Neil Forsyth was struggling with rejection when he sat down and wrote the opening scene of Guilt after taking his dog for a walk.
Guilt was his big creative breakthrough.
The drama won a number of Scottish Baftas and was a significant step on the Broughty Ferry screenwriter’s journey to prestige prime-time TV with The Gold.
“After Bob Servant I got a lot of work writing sitcom pilot scripts, here and in America, but none of them got made,” he told me.
“The American work was well paid but creatively I found it increasingly dispiriting.
“I took a month off writing to think about the kind of thing I really wanted to write, which was a good story driven by interesting characters and ideally set in Scotland.
“One day after a dog walk, I wrote the opening scene of Guilt.”
It all went from there.
What was the premise of Guilt?
Guilt sees chalk-and-cheese Edinburgh brothers Max and Jake driving home from a wedding when they accidentally run over and kill an old man.
Max wants to get away as quickly as possible.
Jake doesn’t think it’s right to leave the old boy lying in the road.
That’s when the fun starts.
Was it always going to be set in Edinburgh?
“I lived in Edinburgh on and off for about 10 years,” said Neil.
“I love Leith and the way it feels detached from the rest of the city, and all the themes of regeneration and trying and failing to escape the past, for the location and the characters, was dramatically attractive.
“Like most television shows, there were years of rejections and false starts for myself and the producer Neil Webster, who first developed it with me.
“Then I met Ewan Angus at BBC Scotland and he said he needed a drama to launch the new BBC Scotland channel.
“I sent him the script over the weekend.
“He texted me on the Sunday and said he wanted to make it.”
Guilt changed everything for Neil Forsyth
Neil said it was a huge moment in his life.
“I’d never really written drama before, but BBC Scotland showed great belief in me and the show throughout its run,” he said.
“I’m pleased it worked so well for them in return.”
Neil had Mark Bonnar and Jamie Sives in mind to play successful Edinburgh lawyer Max and second-hand record shop owner Jake before the ink was dry.
“What I didn’t know was that he and Mark had gone to primary school together, which gave them a really intense chemistry right from the start,” he said.
“We had a very early rehearsal, just with the two of them and it was so exciting.
“They understood the characters innately.”
I think what helped a lot is that Guilt was released weekly, it wasn’t all dropped on iPlayer at once, which is very unusual now.” Neil Forsyth.
Max and Jake get caught up in a much bigger web of crime.
Emun Elliott was cast as private detective Kenny who works with Max.
Kenny’s wife left him after catching him drinking Midori at the soft play centre but he kicks the booze and is on the trail of who really killed the old man.
First episode received positive reviews
Others cast in Guilt included Sian Brooke, Ruth Bradley, Ellie Haddington and Bill Paterson, who played the sinister crime boss Roy Lynch.
Neil said the tight budget actually helped the show’s realism.
“We couldn’t have big chases and explosions, so it made the drama more immediate and personal,” he said.
“We couldn’t have a massive cast, but that forced me to really dive into the lives, back stories and relationships of those characters that I could afford.”
Neil realised things had come full circle while filming at the top of Calton Hill.
“The sun was setting, Mark and Jamie were giving their usually excellent performances, and I could look down and see the flat where I’d lived in Leith, and the route I had walked to my job working in a pub, when I was in my mid-20s and dreaming of being a writer,” said Neil.
“It was a very special moment.”
The first episode aired on BBC Scotland on October 24 2019 to positive reviews.
“It was amazing,” said Neil.
“I think what helped a lot is that Guilt was released weekly, it wasn’t all dropped on iPlayer at once, which is very unusual now.
“It slipped out quite quietly then built up a head of steam.”
The first series won the Royal Television Society Award Scotland for Best Drama and Neil was also nominated for the RTS Best Drama Writer award.
It was also awarded a Scottish Bafta for Best Drama.
Did Forsyth always plan several series of Guilt?
“Yes, but that’s easy to think, and harder to write,” Forsyth said when asked if he was already thinking of a trilogy.
“It’s a complicated show and it’s fictional.
“I call it the tyranny of the blank page.
“If anything can happen, how do you decide what should happen?”
The second series of Guilt was shot during the absolute worst period of Covid.
That made things very restrictive creatively.
Neil said: “I wasn’t able to have any car scenes, and it was easiest to just have two characters in a scene, and I couldn’t use too many locations.
“When I see some people saying that the second series had too many long scenes and speeches, I think, well, yes, it was that or cancel the show.
“I think we got away with it, and the second series won the most awards of the lot, but it was a particularly hard series to write and make.”
Teddy was a dream role for Greg McHugh
The storyline brought the addition of Gary: Tank Commander funnyman Greg McHugh, playing brilliantly against type as dead-eyed enforcer Teddy McLean.
“Yes, I saw Greg in that role from the writing stage,” said Neil.
“We’re friends but, more importantly, he’s a brilliant actor.
“I thought he was a revelation as Teddy.
“I think it’s his best ever television role but I would say that, wouldn’t I?”
Phyllis Logan also shrugged off her past below stairs as Mrs Hughes in Downtown Abbey to embrace her inner villain as crime matriarch Maggie Lynch.
Jake and Max returned to Edinburgh after hiding out in Chicago and found themselves trapped in an escalating state of mortal danger in the final series.
Dundee was the setting for the final scene
The finale saw Max arriving in Dundee and forming a new family.
It was another full circle moment.
Neil said: “It felt creatively right, but it was obviously also nostalgia on my part, ending Guilt where I began.
“I like to think of Max pushing a pram around the Ferry.”
How does Neil look back on Guilt on its fifth anniversary?
“It’s probably my most personal show, and I imagine it always will be,” he said.
“There are a lot of themes in there that are relevant to different stages of my life.
“A number of the characters definitely have traits and experiences from me within them.
“It made an enormous difference to my career.
“It persuaded others to trust me to make dramatic television and has gone out around the world and been well-received by local press and viewers.
“And when I see posters for the show translated for Denmark, or France, or some tiny Eastern European country, I do find it incredible.
“And then there’s the fact it was remade in India, using Indian actors and shot in the Himalayas, which is completely surreal.”
Neil is still in touch with the Guilt cast and crew and eight of the actors went on to appear in The Gold, which dramatizes the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery.
Courier reviewer David Pollock described Guilt as a “rich and complex crime thriller, not unlike The Wire, with the wild, offbeat humour of the Coen Brothers at their best”.
Will we see Max, Jake and Kenny again?
“Although I don’t think I’ll ever write more Guilt, the scene I do occasionally imagine in my head is how Max would handle a trip to a soft play,” said Neil.
“Or maybe the pirate ships in Camperdown?
“And I’m sure Jake would love Fat Sam’s.
“You never know, Guilt: The Dundee Years might happen some day!”
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