Female British SF TV Writing
There has been lots of discussion for a long while about the lack of female writers in Doctor Who. This has interested me in how it compares to other SF shows (particularly in the UK but also elsewhere). Is it a typical problem of the genre in the 21st Century or is Torchwood more the norm?
So to, start with I compiled the writers for all the 21st Century British SF* shows I could find and compiled them together. Of the 41 shows I could find information on, they could easily be divided into 3 categories:
*By this I don't just restrict to Science Fiction, I also count Supernatural Fiction, Serial Fantasy, Speculative Fiction etc. You know what I mean, I'm sure
Notes
Shows are only counted if 3 or more episodes were broadcast
Only full length episodes are included in the counts
I cannot find writer information for The Magician's House (season 2) or Ar@chnid.
1. All Male
Almost two-thirds of these shows were entirely male written. I have listed them below:
EDIT: Apologies for all the tables being unformatted. The post was too large otherwise
EDIT: Realised I forgot to include Lost in Austen in the counts, it has now been updated.
Show Number of Episodes
The Sarah Jane Adventures 47
My Hero 44
Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet 26
The Mighty Boosh 21
Sea of Souls 20
Afterlife 14
Psychoville 14
The League of Gentlemen 13
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) 13
Misfits 13
Hyperdrive 12
The Strangerers 9
Trinity 8
Strange 7
Stig of the Dump 6
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace 6
Time Trumpet 6
Jekyll 6
No Heroics 6
Spooks: Code 9 6
Bedlam 6
Dead Set 5
The Deep 5
Marchlands 5
Gormenghast 4
Eleventh Hour 4
Lost In Austen 4
I Was A Rat 3
Fungus The Bogeyman 3
Red Dwarf: Back To Earth 3
Total 339
2. Less Than One
3 shows fall into this category. These are shows which had less than one episode penned by a woman per season and all those episodes to be written by a single writer. These shows are:
Doctor Who
Number of Episodes: 80
Number of Female Written: 4
Female Writers: 1 (Helen Raynor)
Merlin
Number of Episodes: 39
Number of Female Written: 2
Female Writers: 1 (Lucy Watkins)
Life on Mars
Number of Episodes: 16
Number of Female Written: 1
Female Writers: 1 (Julie Rutterford)
On these shows, there are few things that can be said:
*They all started out as entirely male with the female writer writing in later seasons
*These are 3 of the top 5 highest rated (on average) British genre TV shows of the 21st Century (the others being Marchlands and Ashes to Ashes)
*The writers have all written for other SF shows
3. Top Ten
10 shows fit into this category. These are shows which have over 10% of their episodes being female written. I will look at these in more detail. They are list in ascending order by % of episodes penned by women:
10. Primeval
Number of Episodes: 37
Number of Male\Female Written: 32.5/4.5
%Female Penned: 12.2%
Female Writers: 6 (Bev Doyle, Caroline Ip, Catherine Linstrum, Debbie Oates, Gabbie Asher, Helen Raynor)
Now Primeval is a rather unusual case. On the one hand it has the most different female writers, as well as the six female writers listed above, it also had the Series 4 Webisodes written by Sarah Dollard (Primeval script editor and former Merlin assistant script editor). On the other, most of these episodes were co-written by men and almost all of the female writers only wrote one episodes [the exception being Bev Doyle in partnership with Richard Kurti]. For Caroline Ip, Catherine Linstrum and Gabbie Asher this is there only real entry into the SF genre, being more well-known for “real world” drama writing.
=6. Survivors
Number of Episodes: 12
Number of Male\Female Written: 10/2
%Female Penned: 16.7%
Female Writers: 1 (Gaby Chiappe)
Gaby Chiappe wrote one episode per season of this short-lived Terry Nation remake\adaptation. It would appear at first that Chiappe is an odd choice for an SF writer, being better known for writing Medical Drama and Lark Rise to Candleford. However, she has stated she was a fan of the original and that was why she was excited to work on it.
=6. Ashes To Ashes
Number of Episodes: 24
Number of Male\Female Written: 20/4
%Female Penned: 16.7%
Female Writers: 2 (Julie Rutterford, Nicole Taylor)
Improving on its predecessor, this Life on Mars sequel retained Julie Rutterford who wrote an episode for each season and also had one penned by Nicole Taylor. Whilst Julie Rutterford also wrote for Life on Mars, the Gene Hunt stories are the only SF shows either of them have worked on, both being established drama writers.
