Stephen Henning's Blog, page 2
May 2, 2023
Review of Duran Duran’s gig at the O2 London, 1 May 2023
Duran Duran, playing to a 20,000 strong crowd at the O2 in London! Wowzers. This was an amazing gig from a band that knows what the public wants and gives it to them in spades.
Bank Holiday Mondays can sometimes be a damp squib, fizzling out by 9pm with the expectation of returning to work the next day. Not so for me and the thousands of others packed into the O2 arena on May 1 2023! Duran Duran put on a show that let the audience forget their cares and troubles. We just revelled in the moment, enjoying the thrill of singing along to enduringly appealing, life affirming songs.
Duran have so many hits that they can pack into a show, it’s almost crazy how many get left out. The gig got off to an electrifying and moody start with ‘Nighboat’, a track from Duran’s first album, as the band assembled on stage to a tumultuous applause, before raising the roof with Wild Boys. As much as I didn’t want to, I succumbed to filming some of the songs on my phone.
Once they’d got the audience rocking, they didn’t stop. One great song followed another. Simon Le Bon has always had the charisma to hold an audience in the palm of his hand, and last night he took us on an emotional and often funny journey.
Some of my personal highlights were ‘A View to a Kill’, ‘Notorious’, ‘White Lines’ and some tracks from their debut album and Rio, which I’ve never heard live before.
No doubt everyone had their own favourites. For me, it seemed like ‘Is There Something I Should Know’ (backed by some nostalgic video footage) and ‘Planet Earth’ really hit the audience’s sweetspot. Although, the singalongs to ‘Ordinary World’ and ‘Save a Prayer’ also seemed to carry the audience away to another land.
Overall, fantastic show. The performances of the whole band were top notch. The support were excellent too. I was never a Scissor Sisters fan, but I have to give Jake Shears a lot of credit for the energy of his set and his stage presence.
Even the predictable/obligatory rail-replacement bus services, road works and traffic problems that are seemingly strategically engineered to ruin people’s holiday plans couldn’t dent my enthusiasm or spoil my enjoyment of the show. In part, that’s because the O2 itself is an incredibly well organized, well designed venue. I mean… having an efficient system of getting people in and out… Having enough bar areas so there are no queues…. Having plenty of toilet facilities….!!? This isn’t the Britain I know! I was almost as amazed by that as I was at the energy shown by a band who’ve been rocking Britain for over 40 years.
What a perfect day.
For another excellent review of this concert, and all things Duran Duran related, check out the Cherry Lipstick website here.
(For something totally bonkers: Have you ever imagined Simon Le Bon as Doctor Who? Probably not. Maybe this will convince you… https://www.stephenhenning.co.uk/2021/06/08/the-ultimate-doctor-who-duran-duran-mash-up-doctor-who-new-series-trailer/)
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March 17, 2023
Review of Philip Shelley’s Introduction to Screenwriting course
I’m a very lucky chap, who has some very nice friends. As a birthday present, those very nice friends treated me to Philip Shelley’s One Day Introduction to Screenwriting course. I’d highly recommend it to anybody who wants to learn the craft of screenwriting.
IntroductionThere were approximately 50 of us attending the workshop at London’s Birkbeck College, which is next door to the University of London’s main building (which always reminds me of BBC’s The Day of the Triffids, where the still-sighted meet to decide how to live in the changed world).
In the morning session, Philip gave an overview of his professional history, his love for finding lecture rooms locked on the day of running a course, the TV programmes and films that inspired him, a 101 of screenwriting, and the mechanics of actually writing a script. Philip is an engaging and welcoming host, who endeavoured to cater for all levels of experience.
He answered as many questions as time permitted, and covered the all-important dos and don’ts of the craft. One of the areas that got the most discussion time was the requirement for a properly presented script. To paraphrase Philip, if you’re trying to make a living out of writing, don’t shoot yourself in the foot by submitting a poorly formatted script with lots of typos. We then broke for lunch, hungry but happy.
