I wasn’t setting out to write a documentary; if I had, I would have done it in a completely different way. I was asked to write a drama that would appeal to a big audience in America that had no knowledge or interest in The Tudors at all. Michael Hirst Read Quote
Everything in ‘The Tudors’ is initially based on my historical research, and the fact is that the most unlikely scenes were the ones which were probably most based on reality. I prefer to be as real as possible, and there is so much of that story that you just can’t make up. Michael Hirst Read Quote
You have to create characters – certainly in series TV – who people engage with. They don’t have to be nice; you don’t have to agree with them. But they do have to be compulsively watchable and believable and human, and you want to know what happens to them. Michael Hirst Read Quote
When you’re a screenwriter working on a film, you’re not really even welcome on set, even if you know… When I wrote ‘Elizabeth’ and Shekhar Kapur was a friend of mine, but I wasn’t really welcome on set, because the director is God and it’s a very difficult position for a screenwriter who’s put so much passion into that, into the writing. Michael Hirst Read Quote
I couldn’t give ‘Vikings’ away – I mean, I love these people. And I’m not sure anyone else writing it would necessarily have the same feeling towards the characters that I do. Michael Hirst Read Quote
People offer me loads of stuff, and some of it I like, but I just can’t do it because I can’t write it all. So I might get in the position where I have some sort of company and just write maybe the first episode, but these are love projects, in a way. Michael Hirst Read Quote
TV drama – not always, but on the whole – were pretty appalling and very secondary, too. No one expected it to be like watching a movie; that was the point. But I think when you start watching ‘Vikings,’ it is like watching a movie – you’re taken somewhere else. Michael Hirst Read Quote
With ‘Vikings,’ I had the task of making these people interesting and, to a point, sympathetic. Michael Hirst Read Quote
When I did ‘The Tudors,’ there was massive information available and a ready-made market. Michael Hirst Read Quote
If you’re in America or Europe, walk for three blocks, and you’ll pass about 14 Vikings. Their reach was immense. Michael Hirst Read Quote
