Playwright Alistair Beaton has appealed to Press Gazette readers to help him research his latest work – which is to be set in a newspaper.
Beaton, who wrote The Trial of Tony Blair, has been commissioned to write his new play for Radio Four and has already visited The Guardian, Times and Telegraph for research. He said his hosts have been “incredibly open minded” and already supplied him with plenty of material.
Beaton told us that on one of his newspaper visits he recounted the news editor’s consternation at their being too many nasty murders in one day: “Oh, bloody hell, three murder stories is too many.”
Beaton said: “I love the idea that you can have too many murder stories at once – you’d like them spread out a bit.”
What’s your best newsroom tale?
I recall sitting next to a particularly enthusiastic cub reporter on the Swindon Evening Advertiser who once, when interviewing the victim of an attack, couldn’t help exclaiming “oh brilliant!” when he realised it was a particularly nasty one and was going to get him a page lead – before quickly recovering his footing with some words of condolence.
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