Dissecting a TV programmeThe first part of the afternoon session featured a presentation by Laurence Bowen (CEO and Producer of Dancing Ledge Productions — the team behind the recent BBC hit The Responder, starring Martin Freeman). Laurence talked about the history of the project and the background of its writer Tony Schumacher. He then screened a selection of scenes from episode one and invited us to analyse the depiction of the main character. As a group we talked about our reactions to the scenes and the effect on our viewing experience.
Laurence raised a particularly interesting aspect of the production. Right at the beginning of episode one, Chris Carson (Freeman) is in a counselling session, and demonstrably struggling with his mental health. The job is clearly destroying him, but he’s doing his best to cling on to the once-held aspiration of being ‘a good bobby’. Laurence explained that this scene was filmed right at the end of the production, when the team thought that they had the show in the can. They sat down to watch the first episode and felt that something else was needed prior to the original opening scene (where Chris wakes up in his family home, ready for his next night shift) in order to show that this is essentially a good but broken man, and someone who deserves the audience’s sympathy. They therefore took the last-minute decision to write and record the counselling scene and make it the new opener.
It was a good example to illustrate how you should never stop questioning a story to see if it plays out as you imagined. It must have been challenging for the team to try and watch what they thought was a finished production with fresh eyes, and identify how the story could be improved with one small but important scene. I found it interesting on a personal level. I remember watching the trailers for The Responder when it aired and thinking I probably wouldn’t like it. A friend (I’m always boasting about my friends aren’t I 🙂) recommended it, so I gave it a whirl — and I was grabbed from that opening scene.
The final session was with Kitty Percy, an award winning screenwriter and a very generous speaker. She talked us through her career, the day-to-day of her job, and bravely submitted to a Q&A session. We asked her all the questions we could in an hour and half to find out how someone gets to be an award winning screenwriter, what challenges one faces, what compromises have to be made, and what exactly is ‘a tight deadline’? (That was one of my questions).
The answer to that (if you’re writing for a genre show for the BBC, for example) is:
Turning in a detailed script breakdown in two weeks, ie the nuts and bolts of what is going to happen in the story. Two weeks later she would submit what essentially is a script but without the dialogue. In other words, it would follow the script format, but would only detail the action. Once that has been approved/changes requested, two weeks later she would submit the ‘final’ script, including dialogue.I asked Kitty if that is the methodology she follows when devising a script for her own (ie non-genre) production. I was interested to know how she approached fleshing out an idea. The answer: Yes. That way, she explained, you can gradually build up the storyline and solve plot problems without wasting time writing dialogue that will never be used.
The last actThere was more! The informal bit — networking at the nearby Malborough Arms pub, where Philip had invited some industry professionals to join us so we could pick their brains. Again, having the opportunity to talk to pros about their work, and to talk about ours, was both interesting and inspiring.
So in summary, I’d recommend Philip’s course. You gain insight, potential contacts, and a feeling that — if you just keep working at it — you might get your toe in the door and be able to show your magnumopus to someone who can get it made.
Kitty’s advice stayed with me: Keep going. Keep writing. Get stuff out there and develop a body of work. Eventually they will find you.
Apologies to anyone if my interpretation of events of the day was different to yours. 🙂
If you’re interested in finding out what screenwriting I have done, well I contributed a script to this anthology film, The Haunted Hotel on all the major streaming platforms (Amazon Prime, Google Movies etc).
Or if you’re in for an ongoing book series about the consequences of teenagers developing extraordinary abilties, you can read my Class Heroes novels. You can watch a trailer right here….
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July 23, 2022
Is children’s science fiction publishing the final frontier?
I came across a really interesting article in Publishers Weekly from Emily Midkiff, who is a professor at the University of North Dakota, specialising in children’s literature and literacy. Professor Midkiff claims that children’s science fiction is a missed opportunity for the publishing industry.
