30 Brilliant BBC Drama Scripts to Download and Study for Free
From 'Happy Valley' to 'Killing Eve', I've curated a collection of some of the BBC's best first episodes of drama TV to help in your screenwriting education
I’ve worked in film and television markets around the globe during my fifteen years as a professional screenwriter. Wherever I go, BBC dramas are consistently considered the gold standard when it comes to TV. Hollywood might produce more great series every year, but it has budgets and sheer output on its side. In the numbers game, the BBC — and the wider U.K. TV market — overwhelmingly wins out by simply doing more with less. I would even argue, by putting authorship and craft over spectacle and I.P.
This is why I’ve decided to scour the Internet to 30 BBC drama scripts — all the first episodes of their series — for you to download and study for free. It’s a good opportunity to try to understand how the Brits do what they do on the page, as well as consider ways you can challenge your own writing wherever else in the world you’re developing your voice or honing your skills.
This list was likely inspired by my recent interview with Sarah Phelps, one of the U.K.’s most lauded TV writers. One of her scripts can be found below, by the way. It’s wonderful, but not my favorite from her because I was limited by what is available online (Christ, how I wish I could’ve included her first episode of “THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT” in particular). But the line-up I’ve curated is robust and features a slew of master screenwriters such as Sally Wainwright, Jimmy McGovern, Jed Mercurio, Russell T. Davies, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Abi Morgan, and, as I mentioned, Phelps.
All of these screenplays tend to vanish, as all things do on the Internet. Download ASAP for your personal educational purposes. And if you want more resources like this one, be sure to check out my articles:
“Read the 10 Feature Screenplays the WGA Thinks Are the Best of 2023”
“10 Screenplays by the Great Walter Hill to Download and Study”
“15 Iconic '90s Pilot Scripts to Download and Study”
“20 Christmas Movie Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
“25 Time-Bending Scripts to Download and Study”
"35 Coming-of-Age Scripts to Download and Study”
“40 Great Action Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
“50 Essential 21st-Century One-Hour Pilot Scripts to Download and Study for Free”
“50 Great Screenplays by Women to Download and Study for Free”
“50 Great Screenplays by People of Color to Download and Study for Free”
“60 Great Comedy Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
“60 Screenplays About Love and Heartbreak to Download and Study for Free”
“100 Horror Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
“A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL” by Russell T. Davies
I repeatedly sprayed my living room with beer from spitting laughter at this episode. Every character is so perfectly written.
“BEING HUMAN” by Toby Whithouse
“BODYGUARD” by Jed Mercurio
Mercurio is a master thriller writer, and “BODYGUARD” doesn’t let you down. Here, he creates a British John McClane, as I describe the protagonist. No small task given the British aversion to such Hollywood-style superheroics. You can read my artist-on-artist conversation with him here.
“BROKEN” by Jimmy McGovern
“THE CRY” by Jacqueline Perske
This series is a non-linear mystery about truth, gaslighting, and toxic marriages written by my friend Jacqueline. I was fortunate enough to have her in a room I ran last year. Utter joy to work with.
“DICKENSIAN” by Tony Jordan
“DRACULA” by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat
This series has a lot of naysayers, but as someone who created his own “DRACULA” series, I can say I found it a breath of fresh air. Each episode surprised me in exciting ways. The take might not be for you, but it’s a wonderful education in how to reinvent stale IP.
“DUBLIN MURDERS” by Sarah Phelps
Read my artist-on-artist conversation with Sarah about her life, craft, and work: “Q&A: Screenwriter Sarah Phelps on Why She Writes (the Really Long Answer)”.
“GENTLEMAN JACK” by Sally Wainwright
“GIRI/HAJI” by Jack Barton
“HAPPY VALLEY” by Sally Wainwright
I’m of the mind that Sally Wainwright is one of the greatest screenwriters in the world. “HAPPY VALLEY” is not only one of the best British TV series ever produced, it features one of the best female characters ever put on a TV screen.
“THE HONOURABLE WOMAN” by Hugo Blick
“THE HOUR” by Abi Morgan
“KILLING EVE” by Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Fun. Wicked funny. Pitch-perfect characters.
“LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX” by Sally Wainwright
“LES MISÉRABLES by Andrew Davies
Davies is a screenwriting hero of mine. His historical dramas — especially “PRIDE AND PREJUDICE” (1995) are consistently brilliant.
“LIFE ON MARS” by Matthew Graham
“LINE OF DUTY” by Jed Mercurio
“LUTHER” by Neil Cross
This is how you introduce an iconic protagonist.
“MURDERED BY MY FATHER” by Vinay Patel
My buddy Vinay Patel wrote this brilliant series. If you want to get more into his head and how he thinks about story, read my conversation with him: “Vinay Patel and the Temple of Doom: What Should We Do About Problematic Art?”
“THE NEST” by Nicole Taylor
Tense Scottish thriller written by the brilliant Nicole Taylor, who is one of my dearest friends. I met her in the writers’ room for my TV series “DRACULA”.
“THE NIGHT MANAGER” by David Farr
One of the best thrillers ever put on television, as far as I’m concerned. Brilliant mix of U.K. and American narrative sensibilities.
“NORMAN PEOPLE” by Sally Rooney and Alice Birch
Like Rooney’s novel NORMAL PEOPLE, this achingly beautiful series haunts me. I truly don’t think I’ve gone more than three days since seeing it without thinking about it.
“THE NORTH WATER” by Andrew Haigh
“PEAKY BLINDERS” by Steven Knight
The brilliance of this script is why it became such an international hit: Knight wrote an American-style gangster-western set in Birmingham post-WWI. You could remake this set in Wyoming at the same time and not have to change very much.
“SHERLOCK” by Steven Moffat
Brilliant contemporary reinvention of a character I would’ve thought firmly ensconced in the past.
“SHOOT THE MESSENGER” by Sharon Foster
“TIME” by Jimmy McGovern
I find most people I know outside the U.K. don’t know this series exists. It is painfully good. Painfully.
“THE VICTIM” by Rob Williams
“YEARS AND YEARS” by Russell T. Davies
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One small correction: Joe Barton's show is Giri / Haji (really easy to mistake the final 'i' in Giri for an 'L' in sans-serif fonts, particularly when very small). I watched it on Netflix and thought it was Girl until I started watching it!
Jebus, Mary and Josef, I just discovered this. What a treasure trove.