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 The idea for Border Cafe came
from two sources, as Tim explains: "First off I wanted to
write about a place that I would have liked to have gone. I'm
in a fortunate position where if I feel I've missed out on anything
in my life, I can write it and live it vicariously. I did that
with 'Preston Front' - I would have loved to have had a gang
of friends that size. Here is a place I would have loved to have
hung out, a place where there was a real mix of age groups, from
fifty-year old down to sixth formers."
Tim continues, "The idea
of it being a border cafe is very important. I actually live
where the cafe is notionally set: on the border of a town, which
is on the border of two counties, which are on the border of
two countries. We're also on the border of industrial and rural
areas, and the way people live across all these cultural, national
and social fault lines has always fascinated me."
"Obviously what you then
need is a no-man's land where they can meet. I didn't want a
pub, because I'm sort of bored of seeing pubs on television and
also it needed to be somewhere that was open at the crack of
dawn right through till the small hours. Crucially it had to
be somewhere people don't necessarily drink alcohol. I love that
cafe culture we've never had in the UK where the cool drink is
coffee or soft drinks. The cafe is, in a way, a mixture of American
and European cultures - another border."
"The other story it is
based on is one I saw in a newspaper years ago. When Robbie Williams
was kicked out of Take That, the fake Robbie Williams was kicked
out of copycat band 'Fake That'. I kept that cutting for ages,
because I thought how extraordinary it was to think the actions
of one guy, millions of miles away in a completely different
world, could have such a massive effect on someone else's life."
"The two ideas met in
that I needed some way of introducing us to the world of the
cafe. The idea of the copycat going in search of the cat seemed
to me a great way of getting someone stranded in an alien world.
The two stories collide on what I suppose is the final border:
the crossing of the perimeters of a life, escaping the person
you always thought you were and becoming the person you never
thought you could be. In this series the copycat, Ronnie, develops
into this fantastic, vibrant beacon of light for everyone around
her by stopping trying to be someone else and turning into one
hundred percent of herself."
He continues: "Like all
my series I chose stories which I hoped would be funny and sad
at the same time. In this series the cafe was great, because
life is totally reflected in that seating arrangement - when
you're having your long, dark night of the soul, the cafe, people
whose hearts are breaking find themselves talking to people who
arr completely wired or on a huge high. Forcing these different
experiences together is great for a writer. You feel like some
experimental scientist throwing unknown chemicals together and
running for cover."
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Rock
star Charlotte Smith quits at the height of her fame and buys
the American diner on the outskirts of her home town so she can
settle down with her builder boyfriend David Doyle. He invites
his daft elder brother Kidder to become the chef while the nervous
Ronnie gives up her life as "Charlotte" in a copycat
band to become waitress.
