Matthew Hall (Creator)
Matthew Hall is the creator of Keeping Faith. An experienced screenwriter who has worked on some of the biggest programmes on television, he wrote both series of Keeping Faith.
Published: 9 July 2019
The best moments for me are always those when intimate emotions emerge from unspoken exchanges. Eve Myles and the cast have risen to this challenge magnificently.
What’s in store for audiences during series two?
We pick up with Faith and her family 18 months after the end of the first series. Many things are left to be resolved and Faith faces huge new challenges. Like series one, the series is intimate, emotionally wrenching and tests Faith to her limits.
How to you approach a second series, when the first series was so successful? Does the expectation add to the pressure?
I had planned the second series and done much of the writing before the first series lifted off on iPlayer, so there wasn’t a great pressure of expectation at the most important stage of the process, which is planning the story.
Life also threw a curve ball in the form of my wife having (thankfully successful) treatment for breast cancer throughout last year. That put everything in perspective and also, inevitably, influenced the writing. Keeping Faith is above all an intimate show that deals with the struggles and pains of everyday people in everyday life. I kept focused on that.
Did you do anything differently during this series?
The writing for series one took place over three years. Series two was written in less than a year. The process had to be accelerated. There was also the fact that series two was destined for 主播大秀 One and this means more people having opinions on the script. Perhaps the biggest challenge you face as a writer for television is which notes to adopt, which to resist and which to negotiate. There is no easy path through all that, you just do your best.
What are your memorable moments on set?
The best moments for me are always those when intimate emotions emerge from unspoken exchanges. Eve Myles and the cast have risen to this challenge magnificently. They really become their characters, they never merely act them - this is by far and away the most exciting thing to witness.
