APW/7/6 - Dead Meat (Grushko)

APW/7/6

File

Dead Meat (Grushko)

1991-1997

Introduction: DEAD MEAT was adapted for British television as GRUSHKO and was televised as a 3-part series starring Brian Cox (1946- ).

Correspondence is primarily between Nick Marston, Mark Forstater Productions Ltd, and their representative, Harbottle & Lewis Solicitors.

Includes a copy of a signed agreement between PK and Mark Forstater Productions for a television series on inspector GRUSHKO, 9/8/91.

Correspondence on bringing the publishing participation in the GRUSHKO novel down. An agreement to this effect is to be signed. (Letter, Nick Marston to PK, 10/8/92).

Nick Marston discusses with Mark Forstater the fee which PK should be paid per script for the new series of GRUSHKO, July 1993. The series would include four episodes.

Draft agreement between PK and Mark Forstater Productions.

Discussions concern a request by PK to view the rough cut of series 1 before he commences writing series 2. Mark Forstater emphasises that if the treatment written by PK is to proceed then PK would need to be commissioned to write the first draft script based on the treatment.

Solicitors are approached to assist with terms of agreement concerning PK’s first right of refusal to write all the scripts for the series. Reference is made to the 1991 agreement, a copy of which is included in this file.

Letter from Scottish Television Enterprises commenting on the suitability of GRUSHKO for a possible one-off episode 20/1/93.

PK is informed that Mark Forstater Productions wished to explore the possibility of bringing in another writer from the start of GRUSHKO II. Payment is discussed (letter, Nick Marston to PK, 30/11/93).

PK accepts an offer from Mark Forstater Productions on buying out his first right of refusal to script GRUSHKO II (letter from AP Watt to Harbottle & Lewis Solicitors, 20/1/94).

Includes a draft of the variation agreement, 9/3/94. This is not accepted by PK who does not wish to accept Mark Forstater Productions’ buy-out of his first right of refusal to write the scripts for GRUSHKO II. Instead PK wishes to take up his first right to write the scripts as set out in the 1991 agreement (letter, Nick Marston to Harbottle & Lewis Solicitors, 16/3/94).

In a faxed letter, 11/4/93, Mark Forstater Productions informs Nick Marston that the BBC does not wish to pursue a second series of GRUSHKO. “Although the reviews were generally favourable, the ratings have not been strong enough to justify another series.”

Later correspondence in 1994 is mainly between AP Watt and Creative Artists Agency in which interest is raised in the possibility of a GRUSHKO feature film.