Neil Forsyth

Author, television writer and journalist Neil Forsyth proves he has a way with words as his career has gone from strength to strength. An FP of the Class of 1996, Neil graduated from the University of Edinburgh then held a variety of jobs before working as a journalist for several years. He then released his first book, Other People’s Money, in 2007. The book focused on the true story of Elliot Castro, a Scottish fraudster, and received significant coverage.

Neil is also known for creating the infamous and comical character of Bob Servant, writing four books about the Bard of Broughty Ferry. The books later evolved into a television show in 2013, the second season of which won the Royal Television Society Scotland award for Comedy.

Further success lay ahead for Neil in 2017 with the release of a one-off drama about Morecombe and Wise. Eric, Ernie and Me received a very positive reception and was nominated for various awards, with Neil himself being nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for his writing of the show.

Come 2019, Neil found himself working with a fellow HSD FP on season one of the hit BBC thriller, Guilt, whose second season hit our screens in October. Neil kindly took the time to catch up with our Development Team over the summer months, updating us on what he has been up to.

Reflecting back on your school days, were you involved in any activities that you feel helped you on your journey to where you are now?

Telling stories and trying to make people laugh in the playground or the back rows of classes, walking the streets of Dundee at lunchtime, and day-dreaming during double Maths were probably the activities that fed most directly into my writing career.

Do you have a favourite memory of your time at school?

I had some great teachers. I enjoyed persuading Mr Blackburn to talk about football instead of maths, I liked history with Mr Wilson and Mrs Hudson, and had a string of really good English teachers such as Mr Durrheim and Mrs Tosh. But the teacher that made the biggest impression on me was Mr Ferrie. He taught me English for two years and was inspiring, funny and took an interest in me that I was very grateful for. He suggested authors for me to read and told me to read a newspaper every day. I wrote to him a few years ago actually to thank him.

What would you say was the best thing about being a pupil at HSD?

Playing football in the playground. I can still remember some of my best goals. I went to see Mr Hutchinson and suggested the School should have a football team and he gave me a punishment exercise. Now I see football goals up at Mayfield, so justice was eventually done!

You began your writing career working in journalism. Specifically, you were a freelance journalist for many years which must have involved a lot of travel. Is there an experience or particular piece you wrote that stands out to you from your early days?

I travelled to Georgia in the USA to write a long article about a man called Benjaman Kyle who was found half-naked in a dumpster and insisted he had no idea who he was. He had retrograde amnesia and spent a decade working out his identity. I think that was the most interesting piece of journalism I wrote; what happens when you wake up and don’t know who you are.

You’ve written in various styles from the comedy of Bob Servant, to the drama of Guilt and of course the wonderful semibiographical Eric, Ernie and Me. What direction is your writing taking you in now and what is inspiring you?

I’m really enjoying writing drama that has humour within it, and particularly true stories. I’ve gone full circle really, from my early days in journalism, but I like the creative licence afforded by television and writing shows that are dramatically driven.

Your very first book focused on the true story of Elliot Castro and his fraudulent crimes, in a way it showed similarities to the US Catch Me If You Can. What was it like writing and releasing your first book and what was the most fascinating part of this story?

Writing it was great fun. Elliot was still in prison, so I was interviewing him over the phone and on day release. We’d have lunch, talk for a few hours, then I’d drive him back to prison. It was pretty surreal. The release was incredibly exciting. I was living in London when it came out and I spent a whole day walking round London, seeing it in various bookshops. It felt like an out of body experience.

Your popular Bob Servant book series was a huge success. It’s predominantly based in Broughty Ferry, would you say you drew a lot of inspiration for these books from your own experiences growing up there?

Definitely. There are stories and characters I heard and met, mostly in the pubs of Broughty Ferry, who went cleanly into the scripts. There was a story about Charlie Cox, Brian Cox’s brother, who was an infamous Monifieth newsagent, once saying to a customer, “I don’t have any change, would you take a cabbage?” I put that into series two of Bob Servant. I’ll never enjoy filming a show as much as Bob Servant. I stayed at my parents and walked round to Bob’s house every morning. My mum and dad are in the opening titles, in the barber’s in Gray Street when Bob bangs on the window.

Out of all the books that you have written, do you have a favourite or one that you are especially proud of?

I’m very proud of the two novels I wrote. They’re the hardest things I’ve ever written, and I will never write another, so to have done two of them is a mixture of pride and relief that I don’t have to do it again.

Writing is clearly a very large part of your life. But is reading something you do in your spare time and if so, do you have a goto genre or author that you would turn to for a good read?

I read a lot of non-fiction and very little new fiction. But I regularly return to people like Martin Amis, Ernest Hemingway, Roddy Doyle and George MacDonald Fraser.

In recent years, your writing has turned a new corner and you’ve delved into the world of script writing. In 2019, you worked on season one of the BBC drama, Guilt. We always hear stories of our FPs bumping into one another in unexpected ways. What was it like working alongside fellow FP, Robbie McKillop, on this project and had you met one another prior to working together?

Robbie and I both played for the South London Tangerines in 2007/8, a Dundee United supporters’ team in London I helped set up in 2001. He was in my little sister Carol’s class at DHS, our parents know each other, and our late grannies were best friends in Broughty Ferry! I was aware of his burgeoning career, and it was great to see him on the list of Directors we were meeting. From there though, it was purely his creative ability that won him the job.

Did you work closely with one another during production? What was your working relationship like?

Yes, I’m quite hands on as I’m a Producer as well on my shows, so Robbie and I worked together closely and very well. He’s very talented and brings lots of his own ideas to filming and offers a whole new perspective on the best way to realise the scripts, while still being respectful of the importance of achieving the writer’s vision. Which is all you want from a Director. He did a fantastic job, and his career will go from strength to strength for sure.

What projects do you have on the horizon? We’re all very excited for season two of Guilt!

Series two of Guilt is going out in October, and I have nearly finished writing my new BBC drama series The Gold which is inspired by the true story of the Brink’s-Mat robbery in 1983. We’ll be filming that all next year in London and Spain and it will likely go out in early 2023. I am developing a new show which would be a Scottish-based drama based on true events, so we’ll see if that one gets over the line. I have my own production label now too, Tannadice Pictures. The Gold is our first commission and hopefully there will be more to follow.

Writing covers a very broad spectrum of opportunities, are there any other areas you would like to explore, such as playwriting or even song writing?

I would love to write both a play and a film, hopefully they are things that will happen at some point.

We’ve got a couple of fun questions for you now. If your life were to be turned into a movie or television show, who would you want to portray you and why?

Brian Cox in a DHS uniform, with the shorts. He would be absolutely furious.

What would be your ideal project to work on and are there any people in the industry that you would love to work with?

I would love to work with Brian Cox again. In normal clothes.

If you were showing someone around Dundee, where would be the top three places you would take them, and why?

Up the Dundee Law, for the view. Tannadice Park, obviously. Then a grand tour of Broughty Ferry pubs.

And finally, if you hadn’t become a writer, where do you think life would have taken you?

I tried a conventional career after University and lasted a year. I was a barman in Edinburgh until I was 27, doing journalism on the side, and only quit when I got my first book deal. I suspect I’d still be behind that bar.