| Up close and personal
Brian Thompson
Copywriter
How long have you been writing for?
I began with scriptwriting and my first television commission was for The Bill in 1994. Much earlier, I was a very annoying kid who liked nothing better than making up humorous, mock-epic rhyming couplets. I was probably the only teenager in Britain inspired by the work of Alexander Pope (1688-1744, ‘was miserable as sin/ but very good at rhymin’).
What made you want to be a copywriter?
I like words. There’s a lot of satisfaction in constructing clear, persuasive copy. I also like boiling stuff down and getting to the point. That’s where scriptwriting comes in handy – because every word has to tell the audience something they don’t already know. And if it doesn’t, the producer hits you with a very big stick.
What was your first full-time employment?
As a Housing Officer in London in the early ‘90s. It was a key period because the penny was starting to drop that huge estates in which tenants had no control of their environment were not sustainable. I’d moved on before most of the new plans were put into practice, but it left me with a lifelong interest in how much ideas can change everyday lives. It’s something I’m able to draw on within copywriting, because one of my clients is The London Development Agency, which deals with similar challenges.
Any claims to fame?
Because I’m also a scriptwriter I’ve worked with a few famous names, like Robson Green and Stephen Tomkinson on Grafters, and some soon-to-be-famous ones like Donna Air and Jill Halfpenny on Byker Grove. This year I spent a lot of time cooped up in a radio studio with Duncan Preston (from Dinnerladies) and Robert Daws (from The Royal). They played a pair of crime solving, grumpy old men in a detective series, Trueman, I did for BBC Radio 4. The only disappointment was that their off mic showbiz musings were far funnier than anything I wrote.
What do you enjoy most about writing?
To me, writing isn’t about words it’s about ideas. You can’t put an interesting word on paper without them. This means that most of my working life is spent shaping, researching or expressing ideas. That’s what I like about it and that’s why, amongst my collection of fridge magnets, my favourite one says ‘Imagination Rules The World’.
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