As humans, we are programmed to enjoy surprises. Things that are new and novel capture our attention and light up the same parts of our brain that come alive when we experience pleasure. But not all surprises are created equal, and as any Talent Campus alumni will know… there are surprises… and then there are TC surprises.
There’s an unspoken pact not to spoil the big reveals, so I’ll keep most of the mystery intact. But I can talk about one moment that sent a shockwave through the room like a cattle prod to the collective nervous system, and that was when creative titan Charlie Brooker walked into our unassuming, intimate classroom like he’d just gotten lost en route to collect a post writing sprint meal deal.
It was the perfect embodiment of what Chris Jones, founder of Talent Campus and all round good egg, does so well: weaponises the unexpected to challenge one’s own expectations of what’s possible… What we can achieve if we step outside of our comfort zones and dare to be unreasonable. Chris doesn’t just run Talent Campus, he summons it. The man is basically a human defibrillator, bringing dormant dreamers back from the dead with a jolt. His energy, enthusiasm and generosity go so far beyond what any sane person would expect that the whole cohort ends up buzzing like someone’s plugged ‘em into the national grid.
What Chris understands so instinctively, is that seeing is believing. If we as creators can see what others have been able to achieve before us then surely we can forge our own paths in this crazy industry. And Brooker? He didn’t disappoint. From the feral brilliance of Dead Set to the global fever dream of Black Mirror, he has always understood the thrill and terror of delivering the unexpected, and his insights were as unflinchingly incisive and acerbic as you might expect.
In conversation with Stephen Follows, Brooker spoke about everything from his early, seminal projects to the ones he still dreams of bringing to life. Meanwhile, I sat somewhere in the back and fought every impulse within myself not to raise a hand and pitch him my own black mirror concept (we all have one).
There was something comforting, too, about hearing him talk about the torture of it all. Something that those of us amidst the painful pursuit of writing will know all too well – the blank page, the discipline, the compulsion, the duty.
We of course had to touch on AI’s looming shadow, landing upon the hopeful conclusion that, no matter how sophisticated the tech becomes… we still need humans to tell human stories: the wounds, the mischief, the lived chaos. Machines can mimic patterns, but they can’t replicate soul. Yet.
But the real shock of Talent Campus… the one I didn’t expect… was the tribe itself.
A band of wild, brilliant, slightly unhinged creatives, all different ages, backgrounds, genres… welded together over an intense period and shaped into something stronger than the sum of its parts. We may be hardwired to crave the unexpected, but there was an odd familiarity about the fears expressed in the safety and comfort of our newfound family and our shared desire to help each other navigate and overcome them.
Every cohort says that Talent Campus changes everything, but we soon came to learn that maybe they were right… maybe everything they said was true after all. And before long, we knew it was. If you ever get the chance to take part, go grab it with both hands. It’s the place where you stop thinking like “someone taking a course” and start behaving like a writer who belongs in the room. If you don’t think you’re up to the challenge, go surprise yourself.
I am a doctor and screenwriter based in East London. My mission is simple: use creativity to help people see the world, and themselves, differently. My most recently completed script, ‘Ashes’, is a limited drama series following a Welsh farming family as they navigate the devastating events of the foot and mouth crisis of 2001. My one hour pilot ‘Seclusion’ about the desperate state of mental health services in England was shortlisted in the top 10 drama scripts of the Edinburgh TV Festival New Voice Awards.
