Words matter. These are the best Chris Chibnall Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
You should always think about the mainstream audience first and foremost, because frankly they are the people who are going to get the show recommissioned. There are not enough genre fans to support shows.
I don’t think any of the journalists in ‘Broadchurch’ are villainous. I think they’re all trying to do their jobs under difficult circumstances.
I think my job is to deliver the best, most cinematic, rich, exciting, surprising and emotional version of ‘Camelot.’
I don’t ever want to be gratuitous, for the sake of being gratuitous, but when it serves the stories and the characters, it’s nice to be able to do that, realistically and with credibility. You don’t want to do it for the sake of it, or shoe-horn it in. But, it’s a good tool to have in the toolbox.
I think when you’re writing anything you should never be thinking about hardcore genre fans.
Often what happens with the writing is that you know where you want to start and you know where you want to end, but the journey is never quite what you predict because the characters take on a life on their own.
I mean, I’m always happy to be compared with Scorsese!
The tradition, particularly in old-school British detective things, is everybody’s in the drawing room or the library, and they’re all gathered, and the detective walks around and tells them where they were that night, and you see the flashbacks.
My goal is always to leave you slightly wanting more.
Doctor Who’ is such a broad show. It’s got the whole universe to explore.
I love a ‘Doctor Who’ cliffhanger.
Some scenes take days and weeks, and some scenes take an hour.
It’s a ‘Doctor Who’ budget. A BBC budget, although a very good one. But you know you can’t do dinosaurs endlessly for 45 minutes, so there has to be a big ‘other’ story going on.
The north-west coast of America is that mixture of beauty and savagery, which I felt was very similar to the Dorset coast.
I have no issue with my boys looking up to women.
We didn’t want ‘Camelot’ to become a period drama.
I think you want to be writing about the world that we live in.
If we lose the BBC it would be a disaster for the entire country. I genuinely believe that.
It is a fact of broadcasting that you’ve got to get the big audiences for the channel that you’re on.
I think sometimes actors who have predominately done comedy get a little typecast by some people.
What I didn’t want to come in with is ‘Camelot’ in all its pomp and glory. Instead we’re looking at how you build a society, how you build a world that people believe in, and how hard it is.
There’s something very interesting about world leaders promising hope and then carrying through on that.
Having made other shows, the thing with ‘Doctor Who’ is that you’re doing everything, all at once.
Broadchurch’ has been a life-changing experience for me, but all good stories come to an end.
I’m incredibly grateful and humbled by the response ‘Broadchurch’ got.
That’s what I love about ‘Doctor Who’ – it takes you back to being the age you were when you first saw it.
The great thing about ‘Camelot’ is that it is an adult drama.
The papers feed the public interest but then the public interest demands more in the press and speculation can look like fact.
Normally the lightbulb moments only happen after 16-hour days, lots of cups of tea and a bit of weeping.
That kind of ‘Lord of the Flies’ brutality of being 11, it’s a tough time. You’re trying to figure out who you are, and who your friends are, and what your alliances are, and kids fall out all the time.
You do your best to tell your own story, in the most specific way, and then you hope that that travels well, when it’s done with heart and honesty.
As a programme-maker you’ve got a responsibility to examine your choices and how they play in the wider world.
Growing up as a Brit, Arthur and Merlin and Camelot, and just the idea of it, is embedded in the culture and in your soul, growing up. King Arthur is alongside Robin Hood, as those great British folk tales, myths and icons.
The extraordinary thing in all the versions of ‘Camelot’ and the Arthurian legend is that it’s all about the romance and the passion. It’s all about great ideals compromised by falling in love with the wrong person.
Often as a writer, you get your first draft out, and then you look and think, ‘Now, what have I got here.’ You’re really just throwing mud at the wall and then going, ‘Oh, there’s a pattern there.’
