Steven Moffat shares challenge of getting new ITV drama made
Steven Moffat has revealed a big challenge he had in making his new ITV series Douglas is Cancelled.
The new comedy-drama, which stars Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville and Doctor Who's Karen Gillan, focuses on a respected broadcaster whose life is upended when a sexist joke he made at a wedding goes viral.
Writing for the Radio Times, Moffat has revealed that the story was originally planned as a stage play, though faced a "lesson in humility" when it was rejected.
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"I just typed away and felt a calm, glowing confidence that I would deliver my theatre piece and stadiums would fill," he said.
Reflecting on the rejections, Moffat referenced his series Sherlock, adding: "I’d been dumped back in reality, and the world outside 221B Baker Street was just sort of shrugging at me. It was a lesson in humility: specifically, that I needed to acquire some."
In the end, he adapted the play as a four-part series, and it certainly impressed Bonneville, who recently admitted he found reading the screenplay "as riveting as it was uncomfortable".
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"It made me roar with laughter but, as with all good satire, the laughter gradually turned to ice as the questions raised by the comedy became more stark... harsher," he recalled.
"Some of the twists and turns are toe-curlingly funny, but by the end, the lights have gone out, the fun has evaporated and we’re into dark territory. To read the whole thing in one sitting was as riveting as it was uncomfortable."
Douglas is Cancelled is set to premiere next week, and will also star Doctor Who's Alex Kingston, Taskmaster's Nick Mohammed, The Crown's Ben Miles and The Death of Stalin's Simon Russell Beale.
Douglas Is Cancelled begins at 9pm on Thursday, June 27 on ITV and ITVX.
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