James Graham on drama and constitutional turmoil, Jeff Pope on A Confession, The literary arts and The Troubles

Playwright James Graham, author of Brexit: the Uncivil War and The Coalition, talks about making drama out of a constitutional crisis and how soon is too soon to begin fictionalising current political events.

Jeff Pope’s writing credits include a number of high-profile factual TV dramas for ITV including Pierrepoint and See No Evil: The Moors Murders, as well as Philomena and Stan & Ollie for the big screen. The writer and producer discusses his new ITV drama series A Confession, starring Martin Freeman, about the murder of 22-year-old Sian O’Callaghan in Swindon in 2011.

James and Jeff also discuss the ups and downs of television drama trailers.

Fifty years after British troops arrived on the streets of Belfast and Londonderry in an attempt to quell disorder which seemed to be taking Northern Ireland towards civil war, writers Sinead Gleeson and Glenn Patterson discuss the way in which The Troubles have been presented across the arts, especially in literature and on film