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Alex Rider season 2 shot during the COVID lockdown of 2021, so I had to skip my usual lurking-with-a-camera trip to set. When we were recommissioned for a third season, I was keen to bring the story arcs to satisfying conclusions rather than leave them hanging. There's plenty of room for more of this show in the future, but I love that these three seasons stand on their own feet as a self-contained trilogy.

...near Bristol, standing in for Scorpia's villa in Malta.

Anthony Horowitz, author of the Alex Rider novels; Jess from the FreeVee network; and Andreas Prochaska, our Block 1 director. Andreas had already worked on Season 1 and we were thrilled to get him back again: his eye for atmospheric shooting is very filmic and gave the show a lot of its style and impact.

Otto Farrant and Brenock O'Connor as best friends Alex and Tom

Sofia Helin, playing Julia – the Widow – seen here through the camera monitor

Kevin McNally as Max Grendel, Sofia Helin as Julia Rothman: seen here plotting world domination and revenge (from a stylish sofa!)

...in miniature. The props department ran this up to decorate Julia's villa. I remain in awe of the art and props people.

Alex (Otto Farrant) walks into the Widow's Palace, on the hunt for answers.

This was used as the clapperboard for tight close-ups of props: in this case, a hand holding a remote-control unit. I didn't know these existed until I saw this one in action.

Alex and Tom getting themselves deeper into trouble.

Director Andreas, stars Otto and Brenock, and yours truly

This is the sequence in which Alex, played by Otto Farrant, has to blend in with a family of British aristocrats as preparation for an undercover mission. Shooting took place in a stately home.

Alex takes his place at dinner, looking more than a little out of place in t-shirt and jeans

The big white sheet reflects window light back onto the actors' faces

...lets you see how the DOP is visualising the scene

...talking the actors through the scene before the shot.

Otto waiting for his cue to enter the scene.

Andreas discussing the details of the shot before the cameras actually roll. There's a lot of waiting around on set!

...played by Simon Shepherd and Lucy Akhurst

Boom mic hovering over Otto

We had the smoke machines going pretty hard. Smoke in the air makes for lovely shafts of light in the finished shot.

Andreas discussing blocking with Vicky McClure, playing Department agent Mrs Jones, and Otto.

...finishing up decisions on the scene.

This location is The Department, a shadowy subset of the British intelligence services. Stephen Dillane plays Alan Blunt, who heads the organisation.

Alex confronts Blunt. In the background, Ace Bhatti, who plays Crawley.

And last-minute makeup adjustments for Vicky.

Measuring the exact distance between the camera lens and Otto's eyes, to ensure crisp focus.

No-one knows what goes on in here. (Actually, they do... it's where the camera monitors are housed, so that Andreas can check them without distraction.)

as Alan Blunt, very much in his element as head of The Department.

...seen here between takes.

Jill Green, Anthony Horowitz (author of the best-selling books from which the show is adapted), star Otto Farrant, and exec producer Eve Gutierrez.

Out of sight taking the photo: showrunner Guy Burt 😉

I didn't get to go to the shoot for Joe All Alone, but I loved Joanna's book about a vulnerable boy abandoned by his mother and trying to make the best of his time alone. I was also excited by the chance to write another drama, like Harriet's Army, that my own kids could watch. Joe All Alone went on to with the Best Drama BAFTA.

This project grew out of my fascination with the story of Carter, his obsession, and the extraordinary strokes of luck and genius that led him to discover the one unplundered tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Telling the story for screen was some of the most fun I've had in my writing career.

...played by Max Irons, Jeremy Irons' son. (I had of course worked with Jeremy on The Borgias.) Max was far too handsome to play Carter, who in real life looked rather more like Mr Potato Head; but he was great in the role. Here he's going over his lines between takes.

The interior of Tutankhamun's tomb, and the long tunnel leading to it, were built in a decommissioned basketball court in Cape Town. The sloping section here is the tunnel. The whole shoot took place in South Africa, with the exteriors in countryside near the border with Namibia.

...who plays Herbert Winlock, watching the shoot.

Sam Neill (playing Carter's patron, Lord Carnarvon) and Max as Carter, in a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost hired for the shoot. The car was ridiculously expensive to insure: rather than drive it in the desert, we greenscreened a background in, and shot it being rocked side-to-side by crewmembers.

Catherine Steadman as Maggie. The American House was the social centre for all the archaeologists working in the valley. Jonny at the silent piano, whose keys can be played but which has no strings – so music can be added and synced in post-production.

