This week, I went to an In Conversation with the writers of Succession at London’s Royal Festival Hall. The show’s creator, Jessie Armstrong was there as well as the writers, Lucy Prebble, Georgia Pritchett, Tony Roche and Jon Brown.
It was moderated by Adam Buxton who was in Ramble Chat mode and was pretty funny but wasted precious time on tangents about bad online reviews of the show and didn’t ask most of the questions I wanted him to. Don’t waste a tight 90 minutes with a 20 minute introduction that reiterates 15 times that the writers all met making The Thick Of It!
My other mild complaint was that the audience was a bit too giddy - laughing extra hard at clips from the series to demonstrate how in on the joke they all were. I was in that crowd too, occasionally laughing, so I’m aware of my hypocrisy and the fact that I sound like a miserable bastard but isn’t it annoying when people laugh 40% more just because they’re in a crowd?
Anyway, they talked about how they wrote the whole of Succession in a room somewhere in the depths of Victoria. A picture of the strip-lit, wire-carpeted space was flashed up on a big screen (which also showed huge boards with colour-coded post-it notes detailing plot and characters arcs which was quite swoony).
This is well-trodden territory in behind the scenes Succession intel but I do get a kick out of the idea that this glossy, New York-centric prestige drama was being produced by a load of pasty Brits in a crappy room in central London.
Lucy Prebble told the audience that every morning, to warm up, the writing team would begin the working day by going round the table and saying what they did the night before. This then evolved into saying what they had for dinner. One morning, they were in a hurry to get to work and Armstrong asked that everyone condense their answer to two words - one for what you did and what for what you ate and Tony Roche’s answer was '“Nothing potato”. Much hilarity ensued.
I enjoyed this detail because I am always very keen to know what everyone is having for dinner. I once got into the lift at work at 8.30am and heard a woman ask her colleague what she was having for dinner - at 8.30am!
This preoccupation reached it’s zenith (or nadir depending on your view of things) when I commissioned a whole piece in The Sunday Times Style during the first Covid lockdown asking this question to the great and good, from Helen Fielding to Bobbi Brown.
Why is it so interesting? Because talking about food is fun and it’s so hard thinking up new and interesting things to have for dinner 23 nights a week. Sometimes I’m happy to have the same 4 or 5 meals on rotation and other times I’m sick of the sight of everything.
Anyway, this is really just an elaborate way of me asking - what are you having for dinner?
See you next time!
Hannah
I'm a "nothing potato" girl through and through but tonight we have friends over so I'm making Creamy Mushroom, Leek and Chestnut Pie (shop bought puff pastry topping but I won't be telling them that 😘).
Laughed when I saw this headline come into my inbox - I was at this event too. Absolutely agree with your assessment of the event, as much as I love Dr Buckles, he was not the right choice for this event. I wanted to zoom in on those index cards! I wanted real writers room insights! I wanted to hear about how writers who created shows like Peep Show (which I can sort of imagine writing?) went on to create Succession (which I can very much NOT imagine writing). Ugh! A missed oppurtunity, but a nice night out anyway. Anyway, the answer to your question is 'probably pasta again'.