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Andrew Ellard

@ellardent.bsky.social
1.1K followers 665 following 88 posts

Writer of Nova Jones (CBBC), Deep Heat (ITV2) and AfterDeath (film). Script editor of far more famous things. Neurodivergent and widowed. A typo in every tweet, guaranteed.

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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Perhaps my favourite “this was the scripted line before they redubbed it” in film history - as evidenced by the #IndianaJones and the Last Crusade tie-in comic book. Two obvious reasons to change the name to Mickey Mouse. No explanation required. But nonetheless an evocative 1940s gag.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Nigella Lawson, three likely autistic contestants and a TARDIS joke. It’s like #BakeOff was trying to lure *specifically* me back. (It worked.)
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Spot on. I’ve been struck with how SNL, surely our most expensive comedy show, is often content to look cheap. It’s because it feels quick. It screams “We’re literally doing this live, right now!” It screams *gig*.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
All future Halloween movies will require the makers to pick three previous entries from the series out of a hat and make them, and *only* them, canon to the new film.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Pressure is a solid movie, and yet…it kinda only has two beats. So it plays the first repeatedly for an hour. Positions are restated and entrenched rather than developed and explored. Basically, I think I wanted a load more battling between clever people over the minutiae of weather prediction. 🤷🏻‍♂️
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Gonna recommend The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan and Milady. The 2023 French movies are well worth a rent, doing smart, precise things in adaptation to keep things surprising and stakes-y. Also, the fights are fabulous. Done in Spielberg-type oners that keep things honest and immediate.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I’m terribly behind - have releases of the Doctor Who Collection Blu-rays been paused? Feels like there’s usually one due out in the autumn.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Furious is extraordinary. Weirdly, of all things, it reminds me of DTF St. Louis - shows that snuck up on you using genre. But both know exactly what they’re about, what they want to say, and never fail to articulate those things, with truth and wit.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Tim Curry in Charlie’s Angels, though. Can’t forget that one. Misleading everyone that he’ll be the big villain.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Watching 9 to 5 on Disney+. Despite opening with the traditionally grotty old Fox logo the HD master they’re using is shockingly good. Someone found a good print and put the work in.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
There’s a “spray product” joke in Coyote vs Acme that may be my laugh of the year. What a hoot that movie is!
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
If talking a lot is something you want from your podcast guests, I sure did talk a lot of it here. Why not play at double speed and experience how irritating it must be to know me. youtu.be/b7YPgOMCBx0?is=4oG5qlFvl27…
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John J. Hoare @dirtyfeed.org · 24/08/2026
A short piece about some early Red Dwarf which went unseen for decades. www.dirtyfeed.org/2026/08/clos...
Danny John-Jules as The Cat on DEF II
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Me literally only right now realising that the title’s meant to be understood in the Latin sense. 🤦🏻‍♂️
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
There should be a legal requirement not to label “long term online rental until the platform loses rights” as “Buy”. Call it what it is, “long rental”. At which point companies are incentivised to figure out how to make buy *mean* buy, or else lose sales to cheaper short rental and physical media.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Tugged on my script consultant trousers to help out on Proper Ladies. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002v…
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Sooz Kempner @soozuk.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
he's right and he should say it
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN CALLS
OUT AMATEUR MOVIE CRITICS WHO THINK SPOTTING A MOVIE TROPE MEANS THE FILM FAILED
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Very struck by just how specifically Spider-Man Brand New Day is focused on loss and recovery. Loss of self, of loved ones, of control. And in particular how connection is vital to any kind of recovery.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Darren’s one-two punch of video essays on “Christopher Nolan” and “The Odyssey” are as good as video essays get for reading of filmic text and their cultural contexts. Click this first one - which you can watch without any Odyssey spoilers - immediately.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
A very nice psychological take on 007 First Light, explaining why the theme of Bond as an instinctual ‘heart’ lands so well. youtu.be/H0kBN6R_82E?is=_lulS4c1x5X…
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Now, ah, you guys are gonna figure out how to spellcheck the word “episodes”before you take over ITV, right…?
KATIE PRICE: NOTHING TO HIDE caption card from a trailer, with “All epiodes available now” beneath.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
I am available for hire these days. Like I used to be. Should you have any writer/script editor/story producer needs. 🤷🏻‍♂️ www.andrewellard.com
andrewellard.com
Andrew Ellard
Andrew Ellard – screenwriter. Script editor on the IT Crowd, Red Dwarf, Miranda and Count Arthur Strong. Writer of the competition-winning films AfterDeath and Future.Inc. Scriptwriter for film, TV, t...
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Ooh, Alice and Steve is very good indeed.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Just played chapter 8 of 007 First Light. Haven’t loved a Bond game this much ever. Not even close. Someone have me on a podcast to rhapsodise. So much good writing. Two back to back scenes equate Bond with heart and hope. Words rarely used for the character but so applicable. It’s a real *take*.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
I know Charlie Higson’s book kinda got there first, but Amazon/Villeneuve would be crazy to miss the chance to start their Bond series with the title On His Majesty’s Secret Service.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
The YouTube video essays by @montyzander.bsky.social are always good, but this rich analysis of Wolfenstein: The New Order - a franchise I’ve barely a passing interest in - is peak stuff. youtu.be/QydfhmIy9pw
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Oh thank god for a grown-up take on the Doctor Who situation.
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Steven Flanagan @stoverfandango.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Hulke's whole script, and the full story of the Stanmark radio pitch, can be found in issue 3 of Nothing at the End of the Lane: www.endofthelane.co.uk/Issue3PDF.html
Very 1960s high-contrast promotional artwork prepared for the 1966 radio proposal.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Gah, yes!
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Of all #DoctorWho historical papers this is maybe my new favourite curio - Malcolm Hulke’s 1966 pitch for at a new pilot script for the show. This was mooted for radio, potentially to star Bella Lugosi as the Doctor, or later Peter Cushing. (Taken from David Brunt’s Hartnell Production Diary book.)
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Gav Rymill @themindrobber.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Going live imminently! New video explores a BRILLIANT trick Camfield pulled off in Devil’s Planet. ➡️ youtu.be/OPnvw8HOhxc?...
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Watched Innerspace with a fellow autistic. Now feels like it’s about a neurodiverse man who gains an inner neurotypical voice to guide him. Making him better able to navigate social situations like meetings and romances, read subtexts more clearly, and manage anxiety.
Poster for the movie Innerspace.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
I ended up quite taken with The Drama. A sitcom script (not a complaint) shot like a thriller. It read to me as damning of modern America’s cultural failures of empathy, intellect, comprehension and acknowledgement of culpability. YMMV.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
❤️ Literally just on the NASA live feed: Artemis II: We can see the moon in one window, the earth in the other. It gives the best sense of the scale and distance yet. I got a photo with my wide angle lens. CAPCOM: Amaze amaze amaze.
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RM @dorsalstream.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
The horse op-ed is an instant classic. I can't tell you how much joy this piece gives me. It should be taught in every introductory writing class in no small part because the horse arguments are so compelling. "I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children."
I Work Very Hard, And I Would Like To Try Cake

