Creative Screenwriting Pilot Screenplay Competition Grand Prize Winner Angela Jobson On “Millennium Eve”

Angela Jobson is a British screenwriter from Durham in the North East of England, with experience in film, audio and television drama. Several short drama scripts have been professionally produced (some of which she also directed) and have won awards at a number of international film festivals. Two feature film scripts have been optioned, she developed a six part TV drama series with a well known productiion company and penned episodes for two mini series. Her first play was staged recently and her first novel is due to be published in 2026.

Angela discusses her prize-winning TV mystery script, Millenium Eve.

1) What was the initial spark that drew you to this story?

Starting this project, I set out to write a mystery drama with a missing person and a dual timeline, I wanted the answers to the present day mystery to lie in the past.

The initial spark to begin the story on Millennium Eve came from looking through photos taken in my living room in the late 1990s; most of the furniture, the pictures on the walls remain unchanged, the most noticeable difference is the television.

I love event TV, those moments when audiences are drawn together and become part of a distant event, the New Year’s Eve fireworks being an annual favourite. This informed my opening scene, the tension of the countdown providing the perfect build up to the inciting incident, which happens a few minutes after midnight at the dawn of the new century. I wanted to bring the audience back to the same room in the present day, the furniture mostly unchanged, the same pictures on the walls and the news report of the missing girl playing on the flat screen TV. The screen occupying the same physical space, the main character standing in the same spot as she had as a young girl, moments before her world was shattered, not knowing that her world is about to be spun again; that the events of Millennium Eve hold the key to why her life is about to undergo another seismic change.

2) Did you draw on other inspirations to build your story?

The main themes my writing explores are fractured families, buried secrets, and injustice. I have a fascination with the way different families interact, some being very close, others barely speaking; a split which can often be traced back to a single argument or misunderstanding. So I wanted to create a family dynamic with deep rifts and old grudges, to explore the way in which decisions made by one generation can have a massive impact on the next.

I like to set my fictional worlds in real places to use the landscape and atmosphere of the setting in a way which influences the characters. Scarborough, the setting for Millennium Eve, sits perched on the North Yorkshire coast in the North East of England, surrounded on three sides by moorland and the fourth by the sea. It is a place I know well, a place I have worked and a frequent holiday destination as a child. Today the town has the air of a faded relic, but the entertainers remain, economics making their trade ever more difficult. It suits the tone of this project, which looks back without rose-tinted glassed and exposes the everyday struggles of those who remain in deprived seaside resorts after the summer crowds have left.

I have a deep interest in regional language and historic influences on dialect specific to local areas. By using a light touch of these in my dialogue, I try to impart a sense of authenticity of place into my characters.

3) Is there a personal connection to your script that makes it speak to you?

At the heart of this series is an iconic empire built by the ancestors of my main character, the Hartley Casino on Scarborough seafront. Family businesses can be challenging, even those which appear successful can have deep rooted problems, clashes of personalities, and be strongly influenced by the wishes of long dead grandparents.

This is a world I grew up in, a much less glamorous business, but similar in that the often difficult reasons behind major decisions and the causes of family rifts were considered something that must remain hidden from the children. I wanted to explore the effects of secrets being kept; both on the business and on the next generation as they build up towards taking over from their parents.

There are also a few very personal themes which I am exploring such as situations where adults have laid the blame on a child when they should have taken responsibility, resulting in a long term emotional ripples. At what point does the child realize that perhaps it was not their fault and that the guilt they have carried is misplaced? Everyone makes mistakes, but once concealed, revealing the truth becomes becomes a huge step.

4) How would you describe your personal brand as a screenwriter?

That is a very good question. If I had to sum up my brand in a single word, I would have to say: resilient.
Perhaps the best way to answer is to draw on things professional readers have said about my work. They describe it as; sophisticated, realistic, complex, compelling, atmospheric, intelligent, morally ambiguous, tense, and “immersive slow-burn mystery thriller with layered lived-in characters, authentic dialogue, hints of Nordic noir and simmering menace.”

I like to make the audience work to solve the mystery, I prefer the long form storytelling of TV series and I write the type shows I love to watch. My preferred genres are crime, thriller, mystery and grounded sci-fi. I love a strong precinct which firmly anchors the characters and in a sense place is very important in my world creation. I have what has been described as a bone dry sense of humour and my writing style tends to be rather dark. Although much of my work has a very British flavour, I have written a handful of pieces set elsewhere.

In a previous role I was trained to track down people who didn’t want to be found, those who had done a midnight flit leaving unpaid debt. I now use these skills in family history research, I love putting together tiny clues to uncover forgotten family members and the incidents which forged their paths. In my writing I use this process in reverse, taking inspiration from discoveries in the archives, inventing complex lives for my characters and laying a trail of clues for the audience to follow to unravel the mystery.

5)  What were the major notes and draft iterations of your script?

The overall story at the heart of Millennium Eve hasn’t really undergone major change between conception and current version, but I put in a lot of work before opening Final Draft. As a missing person story the backbone hangs on police procedure, that was my starting point with the structure. As the drafts have progressed, the procedural elements, while still there, have moved more into the background. The first draft was on the dry side and a little short with the trail of clues sitting on the surface. The second draft added more layers to the characters and deepening their relationships, which enabled the clues to find cover and hide in plain sight along with a scatter of red herrings.

The one major change I made to the story after the first draft was to introduce the family feud and the fight outside the casino. The present day New Year’s Eve scenes inside the casino were also expanded. Initially the party sequence was quite short and my intention was to come back to it in flashback, but by getting to know the main players in that intense environment and ending with the tease that one has possibly killed the other, draws the audience straight into the world and sets up a lot of the questions which will be answered across the series.

6)  What words of advice and encouragement would you give aspiring writers?

I hate the term aspiring writer. If you have had an idea, spent the time peculating the characters and themes, written notes to self, then put it into a script or piece of prose, no matter how rough, then you are a writer. The key to becoming a professional writer is perseverance. No one has ever been an overnight success, there is always preparation, learning, trial and error and a lot of polishing in every successful script. If you wanted to win a major tennis tournament, you wouldn’t expect to buy our first racquet the day before and walk onto the court having never hit a ball, would you? Writing is much like sport. Your audience only sees the end result. They don’t see the long hours spent honing your craft. It’s not easy, but nothing that is worthwhile ever is, and most of the fun is in the trying and the collaboration along the way.

I’ve heard a lot of writers say they hate getting notes, I love getting notes. Notes are the first indication that someone gets what you are trying to write or maybe they don’t. Either way listen to what they have to say, don’t challenge their opinions before you have had time to really think about what they have said. If you still don’t agree with them that’s fine, always get notes from someone else too. It’s your story, you don’t always have to make changes you don’t agree with, but learn to discuss your work and engage with your peers, find the reason why they didn’t understand, it will help you to make the story clearer.

Find your trusted people, those who will celebrate your successes and pick you up after a setback. A small group whose opinions you trust, not just those who will always agree with you.

Writing is hard, and on your own it is easy to doubt your own capabilities and difficult to pinpoint the parts of your story which don’t quite work. Find trusted peers, read each other’s scripts, give honest notes and receive notes graciously. Go to networking events together where you can (Execs, producers and agents are easier to hunt in packs). You may know a few of them and can introduce your friends, your pals may know others and can introduce you. If no one in your group knows them, it’s much easier to approach and say hello if you have a wingman. Above all push and pull each other up the ladder, then lower the ladder back down and help others up too.

by Staff Writer

From our in-house editorial team.