I discovered the article when looking for data on whether there is an appetite for middle grade (age 8—12) science fiction. Professor Midkiff, rather handily, had been asking that very question and has conducted her own research. Her findings were fascinating.
Why am I interested?Well, I’m sure you won’t faint with amazement (given that I’ve already written books about teenagers with superpowers and a script for a ghost film) that I also have a great love for science fiction going back to my childhood. I’ve written a science fiction book — yes with space ships and aliens coming to Earth — aimed at the 8 to 12s. I’d very much like to get it published. I’d also like it to sell well. For that, I need a ready market. But is there one? And if so, why the dearth (or Darth?) of children’s sci-fi in bookshops and libraries?
Professor Midkiff’s research is US-based, but I suspect it mirrors the UK. She visited elementary school libraries throughout the US and discovered there was a low supply of science fiction books for children, but a high demand. She qualified that statement:
My own research into children’s publishing trends“In each library, only about 3% of the books were science fiction. I expected to see a corresponding low number of checkouts. Instead, the records showed that science fiction books were getting checked out more often per book than other genres. While realistic fiction books were checked out, on average, one to three times per book and fantasy books were checked out three to four times per book, science fiction books’ checkout numbers were as high as six times per book. These libraries may not have many science fiction books available, but the children seem to compensate by collectively checking out the available books more often.”
When I was researching my book, I spent some time talking to booksellers in my local Waterstones book shop. The head of the children’s department (who is also a reader for Waterstones Children’s Book Prize) was very helpful. She talked me through what sells, what doesn’t, what the current vogue is, how children shop, what adults buy for them, etc. It hadn’t occurred to me to share those findings before, but inspired by Professor Midkiff’s work, I thought it might be useful for others.
She told me there is not much science fiction out there. Fantasy still dominates. Time travel books seem to be particularly popular at the moment — but time travel in the sense that ‘it just happens by magic’, i.e. there’s no science in the fiction.
She did say, however, that booksellers like to be excited by something different. So if they receive large numbers of fantasy books to put on the shelves and tables, it can often be hard to push one over another. They are always hopeful of something different to get excited about and champion.
She also felt that there is an advantage to shorter books, which are part of an ongoing series. Bigger books tend to leave children bogged down. Better that they enjoy one book, finish it, and then look forward to the next one — as long as there isn’t a long wait until the next in the series is published. You don’t want to start a child on a series, only for them to have outgrown it by the time the next instalment comes out.
Crucially, it is parents who buy books for their kids, although kids say what they want. Interestingly, she had noted how boys, typically, were reluctant to buy a book with just a female protaganist. They didn’t mind girls as a protagonist per se, only that they were much more likely to want the book if there was at least one male protagonist who is approximately their own age.
They are also canny enough to know if the setup of the book doesn’t feel right. So if a ten-year-old boy goes off having adventures one morning without even telling his parents he’s leaving the house, that simply won’t ring true to the reader. There has to be a plausible reason for protagonists to be separated from parents/guardians, if that is what the story requires.
Often, it is the book cover that will sell the book to the kids, which I guess is no surprise. But the cover does also influence parents. If the cover doesn’t look educational, then they try to dissuade the child. Often parents will steer children to the books that they read when they were children (and which no doubt their own parents steered them towards), for example Enid Blyton.
This brings me nicely back to Professor Midkiff’s research. She believes that there isn’t much science fiction available because adults think children won’t be interested in it. Adults bring their own inherent prejudices to the genre. Professor Midkiff may well be right. Adults control what children in that age group read, as the Waterstones bookseller confirmed.
TV and films provide a more level playing field in terms of children’s access to content. The success of Disney’s Star Wars and Marvel output proves that there is an appetite for science fiction stories.
So demand is there, and when the inevitable breakthrough does emerge in the publishing sphere, I’m sure children will be delighted by the rip-roaring, adventurous, sometimes subversive and always mind-expanding stories that science fiction has to offer.