By A Horse

Hello. I am a horse. I work very hard at my job of being a horse. When humans say move the heavy thing, I move the heavy thing. When humans sit on top of me and pull on my head, I carry them where they want to go. The main food the humans give me is hay and oats. But I am thinking it would be nice to have a different food.

I am thinking I would like to try cake.

Yes, yes. Cake. I know all about it. When humans eat cake, it is in glad times. It is the food for a celebration, such as when a woman becomes 47. I have seen cake on the Fourth of July. When humans have a cake, they stand around it and clap hands and smile and say happy birthday at each other. Sometimes there are beautiful markings on a cake, such as balloons or a pink shape.

Sometimes the top of a cake is on fire and a boy must blow on the fire with mouth wind. This is the scariest cake. I do not want this kind. But I will eat any other cake. Any cake that is not the fire cake that tries to kill the boy.

Please understand: I do not get money for doing work. I do not get to go inside the house. All I am either doing my horse job or standing in my pen or eating food off the floor. I always do these things. But I have never once gotten cake and I would like it very much.

I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children. I am more helpful to the farm. Children do not move the heavy things like me or let anyone ride on them. And yet they get cake. Maybe the humans will realize this. Maybe they will say, "You  know who deserves cake? That horse. That horse whose back we are always on."

Every day I dream about what it will be like if I get to eat cake. Here is what will happen. First, I will walk to the cake and putt my nose at it like hrrfff to make and stomping my hooves to make sure it is not a snake. Then I will trot in a circle to show that I am a horse and I am large. After that, I will nuzzle the cake to …
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Doing this. Come? londonscreenwritersfestival.com/kee…
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Still find myself giggling at last week’s #SNLUK, particularly Shakespeare’s “cunty little earring”. Roll on episode two.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Oh, it did. Almost entirely. Well - jolly good, then. On we go!
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
I’m incredibly keen to have SNL UK succeed, but so far I’ve seen marketing references eel pie and beans on toast. Which is how the UK looks to Americans - an outsider take. Like the US version, to win this needs to feel like the call is coming from inside the house.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Having such a visceral, joyous reaction to the #DoctorWho lost episodes news. What a feeling.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
A cinema corridor. One screen’s digital sign says “The Bride!”, the sign opposite says “Frankenstein”.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Rob Grant. I can’t believe it. All love and respect to his family. Half of the team that showed teenage me how ambitious sitcom storytelling could be - so well that I made it a career. I rewatched Red Dwarf: Terrorform tonight. Because it always felt to me like an especially Robbish episode.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Just remembered how I had Citizen Kane spoiled for me years before I knew it existed by an episode of The Real Ghostbusters that featured a ghost obsessed with recovering his SPOILER.
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Hannah Berry @streakofpith.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
And now it IS December. Who needs greetings cards?
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
I’ve been itching to tell someone that Predator Badlands and How To Train your Dragon have some serious narrative overlap. Ahem: Predator Badlands and How To Train your Dragon have some serious narrative overlap.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Always felt Kill Bill’s black and white fight needed re-editing. The eye doesn’t track as fast shot-to-shot without colour, which is how it was originally edited. Having it returned to colour for The Whole Bloody Affair? I’m IN. Not for the blood, for the clarity of action. youtu.be/-SzkFgEqB6Y?...
youtu.be
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2025) Official Trailer - Uma Thurman
YouTube video by Lionsgate Movies
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Very much enjoyed Eden, Ron Howard’s new film on Prime. Good ‘hell is other people’ stuff, which I hate-enjoy. For all the 1930s setting its’s horribly contemporary. All influencers, egotists and resource terror. Worth renting The Galapagos Affair documentary from Apple for two quid afterwards.
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
What exactly happened with those two totally separate Lord of the Rings DVD documentaries? This is a really good breakdown of the hows and whys. youtu.be/k68X9r14XAw?si=poOaKGIwjEV…
youtu.be
Who made the LOTR Behind-the-Scenes Documentaries?
YouTube video by Pentex Productions
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Buying groceries in the States is insane right now, even compared to the UK cossy-lives. Normal big bag of Doritos costs $5.50 in the supermarket, which is about £4.10! (In the UK they’re £2.50, which is about $3.40)
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Andrew Ellard @ellardent.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
I tried using a friend’s sex toy but it was a totally different vibe.
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