One of the good things about consulting is that you leave the writers' room for a couple of days, things progress, you come back, and you might have a fresher take.

A show can be completely dead before you even get on the air. I've been privy to a couple of those.

When you're allowed to tell stories with ambiguity and darkness and things that are still unresolved, that's the dream scenario as opposed to having to fit into a more procedural mode or something a little more conventional. That's not what's working on TV right now.

That's a big part of the process: making the right choice from the beginning. Not getting distracted by shiny things.

That's one of the good things about being recognisable - if you need a quick escape, the cabbies will take care of you.

It all starts with a very solid, well-executed script, where the story is very clear and everybody is rowing in the same direction. That's always good; that's a constant.