I completed my book earlier this year and have been trying to get literary agents to represent me. Any joy? Not yet. But it’s an ongoing mission. The people who have read it have been very positive. The lady from Waterstones gave me some excellent feedback. She even gave it a trial by fire by reading it to her young daughter, who’s genre preference is unicorns. The result: She actually liked it. Thank the maker!!
Writing this book was born from a deep desire to recreate the joy and wonder that I vividly remember from reading such books in my own childhood. Back then, I’d immerse myself in stories that took me to strange new worlds and made me think very differently about the one in which I was living in (which may or may not be the same one as everyone else??).
I’m desperate to continue the story, so I’m hoping that the tipping point in publishing is reached very soon and there’s a more obvious and hungry market for middle-grade science fiction. It may not be publishing’s final frontier, but it is long overdue to be re-discovered.
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June 23, 2022
Book Review: The Great Fox Illusion by Justyn Edwards
The Great Fox Illusion by Justyn Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a really fun book for children (aged 8 – 12), which delves into the world of international stage illusionists.
Thirteen-year-old Felicity (Flick) Lions makes a refreshing protagonist. She’s coming to terms with a horrific car crash in which she lost her leg, and the disappearance of her dad. The former informs her outlook during the book, and the latter drives the plot. She blames the Great Fox – a deceased master illusionist – for her father’s failed magic career and his subsequent disappearance.
The story has its roots in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The once reclusive, now dead, Great Fox has opened up his chamber of secrets for the first time to a group of children who are vying to succeed him. It also has shades of the excellent Now You See Me films.
Flick is on a quest to expose the fact that the Great Fox stole her father’s most amazing trick (the Bell System) and to reclaim it from the Fox’s mansion. To do that, she enters a reality TV show set inside the mansion, where she and her fellow contestants must figure out how certain well-known tricks were performed. She must deal with treachery, prejudice, and greed from her fellow child contestants as well as other (adult) vested interests who also want to get their hands on the Bell System.
The plotting and the pacing is excellent. This book is a page turner right to the end.
Nevertheless, the ending was (for me, as an adult reading the book) disappointing. The build up and the staging had promised much. It had been such a fun journey, so I couldn’t help feeling let down by an end which didn’t really pay off on the earlier setup.
It would be impossible to point to specifics, without giving away spoilers. I’ll simply say that I didn’t think Flick’s personal journey had a satisfying or convincing resolution, in terms of what she set out to achieve by entering the competition. Equally, the behaviour and reactions of the characters in the final chapters didn’t ring true, and the story elements that were used to create an exciting denouement felt contrived.
However, just to repeat, that was an adult’s perspective. I’ve been reading the story to my daughter. She’s maybe a shade too young for the target audience, but she’s really enjoying it. I read ahead to make sure it’s all suitable and it most definitely is. She keeps reading ahead though, too, because she wants to know how it was done. I’m sure Flick would approve 
View all my reviews
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May 13, 2022
Book Review: The Great Fox Illusion, by Justyn Edwards
The Great Fox Illusion by Justyn Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a really fun book for children (aged 8 – 12), which delves into the world of international stage illusionists.
Thirteen-year-old Felicity (Flick) Lions makes a refreshing protagonist. She’s coming to terms with a horrific car crash in which she lost her leg, and the disappearance of her dad. The former informs her outlook during the book, and the latter drives the plot. She blames the Great Fox – a deceased master illusionist – for her father’s failed magic career and his subsequent disappearance.
The story has its roots in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The once reclusive, now dead, Great Fox has opened up his chamber of secrets for the first time to a group of children who are vying to succeed him. It also has shades of the excellent Now You See Me films.
Flick is on a quest to expose the fact that the Great Fox stole her father’s most amazing trick (the Bell System) and to reclaim it from the Fox’s mansion. To do that, she enters a reality TV show set inside the mansion, where she and her fellow contestants must figure out how certain well-known tricks were performed. She must deal with treachery, prejudice, and greed from her fellow child contestants as well as other (adult) vested interests who also want to get their hands on the Bell System.
