‘Like having your brain squeezed’: Succession’s Jesse Armstrong and more on the rollercoaster of TV writers’ rooms

As co-writer of new thriller Hunting Alice Bell, our film critic entered the hallowed Room – and was struck by its support, buzz, abrasion and chocolate snacks. He asks legendary showrunners about their experience ‘Write, write, write until your fingers break!” That was Chekhov’s

As co-writer of new thriller Hunting Alice Bell, our film critic entered the hallowed Room – and was struck by its support, buzz, abrasion and chocolate snacks. He asks legendary showrunners about their experience ‘Write, write, write until your fingers break!” That was Chekhov’s advice to writers. Until I started writing for television I thought I understood what he meant.

I thought I knew what writing was: the solitude, the making yourself do it, the finger-shattering pain of doing it seriously, on your own. As well as being chief film critic for the Guardian, I have written fiction and in some ways the basic technical challenge has not been so very different from cinema criticism; after having had the idea, or having seen the film, you have to go away on your own and turn the computer on. Continue reading...