Scrotal Recall is such a cheeky title, but from the clip I saw it looks quite gentle humour, and it's billed as a romantic comedy - so is it more Richard Curtis than Frankie Boyle? Good luck with it anyway, Tom.
Scrotal Recall Page 2
Thanks Lee. It's fair to say the title is divisive - some people have vowed to never ever watch it based on the title alone. Others like it. The STI clinic researchers I spoke to liked it.
Thanks for the welcome, Aaron. Hope you like the show. And yes, the three regulars are amazing.
Beaky - yes, I think that's fair. There's a bit of a disjunct between title and tone.
The show's not even really about a man going through STI partner notification. Really it's a device to help us jump about in time as we explore the relationship between three friends. Hopefully within two or three episodes it'll become clearer what we're trying to do with the show.
Was the title Phil Clarke's idea? C4 have a reputation to live up to...
Nope - initially the title suggestion came from me on a list of possibles. Scrotal Recall was only one with "not this one, obviously" written after it. The perils of working titles...
Even I'm on the fence about it. I like that it brings together sex and memory and the site of chlamydia infection. And it makes (a percentage of) people smile. But on the other, it's a pun and one that makes some people wince. Too late now :-)
Haha! That's happened to me before, with the title of a cartoon strip. At least it draws attention to the show. You must be so excited!
I saw a clip of it and laughed; the first time in a while since I laughed at supposed comedy 
Great of you to join the forums, Tom.
From a writer's point of view I'm interested in knowing more about your journey into development.
Was this a spec script of yours?
How long did it take you to write series 1?
How involved were you during production and post?
Scrotal Recall and Contains Nuts - a perfect fit.
Yes, very excited thanks, Beaky! We're trying to tell stories an ambitious way with the series. Hopefully people will like it. Glad it made you smile, BushBaby.
So to your questions, ContainsNuts.
The project was a Channel 4 commission off the back of a pitch. I'd been developing a few ideas with Clerkenwell Films and we took this one in to C4 with a short treatment.
The idea has had a LONG gestation. The basic premise emerged in 2008 when I was researching a genetics project (also for C4). From that I got the basic idea of tracing someone's history through the lens of a bacterium's travels. In 2011 at Clerkenwell we started discussing interesting narrative structures in romantic comedy, and the two parts clicked. I wrote a pilot episode and a second episode, and a non-TX pilot was commissioned, filmed in summer 2013. We got the green light at Christmas; I was thrilled!
It's hard to say exactly how long it took to write the remaining four episodes. I had a few other script commitments to attend to concurrently, so my focus was split in the first part of the year. But we had a tight TX deadline of October, so had to be filming by August.
I developed the scripts very collaboratively. Having great development exes is critical, and Ed and Andy are terrific. The show is a tricky tonal balance, so it usually took a few drafts just to find the right weighting of material. I think we've made six great episodes though.
I was on set for two shortish periods. Would have loved to have been there longer, but was still finishing the second block eps while the first filmed! So very little time to relax behind monitors.
Incubation period rather than gestation, I'd have said...
Do you have any say in the casting?
Thanks for that Tom, sounds quite an experience. Best of luck, I'm looking forward to it! 
We saw a lot of very talented people for the three main roles. Casting is so important, and here we wanted to cast for chemistry between three people. I think we got very lucky -- as you'll see, Johnny, Antonia and Dan are hugely-versatile, gifted actors. I was one voice in a big room when it came to casting decisions, but decisions tended to be made by consensus.
It's a big show in terms of guest cast, too - mostly because every episode takes place somewhere different in terms of time/place. I think there were more than fifty cast members with lines. Our casting director Rosalie did an awesome job.
The loose format of the show means we're meeting a fair few exes as we go along, and one of the great pleasures of writing the show has been creating lots of guest roles for funny women. There are lots of very funny actresses who shine across the six eps.
(gnaws knuckles in jealousy)
Quote: beaky @ 24th September 2014, 6:17 PM BST(gnaws knuckles in jealousy)
me too
Quote: Tom Edge @ 24th September 2014, 6:04 PM BSTWe saw a lot of very talented people for the three main roles. Casting is so important, and here we wanted to cast for chemistry between three people. I think we got very lucky -- as you'll see, Johnny, Antonia and Dan are hugely-versatile, gifted actors. I was one voice in a big room when it came to casting decisions, but decisions tended to be made by consensus.
It's a big show in terms of guest cast, too - mostly because every episode takes place somewhere different in terms of time/place. I think there were more than fifty cast members with lines. Our casting director Rosalie did an awesome job.
The loose format of the show means we're meeting a fair few exes as we go along, and one of the great pleasures of writing the show has been creating lots of guest roles for funny women. There are lots of very funny actresses who shine across the six eps.
Oh, ok 