The plotting and the pacing is excellent. This book is a page turner right to the end.
Nevertheless, the ending was (for me, as an adult reading the book) disappointing. The build up and the staging had promised much. It had been such a fun journey, so I couldn’t help feeling let down by an end which didn’t really pay off on the earlier setup.
It would be impossible to point to specifics, without giving away spoilers. I’ll simply say that I didn’t think Flick’s personal journey had a satisfying or convincing resolution, in terms of what she set out to achieve by entering the competition. Equally, the behaviour and reactions of the characters in the final chapters didn’t ring true, and the story elements that were used to create an exciting denouement felt contrived.
However, just to repeat, that was an adult’s perspective. I’ve been reading the story to my daughter. She’s maybe a shade too young for the target audience, but she’s really enjoying it. I read ahead to make sure it’s all suitable and it most definitely is. She keeps reading ahead though, too, because she wants to know how it was done. I’m sure Flick would approve 🙂
The author has a great website, which supports the book and contains lots of fun multimedia stuff, including videos and a game. https://justynedwards.com/
View all my reviews
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March 8, 2022
Breaking News — What Happened in Witches Wood
Everyone loves a ghost story. Of course they do. The second book in the Class Heroes series, What Happened in Witches Wood, features the ghost of a teenage girl, found dead in the woods in the 1980s.
Katherine Bethany Blake was the aunt of our Class Heroes, Samantha and James Blake. When the twins visit their grandparents’ farmhouse in the Suffolk countryside, they learn that the rumours of their aunt’s ghost appear to be true.
Watch the news report on the supernatural shenanigans.
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September 22, 2021
Review of Scritti Politti ‘Cupid & Psyche 85’ gig in Norwich, 2021
In fact, we heard lots of fine words from Scritti Politti, all delivered in lead singer Green Gartside’s smooth, layered, melodic tones. The live music scene has been on its bottom for the past 18 months, so hundreds of us were desperate to get up and do something Covid-defying (safely, of course!) inside Norwich’s wonderfully atmospheric Waterfront venue — and we had an absolute blast.
At times it felt like we were inside the Top of the Pops studio circa 1985. There was something about the proximity to the stage, the lighting, the vibe, and of course the music.
Scritti were excellent. Green is now unrecognisable from the ‘playboy philosopher’ look of those many Smash Hits covers. There’s no luxuriant blonde locks and flowing white linen. He’s tall, bearded, and carries the same air of controlled manic creativity as actor Michael Sheen.
I had no idea what Green would be like. I’d half expected someone quite shy, but he had an excellent stage presence. His spoken delivery is quite reminiscent of Sheen, too, and so it was quite unexpected when he kicked off the set with The Sweetest Girl (1981), and his singing voice is completely unchanged from when the song was first released. I’d expected a gruffness to have developed in his voice, but if you closed your eyes you’d think it was the young Green singing.
They warmed up the audience with a couple of other Scritti hits, including 1988’s masterful Oh Patti (Don`t Feel Sorry For Loverboy), before kicking off the Cupid & Psyche 85 album with track 1 The Word Girl.
I’ve been a Scritti fan for many years, and played that album regularly, but there was something quite surreal about seeing/hearing it played live in its entirety. It was a joyous event, and I went with two friends who loved it every bit as much as I did. I’d almost forgotten how much joy there is to be had from watching one of your favourite bands get up and play.
Scritti delivered. The music and the vocals were perfect, and the audience gave the biggest cheers for the hits from the album, such as Absolute, Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin), Hypnotize and the previously mentioned The Word Girl.
I enjoyed support act Alexis Taylor (previously in Hot Chip), and his style of music was a natural fit with Scritti’s.
