Writer learned her craft on ‘The Street'

Press, 19 April 1989, Page 18

Writer learned her craft on ‘The Street'

Janey Pregar used to fantasise about being a ballerina or film star, but deep down, she recalls, "I was really just a boring little girl who never wanted to do anything but write.”

In her first attempt to break into television, she sent a comedy script to Granada. It was never shown, but the people there must have seen something in the writing, because they hired her to join their stable of writers for "Coronation Street."

She stayed there for two years. “It was brilliant, very good discipline, and it taught me the craft of TV writing,” she says.

Since then her career has flourished, with several 8.8. C. drama productions to her credit, and a successful track record as one of Britain’s few female comedy writers. Her new comedy, "No Frills,” screening at 7 p.m. on One, deals with the daily clashes between

three generations of strong-willed women living under the same roof Preger is a fast writer — "I have a low boredom threshold" — although she finds writing comedy much more exacting then drama.

"Comedy, it it works well, seems effortless. The more effortless it seems on screen, the harder it is to write."

But isolation, the writer’s curse, is less of a problem when writing for TV than when writing books, she says.

“Writing for TV gives you the best of both worlds. Long periods of churning the stuff out on the typewriter, and then the nice bit, when it goes into production. “That’s when you get the chance to meet everyone, and see the thing being done. That's the really exciting bit — and the bit which makes all the hard work seem worth while."