Yvonne Grace: Producer & Script Editor, EastEnders & Holby City

Yvonne Grace has spent decades inside the machinery of British drama, from producing Holby City to shaping the narrative on EastEnders and rebuilding Crossroads for ITV. She’s the one who can see if the structure will carry the weight or if it’s already bending. Her work stays off to the side of the screen, but it’s the part that decides how far a series can actually go. We talked about hidden signals, weak joins, and what really keeps a show alive.

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When you open a draft, what’s the first unseen signal that tells you whether a series idea can actually run long?

Whether a series idea is going to run long is dependent on the extent to which there are structural, character-based connections made in the series arc that are easy to understand and easy to assimilate in the reading. This is all about character development. The main carriers of the narrative, the characters who will be the story engine throughout the series arc, need to establish connection and cohesion. Otherwise there won't be enough narrative stretch created from episode one to sustain the action over numerous episodes. The unseen signal, then, is the lack of cohesion and connection between main characters which, if not there, I pick on up immediately.

In your script editing work, what quiet flaw shows up early that later turns into a structural crisis if it isn’t caught?

The quiet flaw comes from character development and how these characters relate to each other and to the world created in the series. Characters must weave and interlock in the series structure and in their interaction and their affect and effect on their individual storylines, so an overall structural strength is achieved. If there is little attention paid to the structure of this world, all problems will come from this later in the development of character and further storylines.

Across soaps, serials, and prime-time drama, what invisible rule of character movement keeps an episode from collapsing?

Soaps and series primarily operate from the use of subtext — that which the audience doesn’t see but feels and innately knows. It’s through the development of a character’s subtext that the true connection is made with the audience and the integrity of any episode is held. Text works with subtext in good TV structure, but subtext is the key here.

In the room with writers, what small behaviour tells you a project has a real engine rather than a premise stretched thin?

When the story engine is strong, the writers will be bursting with ideas for the characters and will be chiming with the energy of the series narrative throughline, able to keep coming up with extensions of the original storylines for each of the characters in this world. If the premise is stretched too thin, there will be an over-reliance on back story to create enough momentum in the present-day narrative, and the connections between characters will feel forced in order to create a story idea.

After decades producing and training script editors, what overlooked craft choice separates a solid series from one that never finds its shape?

Decades of development and production of series drama has taught me that structure is key. It needs to be solid from the start of any series drama, otherwise the shape won't hold over time and all creative, and therefore essentially commercial, decisions are affected by a series that isn't structurally sound.

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When Yvonne talks about drama, she’s talking about wiring. The links, tensions, and joints that hold a series together. The things the audience never sees but always feels. That’s the work she pays attention to.

Learn more about Yvonne at:

• IMDb

• Website