2.Main Content
Talent
Elly Baldock
Elly started writing in 1994, snatching a few blissful moments of creativity between nappy changes and night feeds. By the time the children were at school, The Beauty Contest, a novel following the fortunes of four none-too-pretty factory girls who enter the works’ beauty pageant, was born.
This was followed by a brief stab at short story writing, with a series of romantic short stories published in a women’s weekly magazine.
It was after two closely timed events that Elly finally realised what she truly wanted to do. The first was a one week residential Arvon Foundation course: Scriptwriting for Beginners. The second was at a Status Quo book signing session in Nottingham, standing in line with the diehard fans, all dressed to kill in denim and leather and Quo memorabilia. One particular chap stood out, a bus driver from Mansfield who’d brought his young sons – Rick and Francis – along to meet his heroes. In that hot, airless room, two young Quo fanatics were born. And so was Maintaining The Status Quo, the story of two sisters, both Quo fans in their teens, now leading very different lives: one a London Yummy-Mummy, the other a fat and slovenly kitchen hand. When circumstances throw them back together again after twenty years apart, all hell breaks loose.
In September this year, Elly will embark on a two year part-time MA in Television Scriptwriting at De Montfort University. She is currently working on a television drama entitled The Gloryhole.