=6. Robin Hood
Number of Episodes: 39
Number of Male\Female Written: 32.5/6.5
%Female Penned: 16.7%
Female Writers: 4 (Bev Doyle, Debbie Oates, Lisa Holdsworth, Holly Philips)
This show had three episodes penned by genre stalwart Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle, and another two by Primeval writer Debbie Oates. It also marks the only entries into the genre for Lisa Holdsworth (Emmerdale, Waterloo Road, New Tricks) and Holly Philips (Dead Georgeous, Nearly Famous, Sugar Rush) although the latter provided additional material for Trinity.
=6. Terry Pratchett's Discworld
Number of Episodes: 6
Number of Male\Female Written: 5/1
%Female Penned: 16.7%
Female Writers: 1 (Bev Doyle)
Whilst both Hogfather and the Colour of Magic were adapted by Vadim Jean, for Going Postal the task was given to writing team Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle. Originally working together on the quasi-Arthurian Seaview Knights they have become one of the major genre writing teams, working on Robin Hood, Primeval, Going Postal, The Lost Future and the upcoming adaptation of the Jungle Book.
5. Being Human
Number of Episodes: 23
Number of Male\Female Written: 18/5
%Female Penned: 21.7%
Female Writers: 4 (Lisa McGee, Rachel Anthony, Lucy Catherine, Sarah Phelps)
Being Human is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it has the highest number of female writers writing alone of any UK series. Secondly, once the episode’s written by the showrunner (Whithouse) are discounted the male\female episode ratio is almost equal (6-5). Thirdly, all these female writers have not worked on any other genre show with backgrounds in “real world” drama.
4. Torchwood
Number of Episodes: 31
Number of Male\Female Written: 24/7
%Female Penned: 22.6%
Female Writers: 3 (Catherine Treganna, Helen Raynor, Jacquetta May)
Torchwood is the longest running show in the top 5 and has had a high number of female writers from the beginning. Indeed the % is over a quarter for the first two seasons, but the total is reduced by the entirely male penned Children of Earth. The writers themselves are a curious mix. While Treganna wrote the most episodes for the show (and was indeed Hugo nominated) her main interest seems to be legal drama and she has not returned to SF. Helen Raynor got her first full writing job here and has since continued to write British SF (Doctor Who, Primeval). Jacquetta May had done more work as an actress than as a writer and continues to do so.
3. Demons
Number of Episodes: 6
Number of Male\Female Written: 4/2
%Female Penned: 33.3%
Female Writers: 1 (Lucy Watkins)
This short lived series had three episodes written by showrunner Peter Tabern, one by Howard Overman, and two by major female SF writer Lucy Watkins.
2. Hex
Number of Episodes: 19
Number of Male\Female Written: 9/10
%Female Penned: 52.6%
Female Writers: 1 (Lucy Watkins)
One of only two 21st Century SF British shows to have over half the episodes penned by a woman. Hex was the first TV writing role for Lucy Watkins. Where she wrote half the episodes for the first season with Julian Jones (having previously worked together on As If) and over 50% in the second season. As well as working on acclaimed LGBT dramas Sugar Rush and Sinchronicity, she continued to write SF on Demons and Merlin.
1. Paradox
Number of Episodes: 5
Number of Male\Female Written: 1/4
%Female Penned: 80%
Female Writers: 1 (Lizzie Mickery)
Created more as an unusual crime drama than as a science fiction series, all but one episode was written by Lizzie Mickery making it easily the most female penned British SF show of the 21st Century. Mickery is an established TV writer outside of SF, particularly in Crime and Conspiracy (Messiah, The 39 Steps, Dirty War).
