Green Wing Interviews - Victoria Pile

Interviewing the creator of Green Wing, as well as one of the producers, a casting director, a script editor, a film editor and one of the writers of the show sounds like a busy day: less so when you realise they are all the same person, wrapped up neatly in the personable and multi-talented package that is Victoria Pile. Pile is the driving force behind Green Wing and she's involved in every stage of the process. She'd probably prepare sandwiches for cast and crew and darn all their socks if she had the time; but as anyone with more than five jobs will tell you, time is at something of a premium. She took billions of precious nanoseconds out of her lunatic schedule to explain the inspiration behind the programme and discuss her favourite moments from the first series. Green Wing isn't exactly a conventional sitcom.

How would you describe it?
It's a bit of a hybrid, isn't it? It's a sketch-meets-comedy-drama-meets-soap. It's kind of unique, it hasn't got a forerunner, really.

Where did the idea for the series come from?
Initially it was as a progression from Smack the Pony, so it was meant to be a continuation of the sketch show format, but with stronger narrative structure. We wanted to do something with characters who had a bit more depth and longevity, and a bit more narrative, but we weren't going to throw out the ability to be randomly funny, which was the sketch appeal.

Why did you decide to set it in a hospital? It's not as if we ever see any patients, and it's not remotely medical.
That's where all life is, is it not? It was originally the plan to cover porters and car park attendants and kitchen staff as well as medics. In fact we found our hands were full with the eight or nine main characters we have got without going below stairs too much. It was a very convenient home where all sorts of life and work situations met.

Not only did you create the show, but you're involved in writing, casting, filming, editing, post-production, everything. Are you a megalomaniac or a workaholic?
[laughs] I don't know, I just can't help it. I'm not single-handed, we do have a hugely talented team, but I guess I need to see the whole thing through every stage.

There are eight writers on the show. That must be hugely complicated. How does it work?
It is complicated. It's because we set out to write a sketch show, which featured individual writers contributing random material. This sort of evolved into a round-the-table, team-writing story arc. But nonetheless, it's still quite a complicated system of people writing in their own way, and me and the script editor trying to harness them all into a total story. So it's a bit ad hoc, it's a bit complicated, and sometimes very difficult.

Why did you introduce the speeding up and slowing down edits that give the show such a distinctive look?
It was very much our intention, before we started on the pilot, to be experimental with our style and our content. Needless to say, we ran out of time on our pilot, so when we got into the edit, we hadn't done anything particularly experimental or innovative. But in the edit we played around with the speed for a couple of reasons. First, it felt aesthetically pleasing to try and compose sequences of shots to music, in a way that we'd done slightly in Smack the Pony. It feels very natural to me to try and construct rhythm into the whole piece. You do that by the use of music, and therefore the use of varying speeds of shot. Second, it was very useful to be able to show action prior or post a scene in a way which didn't gobble up screen time, but informs the viewer what had gone on before and after. So it had a very practical purpose as well. And occasionally it's literally a time thing, to get the programme the right length.

What were your favourite moments from the first series?
Blimey! Dr Statham playing the recorder in his underpants was a huge favourite, and indeed him wiping his bare arse across the desk. I'm also incredibly fond of all the operating theatre scenes. I have huge affection for anything that happens there. And I also love the very, very first scene shot in the pilot of Dr Statham in the mortuary being caught comparing his 'size' with that of a corpse. There are loads of moments where we've had huge fun shooting and rehearsing. And in the second series, I'm very partial to the dead swan sequence.

When you were making series one, did you have any idea that it would be such a success?
Of course not. You hand your tapes in and run away and think "I'll never work in television again". That's what happened. We were genuinely deeply worried when we handed in the pilot. We didn't think we'd ever hear back from Channel 4. So we were very surprised. But then I suppose you know you have a talented cast, you know you have some fantastic material, but you have no idea whether you're going to be able to mould it into something worthwhile. You're never quite sure how people are going to respond.

You then went on and won the BAFTA award that was voted for by viewers!
That was the most fantastic thing of all, to have the viewers' vote. We were deeply chuffed. It definitely meant more to us that it had come from the public rather than internal jurors.

How much of the show is improvised?
It's a tricky one to answer: I don't want to take away anything from the hugely talented writers or the amazingly inventive actors we have on the show. We write the show absolutely slavishly, the words are agonised over and changed all the way through. The actors are presented with full scripts from day one. But we also encourage improvisation, and bringing actors and writers together and changing and approving and throwing things out. And a lot of actors will contribute hugely to the initial ideas, and drafts will go to-and-fro and be changed. But on set there are a few actors who will always enjoy going with the flow sometimes, and we'll pick up a few ad libs at the end of the scene. But these are fully scripted shows that are written, rewritten and fretted over. It sometimes belittles the writers' effort to say that much of it is ad-libbed. A lot of writing, whether it's drama or comedy, has an element of the autobiographical about it.

Please tell me you don't know people like the characters in Green Wing
[Laughs] No, I'm sure I don't. But there's a taste and a flavour of all our lives in there somewhere. That's how we started with each of these people. There's something of all of us in there. Maybe a little bit more of me. The ideas come from our own experiences. But the actors also have their own impact. Michelle Gomez is a mad woman anyway. You only have to give her a little bit of leeway and she's off. Quite a few of them are a bit mad, actually, now I think about it.