My Life as a writer
When did you first realise you wanted to write for a living?
When I was working on building sites and delivering furniture as a teenager – hearing the comedy of ordinary life and the colourful characters that inhabited the adult world. The catalyst was seeing Star Wars – meaning I was determined to one day create a world from my imagination that moved people to laugh, hide behind the sofa or punch the air with emotion.
Which writer, past or present, do you most admire?
The Marx Bros.
What was your first published (or performed) credit as a writer?
Assaulted Nuts, a TV comedy sketch series 26 x 60 for HBO. Produced and directed by Ray Cameron, father of British comedian Michael McIntyre. It starred a young Emma Thompson, Wayne Black, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Danny Peacock – Oh! and Cleo Rocos.
Which piece of writing work are you most proud of?
Heidi and the Magic Pool, my feature film in production with Bill Nighy, Mark Williams and Saffron Burrows.
Who or what inspires you to write?
Life’s ups and downs… it is both personal escape and the need to share the joy and misery in life.
How do you switch off when you’re not writing?
I ride my motorcycles and drive my home-restored vintage 1930s car.
Which one piece of advice would you give to aspiring writers?
It is always the same: WRITE.
Why are you a member of WGGB?
To feel like I do a proper job.
After being a runner Paul Watson worked spells at Lucasfilm, ITV, BBC, Discovery and NBC, amongst others, as a writer/producer/director with household names and talent. During this time he created a successful game show for ITV and produced documentaries for BBC Two, ITV and Channel 4. He sold comedy sketches ad hoc and wrote for animated TV series and animated feature films (Universal/Disney/Turner), plus live-action spec screenplays that were always optioned but somehow never made UNTIL now…
