Evans’ Rag

Vol 8 Issue 8

10-year-old Ryan and his cousin Susan at our wedding — photo by Kathy Summers, ©1994

Some stories fall into your lap, it seems. And as hard as it was to write, I was touched by how it came about. Why Write was one of those.

It’s the story of how another story got written, This Tree, and has a great hook at the end.

D and I watched a Netflix series last week that was good enough to promote. Came across it by searching for something, anything, to watch on TV. I’m tired of PBS reruns, and I’ll never watch Father Brown on penalty of death..

Tom Burke is the lead. If you missed his acting in Strike, you might want to go back and watch that one as well.

Neil Forsyth is the screenwriter. If you’re into studying how a master screenwriter works, watch Legends.

“The six-part series is created and written by Neil Forsyth, and was commissioned by Netflix in August 2024. Forsyth and Ben Farrell are executive producers… and Richard Bradley is an executive producer… Directors on the series are Brady Hood and Julian Holmes, the series producer is Charlie Leech, and the story producer is Rhiannon Forsyth.
“The series is inspired by the 2022 true crime book The Betrayer: How An Undercover Unit Infiltrated the Global Drug Trade, by Guy Stanton and Peter Walsh, as well as extensive research and interviews that Neil Forsyth conducted with Stanton and other former undercover Customs agents.
“Stanton worked for HM Customs for 23 years, ten of which were spent in an undercover unit set up in 1991 to thwart a large drug smuggling operation. He writes in the prologue of the book that it is all based on actual events, with names and some details changed to protect the identities of the operatives.
“On August 24, 2026, the series was renewed for a second season.” From Wikipedia page on Legends