Sam Neill as Lord Carnarvon.

Yours truly, looking a bit like he could use a drink. It was hot on set, but nothing like as hot as it got on location near the Namibian border. There were several days there where the temperature in the digsite hit 50ºC (122ºF) and the on-set doctors insisted that filming be stopped.

This was a strange project. The concept was excellent, and the pilot script I read before signing up was dynamic and witty and had a great interplay between the key characters. Somehow, though, little of this translated to screen; although I ended up writing five episodes of the season, I never felt that the show achieved its potential. (Sometimes this happens, and when it does, there's really nothing much you can do.)

Ed Speleers as Slean, Kieran Bew as Beowulf. The statues in the background have a bit of a Lord of the Rings vibe going on...

Not something you see every day, right?

...plus a bloodstained assassin with a cup of coffee.

The costumes and sets looked good, and I still think the scripts were pretty good too. But achieving a sweeping epic on a British budget was perhaps too ambitious. The final show never quite held together for me.

Hrothgar, King of the Danes, glorious in battle,
Built him a huge hall—its gleaming roof
Towering high to heaven—strong to withstand
The buffet of war. He called it Heorot
And lived there with his Queen.

And we built it – twice. (The first set blew away in a gale.)

In 2014, as part of the commemorations of the First World War, the BBC commissioned me to write a drama about the role of children in the war. To my amazement, Scouts and Guides volunteered their services the moment war broke out... and Government accepted within hours. They were put to work guarding coasts, railways, bridges and other infrastructure.

...played by Ciara Baxendale. Harriet is thrown out of the Guides for punching a boy, but is determined to continue helping with the war effort. She assembles her own band of misfit kids, dubs them "Harriet's Army", and gets to work hunting for spies. But the game soon gets real...

Because this drama was partly written with my own children in mind, I asked our producer, Foz Allen, if they could be in some crowd scenes. Here they are in authentic 1914 costumes. Shoots can be very dull work – a lot of waiting around – but they just about managed.

My boys with the background actors who volunteered to be their foster-parents for the day!

...the producer of the show, and a really nice guy. I worked with him again on Riviera several years later.

This was the location we used for a lot of the exterior shots. The museum has a High Street that has been preserved as it would have been in the early 20th Century. The art department decked it out with bunting and made it look a little dustier and more "lived in".

Also provided: pocket-warmers and hot-water bottles for the long periods of waiting around. It was cold!

Sophie Wright (Violet), Max True (Sam), Ciara Baxendale (Harriet)

Sadly, neither of my sons is respectable.

On stage to receive the Best Writer for Harriet's Army. I was ridiculously proud and pleased. You can see a video of the speech towards the bottom of the page here.

With some casting changes and three brand-new stories. It was really exciting to let the characters breathe and develop a bit in this season.

Hattie Morahan as Alice; Sophie Rundle reprising her role as Lucy.

– back as Jean, always the lynchpin who holds the group together.

...checking the camera angles before the shot.

Hattie Morahan as Alice. The props department have collected a lot of little bottles!

Julie Graham's character was injured in Season 1, so walks with a cane in this season. Julie seems to be finding this funny...

...is not having this project come off. I was a huge Terry Pratchett fan as a teenager, and continued loving his books as an adult. The chance to do a long-running series based on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch was a dream come true. But the project faltered and eventually failed. I regret it deeply: for me, it's the one that got away. (And I could have written it so well...)

Taking questions on stage about The Watch. From left: Rob Wilkins, Sir Terry Pratchett, producer Rod Brown, me, and Terry's daughter Rhianna Pratchett. I'm explaining the vision for the show, and nailing my claim to being a serious fan at the same time.

Rod Brown, Rob Wilkins, yours truly. Some day the pain of missing out on this may have receded enough for me to talk about it further. (Or maybe not...)

Bletchley Park was home to Britain's top-secret codebreaking effort during World War 2. It was here that Alan Turing pioneered computing science; but the codebreaking also relied on the work of extraordinarily intelligent women. It was their story I wanted to tell in this drama: not just what they did in the war, but what happened to them afterwards, when they were expected to go back to "normal" 1950s lives and become housewives and  mothers.

...being instructed by museum staff on how to work an original Enigma code machine.

The original location for Britain's code-breaking efforts during World War 2. We were lucky enough to be allowed to film here.

...as Susan, at work in Hut 4 at the start of the story. Susan in an expert in pattern analysis, a skill which later comes in useful hunting a serial killer after the war. The set we created for Hut 4 was so realistic that when we were done, the museum retained it as an exhibit.

