In My Own Words

In My Own Words – BBC One – Val McDermidIn My Own Words

This documentary will be shown on BBC1 – November 4th, at 10:45pm.

If you can’t wait, you can catch it on iPlayer now.

In her own words, ‘Queen of Crime’ Val McDermid reflects on her colourful writing career with unapologetic honesty and a black sense of humour. Val opens up about the real-life inspirations behind her award-winning novels, which have sold 20 million copies around the world.

Val was eight when the East Wemyss coal mine near her home in Fife caught fire. The disaster, which cost the lives of nine men, gave her an early understanding of fear and loss.

And she reveals how her childhood habit of telling scary stories to her friends in the seaside caves near her home started her on the path of making up frightening tales.

After becoming the first student from a Scottish state school to enter St Hilda’s College, Oxford, Val became a journalist, working for the legendary Scottish tabloid the Daily Record, and later, the Daily Mirror Group, on the northern desk of the Sunday People. Val tells how her colourful career as a reporter included being beaten up by 80s wrestling legend Big Daddy, as well as an unsettling encounter with Jimmy Savile – a meeting that inspired one of her most notorious villains.

Val explores how her harrowing experiences covering tragedies like Lockerbie and Hillsborough finally pushed her to leave tabloid journalism in 1991 and pursue fiction writing full-time.

When Val started out, British crime fiction often seemed excessively middle-class and polite to her. She was determined to do something different, writing punchy and contemporary crime fiction that would draw on her journalistic background.

Val believes that the crime fiction genre can hold a mirror up to society: ‘I want to write a novel that people will enjoy but will also give them pause,’ she says.

Val reflects on the creation of her most iconic characters, from psychological profiler Tony Hill to tenacious cold-case cop Karen Pirie, and discusses how being adapted for the small screen supercharged her career.

Despite having written over 40 books, Val says she isn’t ready to put down her pen: ‘As long as the ideas are still there, as long as the passion and enthusiasm is still there, I’ll be writing. And what else would I do?’