If I was to be nit-picky (it feels like I should, for the purposes of a balanced review), it was that when Scritti came back for the encore, they picked a Chic song that I’d never heard of to perform. I like Chic. But I’d have preferred something else from the Scritti catalogue, such as Overnite, Boom There She Was, Best Thing Ever, or Dr Abernathy. I’m not too familiar with Alexis Taylor’s work, apart from Hot Chip, but I believe he has produced a number of fun, quirky, floor filling tunes – but his performance and choice of songs felt strangely low key. I loved Ready for the Floor, and I suspect I’m not the only one who was hoping he would end with that killer tune.
Overall it was a great night out, and I’m delighted that my personal return to live music was in seeing a band who have always excelled at breathing new life into the music scene.
If you would like to see all the concert footage that I took on the night, you can watch it on this YouTube playlist:
Personal request: A new Scritti Politti album, please Green…?
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September 13, 2021
Praise for The Haunted Hotel movie
It’s always nice to receive praise. So thank you to the much-regarded Film Threat website who published a glowing review of The Haunted Hotel (2021 — streaming now on Amazon Prime Video).
As I’m sure you know (you didn’t??? 
) I wrote the script for the eighth and final tale in the film, and it’s called Devil Inside.
The reviewer describes Devil Inside as “a brilliant segment to end on, as it is satisfying, scary, and engaging“. I’ve missed out the bit where it says it’s the second best installment of the film.
Here’s the full review of the movie: https://filmthreat.com/reviews/the-haunted-hotel/
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June 8, 2021
The Ultimate Doctor Who / Duran Duran Mash Up — Doctor Who New Series Trailer
Duran Duran and Doctor Who — two of my great loves in life. It’s high time that the Whoniverse joined up with the Duraniverse. So here it is, the ultimate mashup. An imagined alternate universe, and the BBC have just dropped a trailer for the **BRAND NEW series of Doctor Who**. And there’s an incarnation of the Doctor that we didn’t know about. Not the War Doctor, but Le Bon Doctor, ie The Good Doctor.
If my younger self could have seen Simon Le Bon as the Doctor, my mind would have been blown.
This video was made by combining elements from some excellent, and very Who-y Duran Duran and Arcadia videos with Doctor Who. It was amazing how seamlessly they fitted together. From ghost ships, to Autons, to oppressive regimes; not to mention scary monsters, the invasion of Gallifrey, a suspiciously familiar face at the top of the Eiffel Tower and the similarity of one of Simon Le Bon’s outfits to that used by Matt Smith in Doctor Who.
So imagine you’re watching a DVD extra about a ‘lost season’ of Doctor Who. Here’s how the episodes would have unfolded. For those who like this sort of thing (and let’s be honest, if you’ve read down to this point you’re either someone who does, or one of my most loyal friends), I’ve also referenced the Duran/Arcadia videos that I used to make the trailer. I like to think that the song titles would have made suitable titles for their corresponding Doctor Who episodes. Maybe Big Finish will make them someday 
The Doctor finds himself out of time — quite literally — and trapped inside the Confession Dial. (Goodbye is Forever.)Escaping from the Confession Dial, and sure now that the Time Lords are responsible, the Doctor travels to Gallifrey. But the Time Lords have problems of their own. Their society has broken down and their cities have reverted to barbarism. (The Union of the Snake.)Wouldn’t you know it — it was Davros and the Daleks all along. The Tenth Doctor is still trapped in the time scoop, and all hell is let loose on Gallifrey. (The Wild Boys, and The Flame.)It’s a fight to the death inside the Matrix for the series finale. (Hungry Like The Wolf).I hope you enjoy the trailer.
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April 22, 2021
Behind-the-scenes footage on set of The Haunted Hotel movie (2021)
The Haunted Hotel (2021) movie, now screening on Amazon Prime Video and Google Play was shot almost entirely on the location at Ipswich’s Great White Horse Hotel. I was lucky enough to be on location during the filming and — if you follow this blog, you’ll know — was even able to have my cat Sookie be part of the movie.
I thought I’d post a short video of some photos and clips from when I was on set with the Film Suffolk production team. Suffolk is known for its many ghost stories, and The Great White Horse Hotel in Ipswich was the perfect location for filming eight macabre tales…
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