Meet Cork girl Kate O’Riordan, executive producer and writer of TV show Mr Selfridge

London-based Irish novelist Kate O’Riordan is one of the chief screenwriters on the hit ITV-PBS show Mr Selfridge, says Conor Power.

THE TV show Mr Selfridge has returned for a third series. A joint production between Britain’s ITV channel and America’s PBS, Mr Selfridge has become a huge success: it is shown in 99 countries, and had viewing figures of 6.5m for the second series.

One of Mr Selfridge’s writers — she is also an executive producer — is an Irishwoman, West Cork novelist and screenwriter, Kate O’Riordan.

“I suppose that I have been writing since I was born,” she says from her home in London, where she has been living for two decades.

“Writing for short-story competitions, writing plays for the class to perform at Christmas, and that sort of thing,” she says.

O’Riordan began her professional life with West Cork Travel, in her native Bantry, before moving to London and becoming an airline sales manager.

She wrote in her spare time: “Sometimes, the best way into writing is to be doing something completely different.”

After a few of her short stories were published in literary magazines, her 1995 debut novel, Involved, won the Sunday Tribune Hennessy emerging-writer prize. The book was also nominated for the Dillon’s first novel prize.

This brought her national recognition and an agent (which is harder for a writer to get nowadays) and a publisher. She was still working the day job and had a young son.

“I worked whenever I got a chance and mostly at night and on weekends,” she says.

O’Riordan’s career path since has been smooth. She has published five novels and is working on a sixth. She is a household name in British television, having written for various projects before Mr Selfridge.

Her success is down to a mixture of hard work and good fortune.

“It’s always a mix… always. There was definitely hard work, because you’re just not going to get published, or get TV adaptations done, unless you work very very hard.

“But because you’re working very hard, it means that you’re meeting different people and one thing leads to another and, after a while, those people will call your agent and say ‘Listen; would Kate be interested in such-and-such a project’?”

Which does she prefer — writing novels or writing for the television?

“It’s really tough to say: I’ve just finished writing one (novel) and it won’t be out until 2016. I really like that work, because it’s satisfying and solitary work, until your agent and publisher get involved. But, then, the nice thing about TV is that it’s very collaborative.

"For Mr Selfridge, for example, there’s a bunch of us in a room before anything gets done, and we’re sort-of eating far too many sticky buns and drinking tea and throwing ideas out there.

“That’s the fun bit — it really is a laugh! That’s where we get the seeds for the series. All of that is done by group and then you go off and do your individual episode.

"Then, it’s back to the group again — pulling the episode apart and seeing how it matches in with the others. I love all that process, but, equally, when I’ve had enough of that, I love to get in a room and it’s just me and my book.”

The team of writers on Mr Selfridge has, she says, become “a tight bunch”, although there are arguments, too. “That’s all part of the process; we’re all very passionate about different characters and where the direction of the show should go.”

The main characters — the stalwarts such as Mr Selfridge and his family, as well as the heads of departments — are written into the show by Andrew Davies, the series creator.

O’Riordan and her fellow writers then add characters — some who stay on and some who appear and disappear. Selfridge head of fashion, Miss Ravillious (played by Anna Madeley), was one of O’Riordan’s creations.

O’Riordan got the job after working with ITV for a drama called The Return, with Julie Walters.

“They called me in one day about Mr Selfridge. They gave me the biography, by Lindy Woodhead, that it’s based on. I read it and immediately thought that it was made for TV and that I’d love to be part of it.

“His whole life was just larger than life and it was the original riches-to-rags story in his case.”

Harry Gordon Selfridge was an American who had worked his way up in the retail business, having started from scratch. He brought a new concept to British retailing — that the customer is always right — and the landmark store that still bears his name was opened in 1909, in the (then) unfashionable end of Oxford Street, in London.

Today, the set of Mr Selfridge is in a former carpet factory in the decidedly unfashionable Willesden, north-east London.

There is a writers’ room on the purpose-built set, so, during lunch breaks, she and the other writers meet the actors playing their creations. Do the actors seek assurances from the people who write them in and out of the show?

“No, they’re too professional to do that,” says O’Riordan. “But they do give you ideas as to which direction they think their characters should be going. Sometimes, they’re really good and we really listen to them and take them on board.”

The role of executive producer means that O’Riordan does all the story-lining with the rest of the team. “It means that you’re very involved in what’s going to happen to all the characters, and then you’re also involved in the final cut.

“Basically, from the very start of the idea to the final cut in the editing suite; you’re over all of that.”

O’Riordan has no plans to move back to Ireland, having established a very enjoyable career and family life in Britain. She has heard great things about the current state of Irish television drama, but hasn’t yet had the chance to see Love/Hate.

“I did work with Jane Grogan (head of drama at RTÉ). We were developing something in RTÉ a few years back, but then the recession hit really badly and I think that she had to pull a lot of her projects, but I would love to work for Jane again.”

For anyone thinking of getting into writing for a living, she has this advice:

“It’s going to sound like such a cliché, but just keep on writing; practice and practice and keep sending out to short-story magazines.

“There aren’t as many of them, but they still exist. Nowadays, it’s also important to decide what genre you want to write in and then try and get something published.

“Get the Writers and Artists Year Book and, once you’ve decided what genre you’re writing in, try and match yourself with the different agents and approach them personally,” O’Riordan says.