I was talking to Eileen O'Brien who played Marjorie, the elderly but
capable of change racist, in my play Foxes, and Eileen was lamenting
the lack of decent roles for older women. Something clicked and I
resolved to have a go at something where the lead actor was other
sixty-five and not over the hill.
I always knew I was someday going to write about the asbestos
poisoning in Armley. I'd passed the factory that polluted the area
every day for years. Asbestos can lie dormant in the lungs for up to
sixty years before developing into cancer, so I knew I would need
older actors.
Snow In July was commissioned as a radio play, the idea was also
mooted for TV to Channel 4 where an executive said: 'We'd like it more
if a young person got asbestosis, everybody knows old people die of
mesothelimoma.' Sums up everything that is wrong with TV.
Sue Roberts was the producer. She liked the first draft I produced but
her notes were really useful in improving the piece. It was her
suggestion that Fred was a librarian (previously I just had him and
Eileen meet in the library, which made him seem like a stalker.) Most
of the changes she suggested were minor but without them the play
would not have worked half so well.
Eileen O'Brien took the lead role in Snow in July and the roles of
Maurice and Fred went to Alun Armstrong and Paul Copley. At the first
read through it was obvious that getting such a fine cast would take
the play up a notch. Alun Armstrong brought depth to Maurice and Paul
Copley brought warmth to Fred. It wasn't my play anymore, it was ours,
and all the better for it.
After the play had been recorded I was thinking about Eileen being my
muse and realised that muse is entirely the wrong description, it
sounds weightless, ethereal and without meat. I can write roles for
Eileen is partly because she is a fine actress but also because as a
human being she brings weight to any script that is put in front of
her. Anyway, here it is…