Damien Mullen MA TV Fiction Writing

I was writing my dissertation for an MA in TV Fiction Writing at GCU when I was approached to write a script for the prestigious A Play, a Pie and a Pint series. I was overwhelmed but it is the biggest opportunity for new writing talent in Scotland so I just had to go for it. It was my ambition to write for the series by the time I was 30 or 40 so to have my play Hameldaeme performed at the age of 26 – I just can’t believe it.

I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I left school and had been working in a supermarket when I realised it wasn’t for me, now’s the time. So I chose an undergraduate degree in Media and Communications at GCU as it challenged me to use my mind and be creative. It was a great programme and laid the foundations for my career. While working on the programme’s TV modules I met a lecturer on the MA TV Fiction Writing programme, and we clicked.

I have always been interested in writing comedy and I had done stand up, so I looked at the programme and the people who had completed it but I thought I just don’t have the experience even to apply. However, in my final year I had to write a script and that was a wake-up call. I knew this was what I was meant to do. I was dumbfounded to get onto the MA TV Fiction Writing programme and be awarded a Warner Bros. scholarship – it was incredible not just to have that funding but to have the support of the world’s finest entertainment company.

The programme is unbelievable. It is TV 101 – and you are learning from some of the country’s most experienced writers. There is so much support from a team who want you to do well and there is so much work and industry input. At the end we wrote a spec script, which becomes a calling card for the industry.

Seeing my work staged for A Play,a Pie and a Pint feels magical, though it is exhausting and a whirlwind.

If you’re sitting in a job that’s not for you wishing you could be writing, this is the programme that makes you see there is a reason you’re here and that you will be shown how to achieve your dream. You won’t get a better opportunity anywhere.