Writing out of Calgary, Andrew Wreggitt has been affiliated with some of the most successful Canadian series to come out of the Prairies. Having held various writing and other creative positions on Destiny Ridge, Black Harbour and North of 60, Wreggitt’s resume is a virtual ‘best of’ Canadian television listing. Soon Wreggitt may be adding ‘Gemini winner’ to that resume for his work on In the Blue Ground – A North of 60 Thriller.

In the Blue Ground is the first of two North of 60 mows that Wreggitt has penned for cbc. When Playback spoke with Wreggitt, he had just returned from screening a rough-cut of the second North of 60 movie, Trial by Fire.

Unlike some actors and other writers who live by the mantra ‘What I really want to do is direct,’ Wreggitt is quite content with his pen and keyboard, leaving the megaphones to the pros.

‘At Black Harbour (working as a combination producer/executive story editor/creative consultant), I spent a lot of time looking at cuts and sitting in mixes and learning the post-production side of the business,’ he says. ‘I have a real appreciation now for directors and what they bring to the table, but it’s not my sort of area.’

Wreggitt says the key to having a successful show, on the creative side, is for the writer to sit with the director and dissect every element of the script. It is a practice he absolutely stands by.

‘Sometimes things that you think may be obvious may not be that obvious,’ he says. ‘It really helps if you talk with the director through every scene and talk the intent – what the characters are saying, what they are really saying and what they are hiding, and what is the starting position of every scene. You have to be on the same wavelength with a director and then the comfort level goes up a whole bunch.’ Dustin Dinoff