ELLA ROAD

Legend of the Sea Devils co-writer ELLA ROAD tells PAUL KIRKLEY how she helped bring one of Doctor Who’s most iconic monsters back to the surface…

Writer Ella Road; a Sea Devil in Warriors of the Deep (1984)

Ella Road is having something of a ‘moment’. When Doctor Who Magazine catches up with the writer over Zoom, she’s in Mexico, working on an American movie she’s not allowed to talk about. In the last couple of years, she’s also performed rewrites on “a massive action film” (she can’t say much about that, either) and has scripted two episodes of Ten Percent, the muchanticipated, star-studded UK remake of France’s hit comedy-drama Call My Agent. In the middle of all that, she’s also co-written (with Chris Chibnall) April’s swashbuckling Doctor Who Special, Legend of the Sea Devils.

It’s a job that came about, explains Ella, not through any of those other high-profile commissions but via her voluntary work, leading theatre workshops for children. At one of these workshops, her colleagues included Doctor Who script editor Rebecca Roughan. “The workshops involve a lot of coming up with stories really quickly – pulling together loads of elements within hours, or sometimes minutes – and being completely uninhibited. I hadn’t realised how well that work has served me as a writer. Because in order to be able to write something – especially something like Doctor Who – you have to be able to put your brain into a state of childlike play, where anything goes and no idea is too silly.”