Laurence Davey

Laurence Davey (1985, English) is a screen-writer for television and film. He was the 100th writer to be entered in the Hall Writers’ Directory.

After University Laurence worked in advertising in London, then went on to write screenplays. Very early on he wanted to be a professional writer, which meant he wanted to write for money. (‘It’s amazing how many people have the gall to ask you to write for free’, he says.)  Resisting exploitation from the outset, he quickly got movie script commissions. ‘The upside was money. The downside was writing for a visual medium, and never seeing those stories on screen.’

Laurence lived in Los Angeles for a while, and sold a horror script to Sony Columbia, which kept him in good living for a long time, but a second script didn’t sell. With his family he returned to England nearly 8 years ago, and focused on the TV industry, which looked more solid than the ‘gold-rush mania’ of Hollywood.

His introduction to TV was working for Tony Garnett on numerous projects. Since then, he has written scripts for such series as Waking the Dead, and DCI Banks. He’s currently working on a medical drama for SKY, as well as having numerous original crime and drama series in development at various Production companies.

“I loved cinema. I loved the way stories could be told with everything a play can offer PLUS the freedom a camera and editing gives you. Having watched loads of movies, and read loads of plays (but hardly any novels), my mind just started spilling out stories. That’s how I started, and that’s what I still do today, but hopefully with more skill and control.”