Former Eastenders Executive Producer Diederick Santer and scriptwriter for The Archers and Ambridge Extra Keri Davies discuss writing and production with the biggest soaps on TV and radio.
Relationships between writers and producers can be difficult as well as creative -find out more about what goes on behind the scenes to bring you Albert Square and Ambridge.
Diederick produced EastEnders for 3 years, creating new characters such as the Masoods and the Mitchell Sisters, while also bringing back favourites Ricky and Bianca. He also oversaw the show’s live 25th anniversary episode. Keri made a gambler out of Alistair Lloyd and killed Sid Perks (although he was only following orders).
Diederick Santer is Managing Director of Lovely Day, the drama production company he founded in 2010. He graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in Psychology and the History of Philosophy of Science. His TV career began as a freelance script reader for United Productions before becoming script editor on the first two series of Where The Heart Is. At Granada, he script-edited the first two series of A&E and The Last Train. He joined BBC Drama in 2000, where he developed and produced the first three series of Debbie Horsfield’s hit hairdressing drama, Cutting It. Diederick produced a number of other dramas for BBC including a 2006 production of Jane Eyre which was a huge audience and critical hit, gaining nine Emmy nominations. From 2006 until 2010 he was executive producer, EastEnders, creating numerous characters and stories, overseeing hundreds of episodes, devising the ground-breaking online spinoff E20, and delivering the live 25th anniversary episode. During his years at EastEnders the show won every major TV award, including the BAFTA. In 2010 he left BBC and joined forces with Kudos and Shine to set up Lovely Day, his own drama production company.
In 1992, Keri Davies tumbled through a rift in the space-time continuum into the fictional village of Ambridge. Since then, he’s been unable to escape The Archers, not that he’s tried very hard. He’s now the longest-serving production team member of the world’s longest-running soap, which is a lot of running.
In 2003, he gave up his role as senior producer to become the programme’s web producer, and to write scripts for the show. He has directed over 700 episodes, including the notorious raid on the village shop, and written nearly 300, including the one in which Brian Aldridge was compared to Dan Dare’s arch-enemy the Mekon.
He was also on the team that established The Archers’ sister programme Ambridge Extra, and wrote scripts for the first three series. Keri lives in Birmingham with his three sons and in his limited spare time is a drummer and DJ.
