The Roakebook: Daisy Coulam
Welcome to The Roakebook, our new monthly series of interviews with inspiring Isle of Wight women who just so happen to be Roake Studio customers, too. Our first brings us to the writing retreat of Daisy Coulam, who has penned hit TV shows including Grantchester, Humans and Death in Paradise.
Daisy and Alf, her miniature schnauzer.
We catch up in Daisy’s seaside cabin, which she shares with her husband Gavin and their tiny white miniature schnauzer, Alf. He is snuggled on Daisy’s lap for most of this interview and since she happens to be wearing her favourite pair of Amber tapered trousers, we can now say that they are officially Alf Approved for snuggliness.
Surrounding us are visual delights including pastel coloured wood panelling, cross stitch pictures (both vintage and made by Daisy herself) and thrifted trinkets (a tin collection of Mexican Milagros catches my eye). It certainly is a relaxing spot.
“You almost feel the weight of the real world drop off your shoulders when you get on the ferry,” she says when I ask her how being on the Island helps her work. “It feels calmer and if I’m writing and I get stuck, I can go for a walk or a swim. A friend introduced me to sea swimming in October and now I am reaping the benefits. If you go in the morning before work, your sense of clarity is heightened and you feel epic, frankly. You feel alive and ready for the day.”
Daisy cites her love of drama as starting at school; she was in all of the plays she could find time for, from playing Badger in The Wind in the Willows at Oakfield Primary, to being a Ryde High School cast member of Chess, which Tim Rice himself came to watch at Sandown Pavillion. She also remembers having a keen, albeit brief interest in being a theatre technician. “I was really into lighting so I used to go and see the plays at Shanklin Theatre and at one point I sat with the lighting guy and watched how they lit it. But then that wasn’t my path, it turned out.” A theatre trip to the mainland to see Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew for her GCSEs cemented her passion. “We had a backstage tour, going into the dressing rooms and seeing how the props were made, and it was really inspiring. I knew I wanted to do drama, I just didn’t know what.”
After studying at Royal Holloway University (“I thought I wanted to act and then I realised, again, that wasn’t the path for me”), Daisy moved to London, got a job as a TV runner while working part-time in a theatre box office, and found her calling. “I used to read a lot of scripts and found it really interesting seeing how people work with writers. And then thought, ‘ooh, this is a job that you can do at home!’ You can have ownership of your time.” She applied for a prestigious BBC writing course, and, after being accepted, has been working in television ever since.
Following her first TV credit - writing a Christmas Eve episode of Eastenders - Daisy wrote for a number of well-known shows including Casualty, Holby City and Death in Paradise. But it’s ITV’s Grantchester (“a crime show with a vicar in it”) that is her baby. “The boss of Eastenders, Diedrich Santer, had started up his own production company. He gave me one of the Grantchester books and I read it on a train journey back to the Isle of Wight. I loved it and said I’d like to be involved in the TV adaptation of it.” Now an executive producer of the show, Daisy is currently seeing the 8th series through to airing next year.
With Grantchester set in the tranquil outskirts of Cambridge, Death In Paradise on a Caribbean island and Deadwater Fell in the quiet Scottish Highlands, and all featuring murders, I ask Daisy if she’s drawn to dramas set in surroundings similar to those she grew up in (minus the murders, of course). “I like pastoral beauty but there always is a dark edge underneath it. Maybe there are always two parts to your life: the calm, beautiful, serene side, but then you can always access the dark bit.”
Being able to work on the Island helps Daisy to tap into this, and her creativity in general. “It’s good for the imagination to be here, because you have space to think. I read a really good quote from the Manic Street Preachers - man doesn’t create, he discovers - and that’s what the Island gives you: a time to discover.”
It’s not all about writing for Daisy though, who loves spending time with family and friends on the Island. She takes advantage of the great local food scene at The Old Fort in Seaview, The Taverners in Godshill and The Pointer Inn at Newchurch, as well as her favourite, Harvey Browns in Arreton. Daisy is also a keen crafter. “I came to Roake in Ventnor to do Miesje Chafer’s patchwork course in April. It was just lovely to sit in the workshop and chat with other local women.”
A long-time Roake Studio customer, we were thrilled when Daisy recently ordered a top and trousers in our limited-run Periwinkle fabric. “I love that everything is beautifully handmade and sustainable, and that each piece feels special but wearable, too. My two-piece is unique when I wear it together, but you can mix and match it.”
She thinks her sense of style was shaped by growing up here, as well as by her creative and clever mum. “My mum is a maker - that’s probably my biggest influence, but I think there is more of an acceptance on the Island to be a bit different and home-grown, and the charity shops are great. Maybe because we’re surrounded by water and beautiful countryside, you get a sense of style that comes from people caring about the environment and in turn, their clothes.”
Check out Daisy’s Amber Trousers and Millie Vest. Daisy also wears the Nicole Jacket in sage grey, the Maddie Skirt in meadow floral, and the Elsie Tee in Rosewood Gauze.
Interview by Hannah Rochell.