There’s a lot more to British scriptwriter Paul Abbott than Shameless. Think class warfare disguised as comedy, the ability to work simultaneously on enough projects to make the average writer’s brain explode, and a touch of mental illness. But first, the ceremonial opening to the 2013 proceedings.
The delegates to the 2013 Australian Screenwriter’s Conference found themselves in the somewhat unwriterly surroundings of a golf resort at Cape Schank, south of Melbourne, in a huge rumpled counterpane of links and tees and asphalted clumps of carpark. Despite the hopefull weather report, various bits of brightly coloured chiffon were horizontal in the wind.