What we can learn from The Good Doctor

I know writers who will not watch 'reality' television under any circumstances believing it to be the bastard that steals food from their children's mouths. However, I would like to put another point of view.

I think writers should watch - and learn.

The most obvious case in point is ITV's "I'm A Celebrity..." and the incredible performances by "Dr" Gillian McKeith (she was told to stop using the title when it was discovered that she had bought her doctorate from a man called Dave who flogs them four for a vegan cracker down the pub). So far she has screamed every time anything has come within twelve feet of her; creepies, crawlies, bugs, people, water, the sky, rope bridges, food, smoke, boxes, a sense of irony... She has declared herself phobic of everything. The title of her own show is, You Are What You Eat - if that is true she must have eaten a shed-full of phobes.

The non-doctor has whined and fainted (though medics suggest we may have discovered a new kind of fainting here, the kind where you can pass out and still adjust your shirt whilst laying prostrate on the ground). She has irritated her colleagues in camp and worse; she has mangled the lyrics to James Brown songs. Let's face it, she is a quack, a nut job, a pathetic whining woman - and the kind of evil character that keeps viewers coming back for more.

Oh that we writers could create such monsters.

We may detest what the loathsome woman is doing but it keeps people engaged and isn't that what our characters should do? Schedulers love this stuff.

It shows we must be bold with our baddies. They can be the most irritating, whining, appalling, scheming individuals just as long as they get under our skin. Nothing new here you may say, I've given my baddie lots of layers of evilness. Ok, but is he/she a cliche? They don't all have to be gun-totting vampires with a taste for virgins and a plan for world domination.

Of course producers would wail if we all handed in scripts that contained blatant copies of the sniveling, red-nosed, Scottish phobic. They might even argue that creatures like this don't really exist. But they do and we have the evidence.

I'm not arguing for copies. What I am saying is if you want to create rich, multi-layered characters, learn from her.

What underpins her thinking?
What is her game plan?
How do the rest of us fit into her bizarre reality?

These kinds of questions reach out into our scripts and make the whole that much more interesting.

She might be TV's most deliciously conniving character since J.R. Ewing.