in the world” — because of the adrenalin and the challenge.
“You could be doing a really random story and two minutes later you might be interviewing Nigel Dodds or Michelle O’neill, people for whom you have to be on your brief,” he said.
“Even after a year I still felt a thrill or nervousness before walking into the studio. There’s always the possibility for things to go wrong but if you’ve done a good interview, there’s a real sense of achievement.”
He first met Adam Patterson in London while making a Panorama film and discovered that they had similar ambitions, both in the writing and directing side of things. Their first collaboration
as directors, a short film called Rough, which premiered at the online Belfast Film Festival last April, and won best Irish short at the Kerry Film Festival, showcased their potential.
It also led to the feature-length Chasing Agent Freegard (also starring James Norton), the real-life story of a British conman who impersonated an MI5 agent, which will begin shooting later this year.
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, however, means they haven’t physically seen each other in seven months.
“It still feels like we’re together all the time,” said Declan.
“We’d be on the phone 10 times a day talking through our ideas. He and I would Zoom a lot.
“We’re still able to write together and plot story lines. We used to love a good old night out together too but obviously that hasn’t happened since last July.”
Lockdown has, however, had its benefits, with Declan admitting that it helped him hone his home-schooling skills and, like many other parents, develop “massive respect” for teachers.
“There are so many skills involved in teaching a child how to read, and teaching a P1 in particular,” he said.
“Myself and Breige found it difficult. It’s kind of magical what teachers do; controlling 30 children and teaching them to read. I still don’t know how it’s done. We were very relieved — and he was relieved too — when Liam went back to school last Monday.”
Declan and Adam’s experience with journalism and research techniques has made them almost natural choices for turning news stories into dramas, but the former isn’t convinced they have found a niche.
He added: “Chasing Agent Freegard is based on a true story but I don’t think we’ll always do things like that. We’ll probably spread our wings a little wider.”
Although he admits to a penchant for Scandi-noir dramas, Declan also likes American TV and a recent discovery is Friday Night Lights, which ran from 2006 to 2011 and follows the fortunes of a US college football team.
“It sounds very niche and unappealing, yet it’s some of the best TV writing I’ve ever come across,” he said.
Meanwhile, The Wire — former crime reporter David Simon’s five-series masterpiece about drug dealers in Baltimore and the cops trying to bring them down – is “one of the best shows ever made.”
Although the likes of The Wire and The Sopranos helped make the noughties a golden age for television dramas, Declan believes we are entering another one.
“The streamers (such as Netflix and Amazon Prime) have so much money; there are so many brilliant ideas out there,” he said.
“Recently I watched The Terror on BBC2 starring Jared Harris, and The Queen’s Gambit is amazing.
“There are so many top quality shows and that’s where we’re heading for the next 10 to 20 years. It’s a great industry to be working in and it’s very exciting to be part of that.”
Now that Declan has left the BBC behind, he has become considerably more vocal on social media, which he admits is an addiction.
“I’m a private citizen now, and not bound by the [BBC’S] rules of impartiality,” he said.
“Twitter gets in the way of my work but I’m addicted to it. I’ve made interesting friends. I often think about leaving it because I’m on it too much. It’s my one remaining big vice but not Adam’s; he gave it up and has never felt more liberated or happier.”
He has nothing but praise for journalism today but he believes the public is a lot more lax about holding people to account.
“The problem we have is that society as a whole doesn’t have the same sense of shame or outrage as we might have had 20 years ago,” he said.
“Even though people are still doing exceptional journalism, even the biggest massive scandals can go away if people keep their head down for two or three days.
“We’re now living with an eternal deluge of information, and lacking a sense of civic shame and outrage and that used to be the fuel for journalism.
“I joined Spotlight in 2002 and did my first Panorama in 2004, and back then you could be guaranteed that if the programme contained strong allegations about government or big business it would have an impact, that action would flow from it. That’s gone now.
“That’s not the fault of journalism; that’s the fault of culture and what we’ve become.”
Filming is expected to start this year on Chasing Agent Freegard, so what other projects are in the pipeline?
“BBC1 will be announcing a new drama series in the next couple of months which I can’t talk about yet. We’re also working on a couple of longer term projects for 2022 that are in the very early stages.”
When asked if there was one particular TV series he would like to write, the answer came instantly: a remake of Quantum Leap, classic sci-fi from the late 1980s starring Scott Bakula which had a then 11-year-old Declan riveted.
“It was about a scientist who jumped back in time into other people’s bodies. He’d turn up in a different time every week and would have to fulfil a task in order to make his next leap.
“I loved it, so in an ideal world I would reboot and remake Quantum Leap.”
While discussing going back in time, Declan revealed the best piece of advice he had ever been given came from his late father Gerry, who died from cancer in May 2009, aged 57.
“We were cleaning out the garage one day when I was about eight. I just remember him saying randomly. ‘If you’re going to do something, you better do it right’. That has stayed in my head my whole life”.