Overall
Total Episodes Male Female %M %F
676 623 53 92.2% 7.8%
United States
I thought it might be useful to compare this to shows from abroad. Rather than look at every import (as that would take forever), I have listed below the top 40 shows in terms of highest single UK broadcast:
Show
Male
Female
The Bionic Woman
4
4
Pushing Daisies
12.42
9.58
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
47.83
31.17
True Blood
23
13
The Vampire Diaries
28.17
15.83
Charmed
95.44
52.56
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
20.5
10.5
Roswell
40.8
20.2
Dark Angel
30
13
Supernatural
88.5
37.5
Flashforward
15.67
6.33
Smallville
158.42
58.58
Camelot
7.58
2.42
Jericho
22.5
6.5
Andromeda
86.17
23.83
Angel
80.08
19.92
Battlestar Galactica
62.5
14.5
The Event
18.18
3.82
Lost
104
17
Farscape
78.67
11.33
Heroes
70.66
9.33
3rd Rock From The Sun
30
4
Fringe
57.25
6.75
Star Trek: Voyager
35.92
4.08
The 4400
40
4
Star Trek: Enterprise
90.27
7.73
Stargate Universe
37
3
Kingdom Hospital
12.5
0.5
Stargate SG-1
148.5
5.5
Game of Thrones
9.67
0.33
Futurama
98.5
2.5
The X-Files
46
1
Stargate Atlantis
98.67
1.33
Dinotopia
3
0
God, The Devil and Bob
13
0
Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire*
6
0
Taken
10
0
The Prisoner*
6
0
The Tenth Kingdom
9
0
The Walking Dead
5
0
Total
1851.37
421.62
*Whist technically Anglo-North American Co-Productions I have counted them as imports as they first premiered in the US
Notes:
These are only for episodes first broadcast after 1/1/2000
I worked on this over the course of a week so some shows may have broadcast new episodes since I began
Topline
Total Episodes Male Female %M %F
2273 1851.38 451.62 81.5% 18.5%
Comparison
So how do they compare. At a top line level it certainly appears US SF has a higher number of female writers with 18% of the above episodes penned by women, compared with less than 8% in the UK. There are also more established genre writers in the US with recurring figures like Jane Espenson, Toni Graphi, Thania St John and Doris Egan.
However, it could also be argued, however, that the comparison isn’t fair, as US shows tend have longer runs. This can be seen to some extent with the fact that all the entirely male written shows (and a further 2 under 5%) have had 13 episodes or less in their run. As in the UK, the extreme also works at the other end with The Bionic Woman and Pushing Daisies’s relatively short runs having the highest % of female penmanship.
One other factor of note is that older shows and longer-run-franchises seem to tend to have fewer women writing for them, e.g. Star Trek, Stargate, The X-Files.
I am probably not the most knowledgeable person on the TV industry so I will leave it up to you to analyse what I have posted here.
Please give me your thoughts, opinions, corrections and (constructive) criticisms.
So to, start with I compiled the writers for all the 21st Century British SF* shows I could find and compiled them together. Of the 41 shows I could find information on, they could easily be divided into 3 categories:
*By this I don't just restrict to Science Fiction, I also count Supernatural Fiction, Serial Fantasy, Speculative Fiction etc. You know what I mean, I'm sure
Notes
Shows are only counted if 3 or more episodes were broadcast
Only full length episodes are included in the counts
I cannot find writer information for The Magician's House (season 2) or Ar@chnid.
1. All Male
Almost two-thirds of these shows were entirely male written. I have listed them below:
EDIT: Apologies for all the tables being unformatted. The post was too large otherwise
EDIT: Realised I forgot to include Lost in Austen in the counts, it has now been updated.
Show Number of Episodes
The Sarah Jane Adventures 47
My Hero 44
Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet 26
The Mighty Boosh 21
Sea of Souls 20
Afterlife 14
Psychoville 14
The League of Gentlemen 13
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) 13
Misfits 13
Hyperdrive 12
The Strangerers 9
Trinity 8
Strange 7
Stig of the Dump 6
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace 6
Time Trumpet 6
Jekyll 6
No Heroics 6
Spooks: Code 9 6
Bedlam 6
Dead Set 5
The Deep 5
Marchlands 5
Gormenghast 4
Eleventh Hour 4
Lost In Austen 4
I Was A Rat 3
Fungus The Bogeyman 3
Red Dwarf: Back To Earth 3
Total 339
2. Less Than One
3 shows fall into this category. These are shows which had less than one episode penned by a woman per season and all those episodes to be written by a single writer. These shows are:
Doctor Who
Number of Episodes: 80
Number of Female Written: 4
Female Writers: 1 (Helen Raynor)
Merlin
Number of Episodes: 39
Number of Female Written: 2
Female Writers: 1 (Lucy Watkins)
Life on Mars
Number of Episodes: 16
Number of Female Written: 1
Female Writers: 1 (Julie Rutterford)
On these shows, there are few things that can be said:
*They all started out as entirely male with the female writer writing in later seasons
*These are 3 of the top 5 highest rated (on average) British genre TV shows of the 21st Century (the others being Marchlands and Ashes to Ashes)
*The writers have all written for other SF shows
3. Top Ten
10 shows fit into this category. These are shows which have over 10% of their episodes being female written. I will look at these in more detail. They are list in ascending order by % of episodes penned by women:
10. Primeval
Number of Episodes: 37
Number of Male\Female Written: 32.5/4.5
%Female Penned: 12.2%
Female Writers: 6 (Bev Doyle, Caroline Ip, Catherine Linstrum, Debbie Oates, Gabbie Asher, Helen Raynor)
Now Primeval is a rather unusual case. On the one hand it has the most different female writers, as well as the six female writers listed above, it also had the Series 4 Webisodes written by Sarah Dollard (Primeval script editor and former Merlin assistant script editor). On the other, most of these episodes were co-written by men and almost all of the female writers only wrote one episodes [the exception being Bev Doyle in partnership with Richard Kurti]. For Caroline Ip, Catherine Linstrum and Gabbie Asher this is there only real entry into the SF genre, being more well-known for “real world” drama writing.
