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Telergy is kinetic televisual energy. It occurs when original and passionate, even obsessive, ideas synthesise with equally original language, dramatic structure, acting and images. Telergy is seeping out of drama. Why?
Last March I had a shocking experience at the BBC: they put a television play of mine into production. As I sat in the gallery of Studio 6, I experienced more shocks. The shock of seeing Young Jung being recorded a mere six months after I'd finished writing it. The shock of being in a video studio, working with sympathetic collabor-ators who loved non-naturalism as much as I did. The shock of realising that it was still possible to feel the creative energy I felt back in 1973, when I first broke into British television, and had eight single plays and 12 episodes of Rock Follies produced in four years.
For the benefit of any television writer who has read this far and thinks I must have been hallucinating, I should explain that Young Jung was being produced under the auspices of Scene, the drama division of BBC Educational Television, not by anyone connected with so-called adult television. What became clear to me during my relationship with Scene is that, unlike adult television, Educational Television believes that writers should have their plays made by enormously talented and committed directors, designers and actors.
The video shocks of March had been set in motion when I met up with Scene's executive producer, Richard Langridge and his associate, Cas Lester. Richard asked if I'd be...