Friday 20 January 2012

Time for an Angel Mountain TV costume drama?



A Message from Inger

Dear All,

It's ten years since my husband Brian published "On Angel Mountain" -- and since then the title has sold over 25,000 copies and has been followed by six other best-selling titles. Total sales are now above 65,000. There's another story -- called "Conspiracy of Angels" -- on the way in March.   He has been busy!

We have lost track of the number of times that faithful followers of the series have said:  "These books -- and Martha, the heroine -- are wonderful!  They MUST be turned into a big BBC TV costume drama series!"   Brian's response is always to say:  "Thank you for those kind words -- but don't say this to me.  Say it to the BBC."     But of course life gets in the way, and nobody does anything about it.............

I'm writing to ask if you will  now DO something about it, by contacting the BBC?  Brian has recently made a formal proposal to Rhodri Talfan Davies, the Controller of BBC Wales, relating to a TV costume drama series based on the novels, and the idea is being discussed internally by the top brass in Cardiff.  But as we all know, an idea that comes from an author may or may not be taken seriously, and the BBC has no way of knowing whether there really are potential viewers out there who love the books and who see their TV or film potential -- unless at least some of those potential viewers tell them what they think.

So if you like the books, or even if you don't, and want to see more TV and film drama coming out of Wales, will you please help by devoting a couple of minutes to writing to BBC Wales?  You can do it very easily by clicking on this form:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/info/sites/contactus/pages/waystocontact.shtml

and then clicking on "Television" and "Suggestion" before putting your comments into the box.

Or you can send an Email message with your suggestions to:

commissioningwales@bbc.co.uk

I don't suppose it matters if the messages come from the UK, USA or anywhere else.

Either way, I suppose the messages will get to the people who matter.  One of the key points Brian has made in his pitch is that BBC Wales TV has a fantastic TV drama department (Dr Who, Torchwood, Merlin etc) but that it has never made a landmark TV costume drama series worthy of promoting Wales to the wider world.  (Compare that with other parts of the UK -- Poldark, Downton Abbey, Cranford, Lark Rise to Candleford, Monarch of the Glen, not to mention all those Jane Austen, Dickens, Hardy and Bronte adaptations........)  So he's suggesting that now the time is ripe, and that Martha Morgan is a strong enough character to carry a series which will have great appeal both inside Wales and further afield.

All help gratefully received..........   I'll appreciate it if you can let me know what sort of response you get from the BBC.

Very many thanks.

All best wishes

Inger
ingerjohn4"at"mac.com

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