The series was written using the Team Writing For TV Method. A model that writers Stuart Hepburn and Martin McCardie have been developing through the module they teach at University Of The West Of Scotland in Ayr. As an alternative to the more common practise of sending out spec outlines to a series of unconnected writers they have created a robust methodological approach to team writing which lays down a series of crucial production steps designed to ensure that the concepts of theme, tone and narrative coherence are successfully carried across the large number of episodes of a long running TV Series. Crucially, it requires ALL writers to be present at ALL story-lining sessions, and for detailed beat outlines to be created by the the entire story-lining team. All team members have access to all others scripts and beat outlines, and the entire final product is then passed through the hands of a single lead writer. The lead writer's job is to unify the entire process and reconcile production, narrative, and executive notes in order to create a coherent shooting script.