=6. Survivors
Number of Episodes: 12
Number of Male\Female Written: 10/2
%Female Penned: 16.7%
Female Writers: 1 (Gaby Chiappe)
Gaby Chiappe wrote one episode per season of this short-lived Terry Nation remake\adaptation. It would appear at first that Chiappe is an odd choice for an SF writer, being better known for writing Medical Drama and Lark Rise to Candleford. However, she has stated she was a fan of the original and that was why she was excited to work on it.
=6. Ashes To Ashes
Number of Episodes: 24
Number of Male\Female Written: 20/4
%Female Penned: 16.7%
Female Writers: 2 (Julie Rutterford, Nicole Taylor)
Improving on its predecessor, this Life on Mars sequel retained Julie Rutterford who wrote an episode for each season and also had one penned by Nicole Taylor. Whilst Julie Rutterford also wrote for Life on Mars, the Gene Hunt stories are the only SF shows either of them have worked on, both being established drama writers.
=6. Robin Hood
Number of Episodes: 39
Number of Male\Female Written: 32.5/6.5
%Female Penned: 16.7%
Female Writers: 4 (Bev Doyle, Debbie Oates, Lisa Holdsworth, Holly Philips)
This show had three episodes penned by genre stalwart Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle, and another two by Primeval writer Debbie Oates. It also marks the only entries into the genre for Lisa Holdsworth (Emmerdale, Waterloo Road, New Tricks) and Holly Philips (Dead Georgeous, Nearly Famous, Sugar Rush) although the latter provided additional material for Trinity.
=6. Terry Pratchett's Discworld
Number of Episodes: 6
Number of Male\Female Written: 5/1
%Female Penned: 16.7%
Female Writers: 1 (Bev Doyle)
Whilst both Hogfather and the Colour of Magic were adapted by Vadim Jean, for Going Postal the task was given to writing team Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle. Originally working together on the quasi-Arthurian Seaview Knights they have become one of the major genre writing teams, working on Robin Hood, Primeval, Going Postal, The Lost Future and the upcoming adaptation of the Jungle Book.
5. Being Human
Number of Episodes: 23
Number of Male\Female Written: 18/5
%Female Penned: 21.7%
Female Writers: 4 (Lisa McGee, Rachel Anthony, Lucy Catherine, Sarah Phelps)
Being Human is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it has the highest number of female writers writing alone of any UK series. Secondly, once the episode’s written by the showrunner (Whithouse) are discounted the male\female episode ratio is almost equal (6-5). Thirdly, all these female writers have not worked on any other genre show with backgrounds in “real world” drama.
4. Torchwood
Number of Episodes: 31
Number of Male\Female Written: 24/7
%Female Penned: 22.6%
Female Writers: 3 (Catherine Treganna, Helen Raynor, Jacquetta May)
Torchwood is the longest running show in the top 5 and has had a high number of female writers from the beginning. Indeed the % is over a quarter for the first two seasons, but the total is reduced by the entirely male penned Children of Earth. The writers themselves are a curious mix. While Treganna wrote the most episodes for the show (and was indeed Hugo nominated) her main interest seems to be legal drama and she has not returned to SF. Helen Raynor got her first full writing job here and has since continued to write British SF (Doctor Who, Primeval). Jacquetta May had done more work as an actress than as a writer and continues to do so.
