Assignment 6 - Screenplays - What remains

"What remains" is a BBC crime drama staring David Threlfall as detective Len Harper who is on his last job which involves old human remain found in a attic in a apartment block. This makes the story develop into a whodunit; but as always the story we see on screen isn't always the one that was intended on paper. The screenplay and story for this program was written by Tony Basgallop but as always changes are made after the screenplay is written and even during the filming itself; these changes can be made due to budgetary reasons, on the spot ideas on dialogue or even if something is seen as unsuitable or possibly offense. In the screenplay to "What remains" I have identified three separate changes from the script to screen translation and the possible reasons behind it but there is frequent changes to dialogue and this is usually down to the actors or the director.

Change 1: In the scene where Len Harper is investigating and knocking on peoples door and asking questions, he knocks on the door of teenager Adam who is in his dads flat waiting for his girlfriend. In the screenplay the scene carries on after the door is closed on Harper and goes on in
to this.

While in the program in ends with the door closed, this might have been done because they might not have wanted to make this character look suspicious at this time or it might be because of the sexual content being implied as this might have offended people considering the age of the characters. Also this scene was put into a different order to the screenplay in addition to the program.

Change 2: Another change is when the character "Peggy" is coming back to the flats from a shopping trip; in the screenplay she approaches the apartment block and see's a body bag being loaded into a van and she even talks to a neighbour and asks what is happening and is responded with, " Human remains, that’s all they’re telling us." She then quickly turns around and walks away. In the final cut she doesn't talk to a neighbour and doesn't see a body loaded into a van. She just simply turns around and walks away. This might have been done to give it better pace or it might have been just to give the scene more mystery.

Change 3: Just after the scene where Joe watches Michael leave in his car, in the program it instantly cuts to Joe and Len in a interview view. In the screenplay it has a whole scene before hand where Len comes into work and there has been a shooting and it's busy and Len gets a phone call that Joe has come in to talk and Len has trouble getting him into a room, this whole section was cut out of the final product; probably because they had to keep the program under an hour and they felt that cutting out that particular section wouldn't detract anything from the story.