How Fame inspired Dreamers, Lisa Holdsworth's new drama set in Leeds

“Fame was my absolute favourite as a child,” says the acclaimed screenwriter whose TV credits include Call the Midwife, Ackley Bridge, Waterloo Road, Midsomer Murders and All Creatures Great and Small. “I cared about every single character and I couldn’t wait to watch it every week. It is the kind of television I have always wanted to write.”

While Fame is long gone, its legacy lives on and a new six-part drama currently screening on Channel 4 recalls its alluring combination of grit, ambition and youthful exuberance. Set and filmed in Leeds, Dreamers was created by Holdsworth, who also serves as writer and executive producer, and produced by award-winning Leeds-based production company Duck Soup Films. The series follows a group of dance students in Chapeltown as they navigate the highs and lows of growing up in our complex modern world.

For Holdsworth, the journey began around five years ago just after she had finished working on her stage play Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, about the life and work of Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar, adapted from Adelle Stripe’s much-admired novel.

“I had started to talk to the Duck Soup team about adapting Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile as a film,” she says. “We had a great meeting and we got on really well, then as I was leaving, they said ‘we have another project you might be interested in – it is basically Fame set in Leeds’. Well, I couldn’t have bitten their hand off any quicker. It was an instant passion project for me. It ticked all my boxes: working for and with young people – I have written for them all my career – and dance, music and performance have always been an interest for me. Plus, it was all going to be set in Leeds, my beloved home city.”

The series features three main characters Puppy – who is the daughter of dynamic dance teacher Erica – Koby and Liam and their wider group of friends and fellow dancers and follows their individual and collective stories as they try to make their way in the world. The characters and storylines, which don’t shy away from hard-hitting themes, are all inspired by true stories.

“We did an open call before lockdown in 2020 which was open to anyone between the ages of 16 and 18 who was interested in dance,” says Holdsworth. “They didn’t have to have had any formal training, just an interest in dance and we wanted to talk to them about their experience. We had a big response and we talked to about 50 young people. Then lockdown happened and, in a way, it became even more imperative to keep the communication going. So, what was going to be a series of in-person meetings turned into Saturday morning online sessions. We worked with different groups and ran workshops where we asked them what they would like to see in a show like that and what they absolutely would not want to see.” She adds, laughing: “After years of writing Waterloo Road and Ackley Bridge, I now know I have definitely written storylines that they didn’t want to see.”

Out of those sessions and workshops, Holdsworth gathered material and began to develop storylines, all rooted in the lived experience of the young people that she and the creative team had worked with. “I think it’s one of the most positive research experiences I have ever had as a writer,” she says. “It all helped us to feel what the reality of it was; every bit of research you do when you write informs how authentic the stories are. We started to build a world – it is still fictional but the characters begin to feel real. We didn’t want to do a drama about a formal dance school and we wanted to think about what was important in Chapeltown, so the place where the young people were meeting for their dance classes would be half dance studio and half youth club. Dance was their means of expression, not all of them want to do it as a career. They just love it and their teachers become really important mentors.”

When they were casting for the show, the production team for Dreamers auditioned 800 young people.

“We really cast the net wide and everybody got a fair crack of the whip – we saw everyone,” says Holdsworth. “Even those who didn’t get a part, I hope the audition process gave them confidence.” The series also provided opportunities for ten Leeds-based young people who were offered full-time paid trainee placements working on the production, receiving mentoring, one-to-one-sessions, career planning and gaining valuable work experience. “That’s something we are really proud of,” says Holdsworth. “And the trainees were so lovely and engaged, excited to be at work, glad to be there and determined to do a good job.”

It is not an easy time to be entering the TV industry and especially for writers there has been a lot of uncertainty. Holdsworth, who has been writing for television for more than 20 years now having got her big break on Kay Mellor’s series Fat Friends, has seen many changes and has been at the forefront of supporting fellow writers. She was chair of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain from 2019 to 2023 and is currently a regional representative. “There is a sense of doom at the moment. It is very difficult for new writers to break in and it is hard to sustain a career unless you are in the top echelons. Shows like Doctors and Holby City have been decommissioned and the writing teams on some continuing series have been reduced, that has been heartbreaking. I think that when you see the success of dramas like Mr Bates vs the Post Office and Unforgotten, which are about ordinary people and have a bit of humanity, it is clear audiences really respond to those. There is a place for big glitzy stuff but I think there is a danger of losing the hearts and minds of audiences if you don’t give them something where they can see themselves.”

Holdsworth hopes that the relatable storylines in Dreamers which highlight friendship, family and community, will appeal to viewers of all ages.

“I really hope people take this to their hearts and root for the characters and I would like people to be as moved by the dancing as I am,” she says. “I am extremely proud of what we have produced. It feels like I have put a lot of myself in this show – it is something I absolutely believed in and was prepared to fight for.”

Dreamers is available to watch on Channel 4 and stream on Channel 4’s online platform.