3. Demons
Number of Episodes: 6
Number of Male\Female Written: 4/2
%Female Penned: 33.3%
Female Writers: 1 (Lucy Watkins)
This short lived series had three episodes written by showrunner Peter Tabern, one by Howard Overman, and two by major female SF writer Lucy Watkins.
2. Hex
Number of Episodes: 19
Number of Male\Female Written: 9/10
%Female Penned: 52.6%
Female Writers: 1 (Lucy Watkins)
One of only two 21st Century SF British shows to have over half the episodes penned by a woman. Hex was the first TV writing role for Lucy Watkins. Where she wrote half the episodes for the first season with Julian Jones (having previously worked together on As If) and over 50% in the second season. As well as working on acclaimed LGBT dramas Sugar Rush and Sinchronicity, she continued to write SF on Demons and Merlin.
1. Paradox
Number of Episodes: 5
Number of Male\Female Written: 1/4
%Female Penned: 80%
Female Writers: 1 (Lizzie Mickery)
Created more as an unusual crime drama than as a science fiction series, all but one episode was written by Lizzie Mickery making it easily the most female penned British SF show of the 21st Century. Mickery is an established TV writer outside of SF, particularly in Crime and Conspiracy (Messiah, The 39 Steps, Dirty War).
Overall
Total Episodes Male Female %M %F
676 623 53 92.2% 7.8%
United States
I thought it might be useful to compare this to shows from abroad. Rather than look at every import (as that would take forever), I have listed below the top 40 shows in terms of highest single UK broadcast:
Show
Male
Female
The Bionic Woman
4
4
Pushing Daisies
12.42
9.58
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
47.83
31.17
True Blood
23
13
The Vampire Diaries
28.17
15.83
Charmed
95.44
52.56
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
20.5
10.5
Roswell
40.8
20.2
Dark Angel
30
13
Supernatural
88.5
37.5
Flashforward
15.67
6.33
Smallville
158.42
58.58
Camelot
7.58
2.42
Jericho
22.5
6.5
Andromeda
86.17
23.83
Angel
80.08
19.92
Battlestar Galactica
62.5
14.5
The Event
18.18
3.82
Lost
104
17
Farscape
78.67
11.33
Heroes
70.66
9.33
3rd Rock From The Sun
30
4
Fringe
57.25
6.75
Star Trek: Voyager
35.92
4.08
The 4400
40
4
Star Trek: Enterprise
90.27
7.73
Stargate Universe
37
3
Kingdom Hospital
12.5
0.5
Stargate SG-1
148.5
5.5
Game of Thrones
9.67
0.33
Futurama
98.5
2.5
The X-Files
46
1
Stargate Atlantis
98.67
1.33
Dinotopia
3
0
God, The Devil and Bob
13
0
Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire*
6
0
Taken
10
0
The Prisoner*
6
0
The Tenth Kingdom
9
0
The Walking Dead
5
0
Total
1851.37
421.62
*Whist technically Anglo-North American Co-Productions I have counted them as imports as they first premiered in the US
Notes:
These are only for episodes first broadcast after 1/1/2000
I worked on this over the course of a week so some shows may have broadcast new episodes since I began
Topline
Total Episodes Male Female %M %F
2273 1851.38 451.62 81.5% 18.5%
Comparison
So how do they compare. At a top line level it certainly appears US SF has a higher number of female writers with 18% of the above episodes penned by women, compared with less than 8% in the UK. There are also more established genre writers in the US with recurring figures like Jane Espenson, Toni Graphi, Thania St John and Doris Egan.
However, it could also be argued, however, that the comparison isn’t fair, as US shows tend have longer runs. This can be seen to some extent with the fact that all the entirely male written shows (and a further 2 under 5%) have had 13 episodes or less in their run. As in the UK, the extreme also works at the other end with The Bionic Woman and Pushing Daisies’s relatively short runs having the highest % of female penmanship.
One other factor of note is that older shows and longer-run-franchises seem to tend to have fewer women writing for them, e.g. Star Trek, Stargate, The X-Files.
I am probably not the most knowledgeable person on the TV industry so I will leave it up to you to analyse what I have posted here.
Please give me your thoughts, opinions, corrections and (constructive) criticisms.