James Griffin: getting serious about Kiwi comedy...

Interview – 2014

James Griffin has been writing for most of his life. Since becoming a scriptwriter in the 1980s, Griffin has co-created many beloved TV shows, including Outrageous Fortune, Westside, The Almighty Johnsons and 800 Worlds. He was also part of the writing team on hit movie Sione's Wedding.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Griffin talks about:

His love of writing from an early age, and his desire to be a TV director
Getting "sidetracked" into script editing, and learning the mechanics of how a script works
The popularity of Gloss, and how he likes to blend comedy and drama
His surprise that TV drama City Life flopped
The rollercoaster ride of Outrageous Fortune, and predictions of its end
Criticism of New Zealand comedy
Thoughts on what it takes to make a hit TV show

This video was first uploaded on 13 January 2014, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

I think it had something that I've always done all through my career writing since then...is that it blended humour and drama, often in the same scene.
– James Griffin on writing for hit soap Gloss

James's Full Profile