A group of background actors with British TypeX machines

Last-minute makeup adjustments for Sophie Rundle (playing Lucy).

The youngest and most vulnerable of the four characters.

Jake believed in The Bletchley Circle from the start. I had taken the idea round a dozen production companies, and no-one seemed to get it. (One producer said, "Oh, a group of women. Like Charlie's Angels.") Jake understood at once that an ensemble piece for serious female actors was a chance to jump at.

Julie Graham (Jean) and Anna Maxwell Martin (Susan) had such a laugh on set.

I was extremely lucky to get this gig. The Borgias was Neil Jordan's creation; my job, to start with, was just to write a series bible (ie, overview) for the upcoming second season. Neil liked my work enough to let me write the final episode of Season 2; and after that, three episodes of Season 3.

David is a renowned writer and director – it was hugely interesting watching him work.

Shooting took place at Korda studios outside Budapest. On the back lot, the exterior sets were Renaissance Rome on one side, wooden scaffolding on the other. That's movie magic for you.

I'm always fascinated by the work of the art department, set designers and builders. I did Art A-level and am in awe of the amount of skill that goes into their work. I saw people carving life-sized marble statues, freehand, out of polystyrene – and they looked real!

...cast in resin by the art department. No detail is too tiny. The mosaics in the Vatican interiors were enormous inkjet prints, but they were made to glimmer like real tile by having thousands of little squares of Sellotape stuck all over them.

And chainmail, and helmets. Tables and tables of props.

...discussing the day's plan with DOP Paul Sarossy.

Kingdom was a warm, gently-paced comedy drama set in a Cambridgeshire law office. Having written quite dark, unsettling dramas before this, it was a nice change of pace

...played by Stephen Fry, seen here between takes.

Another shot of Stephen in the title role.

Playing opposite Stephen was another British television legend, Richard Wilson – as irascible Professor Barkway.

Professor Barkway (Richard Wilson) awaits his cue.

The show was set and filmed in Cambridge, where the college buildings lent everything a wonderfully timeless feel.

We had a lot of emergency crew on standby in case anyone fell in, but Stephen Fry is an old hand at this punting lark

Cambridge punts are punted, and steered, from the front; Oxford punts, from the rear. Each says their way is the best / most difficult to master.

...bringing  a touch of aristocratic chaos to the role of Aunt Auriel.

...relaxing and chatting with the writer between takes.

This was such a fun show to write. The main character, played by David Jason, is a retired con-man. In this story, he's brought out of retirement to help two ex-Cold War spies who believe they know the location of stolen KGB gold. A romp from start to finish.

A tense first meeting between Des (David Jason) and Kate (Jan Francis), set in a posh hotel tea-room.

Our director, Paul Harrison, asked me if I'd like to be in the tea-room scene as an "extra" (or background actor). I jumped at the chance, so am visible – very very briefly – on screen in the finished take.

...at least, for now. There was a lot of mistrust and double-crossing in this story!

...for Jan Francis, playing Kate.

Director Paul Harrison deciding on camera angles for the scene.

Our clapperboard operator in action.

As Des and Kate discuss the hoard of missing KGB gold, the camera moves in close.

Captain Byrnes (Julian Wadham) looks through the periscope. The submarine set we were using had already been built at Cinecittà, the famous Italian film studio, and used on a war film; we took it over for this haunted submarine story.

This is what the "submarine" looks like from the outside. Panels and sections of the hull could be removed to allow camera access, while retaining the claustrophobic interior.

– our star, on the left; and director, on the right. Stuart is deep in thought!

What an astonishing place to be filming. Everywhere I looked there were amazing left-over pieces of past film glories. These enormous plaster statue heads were just sitting there under the pine trees.

Roman ruins and WWII submarines, all littered around the Italian landscape.

Our wonderful producer David Reynolds – he was lovely to work with and made the whole process of writing the show thoroughly enjoyable.

Trying not to get in the way or trip over the cables...

Yes, directors really do do that thing with their hands, to visualise how things might look through the frame of a camera lens. First time I'd seen it done, though.

David is best known for his comedy work: Only Fools and Horses, Open All Hours and so on. He was keen to stretch himself in a more dramatic role here, as Jack Hardy, a retired submariner brought in on a mysterious mission. I worked with him again, later, on the series Diamond Geezer.

...kicking back on set.

...playing Cassidy, seen here sitting in the hatchway.