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Interviews
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Arthur McKenzie- From the Bill to Taakin' Heeds Peter Lathan talks to the North East playwright and ex-policeman, once a writer for The Bill. On 5th July, 2006, Durham's Gala Theatre will present Taakin' Heeds, its second home-grown production, following on the success of The Far Corner which was adapted from the book by Harry Pearson and directed by Simon Stallworthy, the theatre's general manager. Like its predecessor, Taakin' Heeds is written by a local man, in this case former policeman Arthur McKenzie (Cuddy's Miles, Pickets and Pigs) whose writing career predates his leaving the police force in 1988. "I was dealing with murders one minute, and shooting off to London to write an episode of The Bill the next!" He is scathing about the way scripts are developed for TV nowadays. "I remember vividly being at scripwriter's meeting once and this woman said, 'People don't talk like this'. Tell me that what I've written's rubbish - that's not a problem - but don't tell me people don't talk like that when it's lifted out a conversation I've had with somebody!" Much of his work is based on people he has met. The first play of Taakin' Heeds, Stalls Only, is based on a toilet attendant he met while he was on the beat in Newcastle. "This guy, he used to put a performance on for us when we were eating our savaloys. He used to black up like Al Jolson and start singing Al Jolson songs. I've attached bits of other people I knew as well. It's about his experiences in the toilet in Shakespeare Street, the old Victorian underground toilet next to the Theatre Royal. It's about vhange: it's about this guy thinking he's going to get the top job at the Civic Centre when he's really going to get the sack. "The second play is called Gym Boy and it's based on this guy who had a gym that was a meeting place for guys of acertain age who had problems. It's based on me and my mates who all had problems. It was like a self-help group. It's about this guy who's soft as clarts, really, who helps everybody but he can't help himself." The third play, The Plot, is based on his experiences when he had not one, but three allotments. "They're all pieces that have been in the background for the last 25 years but they've suddenly come together as one piece. "At home I've got a huge set of drawers, the sort of thing you saw in an old ironmonger's shops, and it's full, stuffed with things I've written over the years. Because I'm a compulsive writer, you know. You write for yourself, you know." He started writing in 1979. "I was working in Hing Kong and I was quite taken with the way people were living there, the poverty and the work ethic. I wrote this piece about the people living in cages on the roofs of houses and it was published in the Police Review. And they paid me for it, which I wasn't expecting, and then they asked me to review books for them." The next stage was, as he says, an "interesting story". By this time he was working in Washington (Co Durham, not DC!) and was sitting in the "bait room" (the canteen). "I was the shift inspector and this young policeman came in to see me. He asked if he could have a word and he said, 'I've got all these tunes in me head, but I can't put words to them.' I asked what he wanted me to do and he said he'd like me to put words to these tunes. I said I would and sent him out on to the beat. I forgot all about it but then about three weeks later he came in with a tape recorder and said, 'There's the tunes'!" He started writing and they finally ended up on a Radio Newcastle programme, chatting and playing some of the hundred songs they wroite together. His wife suggested he write to playwright Tom Haddaway and so he did. Not only did Haddaway reply, he invited him to his house where they shared a bottle of wine and Haddaway listened to the songs. "He suggested I write a play, so I said, 'What about?' He said, 'It's your play. You chose. What do you find interesting?' I said the bait room because there's always all sorts of things going on there. So I wrote this play called The Bait Room. It took me about three months to write twenty pages. So I took this play in to see him. He read it through and chucked it down and said, 'You're a fuckin' playwright, son. You can write dialogue. Now write a play!' "That's what started me on the road. I sent it to everybody, and everybody rejected it. It finally landed on the desk of a guy called Robert Cooper at Manchester Radio. Well, he rang me up and asked me to go dwn to Manchester. So I went. He said it was a fantastic play but he couldn't do it on the radio. Then he walked across the room and said, 'Sod it! I'm going to do it.' So he did it on Saturday Night Theatre. "It was well reviewed and repeated, so I entered a play called River Rats into a competition for the first Tall Ships Race. It won the competition and that set me on the road." Next came a meeting with Susan McGregor, a script reader for David Putnam and a meeting with Putnam himself, followed by a play for Live Theatre in Newcastle, part of a double bill with Tom Haddaway, directed by Ken Hill. "Ken said, 'You've got to get out of the North East. You're wasting your time here' and he took me to a London agent and said, 'Take this lad on', so they did on his say-so." Not long after, thanks to Susan McGregor, he started writing for The Bill and wrote 24 episodes in eighteen months. He also wrote for Casualty. And at this point the interview had to end as the members of the Friends of the Gala Theatre were waiting patiently to meet him! "Taakin' Heeds" (the NE pronunciation of "Talking Heads") is at the GalaTheatre, Durham, from 5th to 8th July (Box office 0191 332 4041)
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