The Tribe had many educational aspects within it. Was it written to educate the viewer or was it merely an entertainment series which had educational values?
When I was first asked by Raymond Thompson to develop the series from his original idea, I thought it was a great opportunity to ask some very pertinent questions of our audience while at the same time, hopefully, gripping and entertaining them. The premise of how would you set about rebuilding your world if you were given the chance. When I was young, like most teenagers, I thought I had all the answers to the world's problems. Basically, John Lennon's philosophy, All You Need Is Love. Sadly it's a bit more complicated than that, and I guess as writers we wanted to present some of those complications to our audience. Given by the feeback I've seen over the years, I think we succeeded to some degree.
Attempted suicide, rape, alcoholism... The Tribe covered allot of issues. However it did not feature smoking or the use of 'recreational' drugs. Was this due to limitations given to you by the broadcaster Channel 5 or was it the decision of Cloud 9 not to cover them? Was it an issue you would have liked to tackle in the series?
From the beginning the writing team was told by the broadcaster that smoking and drugs were taboo, but we managed to slip attempted suicide, rape, alcoholism, under-age pregnancy, a critique of religion, etc, past them, so we were pretty pleased about that on the whiole.
Series 3 was quiet interesting in the storylines involving the Chosen and the Guardian. There was a strong sense of religion, terrorism and also fanaticism. The series was filmed and broadcast before the September 11 attacks in America and before those issues became in the fore of media attention. Do you feel that you would not have been able to cover those issues in The Tribe had they been written into the show after those attacks?
Given the general caution that TV execs exercise it would probably have been harder to deal with those issues post 9/11. Certainly the religious aspect.
What are your thoughts on censorship? Do you feel it can restrict creativity or does it make writing easier as it creates boundaries?
I think censorship is a very slippery slope. Where do you stop? With the Nazis? Better to let people say what they think then you can take issue with it if it offends you.
Regarding the actors in the series, some of them came and went during filming. When Zachary Best who played Paul left in series 1, was KC introduced introduced to take over Paul's role and the storylines that had been intended for Paul?
Yes and No. We wanted a younger male character to replace Paul, but KC took on a life of his own when we saw the actor, and we started writing for him.
Was there a character that you were fond of in The Tribe and enjoyed writing their progression through the series? If so who was it and why?
There were so many terrific charcters in the series, who were great to write for. Amber, Bray, Salene, the wonderful flaky Trudy, but my personal favourite was Ebony. Villians are usuallly more fun to write and Meryl gave so much to the part that it was a joy to create words and actions for her character. Some of the conflict scenes we wrote between her and Amber and Bray I am still very proud of.
Who is your favourite 'villain' from The Tribe?
See above.
The New Tomorrow did not receive a good reception from fans of The Tribe, was this a disappointment to yourself and Cloud 9, or was it the intention to just aim the series at a different market?
Believe me, The New Tomorrow was a terrific series on the page, with an intriguing, fascinating link to the characters in the original series. Unfortunately, the TV 'suits' who put up the money also put their oars in and messed it up in the writing teams opinion.
A few years back, there were rumours of a Tribe movie being in the works, was this just a plan or had something actually been written for the movie?
Ray Thompson asked myself and David Fox to write a screenplay a few years ago. Dave wrote a terrific script, The Blood of the Judas, which I then edited and added a few bits and pieces. Unable to get the big movers and shakers to consider the project, I turned it into a novel last year, which we have had rave comments about from various book editors. Watch this space.
Has the new book been written for fans to fill any back story for characters that featured in The Tribe? Or is it aimed to introduce new viewers to the series?
With the book Dave and I were given the opportunity to be more 'real' about what life would really be like if the world was left to teenagers to run. We had much less censorship about what we could portray than on a TV series that was marked as 'childrens' television. So the screenplay and novel are a more 'adult' take on the original premise as you will see when they finally hit the page and the screen, which I am convinced they will one day.
The title for the novel is 'The Blood Of Judas'. How did you come to this name?
Wait till you read the book. It was Dave's title. As usual he generally comes up with the brilliant stuff.
At what stage is the book currently at?
It's going the rounds of UK and US publishers.
What would you say is the intended readership for the book?
Mid teens basically, but actually for anyone who likes a terrific read.
How did you find the process of writing a novel as opposed to a screenplay?
It's a different craft. For one thing you have to visualise the environment your characters inhabit down to minute details. In a screenplay that's the job of the designers. Generally I find you have to go deeper into the characters because you don't have the actors' skill of interpreting them to rely on.
Are there any more Tribe related works planned?
We plan a block of novels based on the series, followed by the movies based on the books.
We're keeping the dream alive!
If you could pick one, what would you say is your greatest accomplishment in your career to date?
Without a doubt 'The Tribe'. And having the privilege of being able to work with a special bunch of very talented writers.
I would just to say a huge thanks to Harry Duffin for participating in this interview and all the best in getting The Blood Of Judas published.
