A Series of Murders Read Online Free PDF

mean?’
    â€˜Hmm.’
    â€˜I’ll tell you what it means, Charles. It means what it always means in television – more bloody rewrites!’
    â€˜Oh, but surely they won’t need to change the scripts?’
    â€˜They
always
need to change the scripts – first rule of television. At least they don’t always need to change the scripts, but they always insist on changing the scripts. Producers and script editors would feel they were failing in their God-given mission if they accepted a script in its original form. I tell you, if I delivered
Hamlet
to this lot, they’d come back to me with a great pile of notes. ‘Wouldn’t it be better if he was a bit more decisive? And there aren’t really many laughs, are there? And couldn’t you combine the parts of Rosencrantz and Guildernstern? Seems rather a waste to have two of them, doesn’t it, because they both serve the same function? And could we cut the scene in the graveyard? Well, you know how expensive film is, and it doesn’t really seem to
add
much. And as for that ending – well, talk about downbeat. Can’t you liven it up a bit?’
    Charles chuckled. ‘I take your point. Was that the sort of meeting you had this morning?’ Will looked at him, uncomprehending. ‘This morning, when Ben and Dilly dragged you out of the canteen?’
    â€˜Oh, then. No, actually that one didn’t materialise. Soon as we got outside the canteen, Ben, with typical resolution, remembered there was something else he should be doing. But don’t worry, the meeting is only postponed. More rewrites will still be wanted.’
    â€˜I still don’t see why you’ll have to rewrite just because someone new’s taking over the part of Christina.’
    â€˜I’m sure I will have to, though. The new person they get will be totally different from Sippy, that I can guarantee.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜Well, this time I should think they’d get an actress.’
    â€˜God, I set that up for you perfectly, didn’t I?’
    â€˜Yes, Charles. Thank you very much – feed lines always appreciated.’
    Charles grinned. But he felt uncomfortable. He had some atavistic inhibition about speaking ill of the dead. Though his opinion of Sippy Stokes’s acting abilities hadn’t changed from that morning, it seemed somehow wrong to be making such comments now.
    â€˜Anyway,’ Will went on moodily, ‘even if they don’t want the later scripts totally rewritten – which they almost definitely will – I’ve still got a lot to do on the first one, particularly now.’
    â€˜What, the one we’ve been doing today?’
    â€˜Yes. “The Brass Candlestick Murder”.’ The writer put a world of contempt into his enunciation of W. T. Wintergreen’s title.
    â€˜But surely we’ll just scrap everything that Sippy recorded and redo those scenes with a new actress?’
    â€˜Don’t you believe it. Oh, no, if Ben Docherty can see a way of saving a few bob, then who cares how much extra work the mere writer has to do?’
    â€˜You mean he’s intending to use the scenes with Sippy in them?’
    â€˜Yes. Not a business famous for its sentimentality, television. No, dear warm-hearted Ben will salvage every last inch of tape he can. Anything rather than retaking the lot. So my latest directive this afternoon is to assemble a new jigsaw from the scenes we’ve already recorded and find some “really plausible explanation” – I quote Dilly Muirfield’s words – for the fact that Stanislas Braid’s adored and irreproachable daughter, Christina, suddenly vanishes out of the second half of the story.’
    â€˜But that’ll cock up the continuity into the next episode, surely? I mean, you can’t have a completely different actress suddenly appearing as the same character.’
    â€˜Don’t worry,