It’s always assumed that the writer is the one with the most flexibility because they can write when they want, around family commitments. Not true. There are never ANY concessions that you might have family commitments when you get notes Friday afternoon for a Monday morning delivery. One writer I know was asked to deliver her new draft Boxing day which meant working Xmas Day. She did it – bribing her kids with chocolate and TV. Apparently the producer did have the good grace to send her a bunch of flowers, but still. One job that had an eight month lead period – allowing everyone of the five producers to keep messing with the script to keep it ‘fresh’ – the last draft came down to a crazy rewrite over my husbands 50th birthday camping holiday weekend celebration with friends. A weekend I’d flagged up for months. Needless to say the lead writer used the fact I wasn’t going to drop everything that minute and head back to London as an excuse to help himself to my script. After long discussions with my agent we came to the sad conclusion that no writer should ever ever say they’re having a holiday as that’s when you get shafted. Keep your personal life out of work. Deny your children and your life. Be a robot.