Hanover Square Q&A

If you have too much time on your hands, then welcome to the Q&A page. Hanover Square writer and co-creator Nick McMaster answers the questions that he thinks you might of asked had he been bothered to ask you.

This page is a work in progress. If you wish to ask a question email us by clicking the link below, and at some point the answer will appear on this page.

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• Is Hanover Square a real place?
• Why set a soap opera in Brighton?
• How did Hanover Square come about?
• Who are the people behind Hanover Square?
• What were your comedy inspirations for Hanover Square?

Is Hanover Square a real place?
No, it’s a fictional square set in the Hanover ward of Brighton. The actual location is the reservoir just off Beaufort Terrace. So you could say that we have sacrificed the inhabitant’s water for thirst quenching comedy.

To see the actual location on a map click on the link below. We have imagined the Square to be in the blue area roughly in the centre of the map between Beaufort Terrace and Luther Street.

Hanover Square location

Why set a soap opera in Brighton?
Soaps work best in locations that create -and conform to- a preconceived image in the minds of the audience. The most successful soaps conjure a world we feel familiar with, without having necessarily been there. The colorful, hill-top terraced houses and quaint pubs of Hanover, with its slightly bohemian, liberal, trendy and gay residents, is just as distinctive an area as the locations of Salford, Walford, Ambridge and Emmerdale; but with better hairstyles.

I also have an affinity with the place having lived in Hanover on two occassions; once as a child and once as an adult. I was also a student in Hanover. The old Congregational Chapel on Belgrave Street is now housing, but was part of Brighton University where I did my sculpture degree. Though my tutors might think I spent more time studying beer in The Geese just over the road.

Find out more about Hanover community.

Living history of Hanover

How did Hanover Square come about?
Claudia Mayfield and myself, Nick McMaster, came up with the idea over coffee one summer’s day in 2004. Both of us have a keen interest in radio and televison comedy, but bolstered by some industrial quantities of Pinot Grigio (Eva Dwerger’s favourite tipple) our minor conversation became a major conversion. The usual comments of “I could do better than that” were taken far too seriously. My memory is still a bit hazy, but we did actually write down some ideas on the back of an envelope.

Claudia said she fancied writing a comedy sketch show, I said I had always wanted to write a soap opera. Rather than having a white wine spritzer fuelled slapping match we came up with the fantasticaly sophisticated idea of marrying them together, shotgun wedding style. The rest they say, is history.

Who are the people behind Hanover Square?
Claudia Mayfield and myself Nick McMaster are the co-creators of Hanover Square. I am also the writer of the scripts and this website. All other duties such as casting, directing, editing, tea making and promotion have been shared. Claudia also specialises in ego massaging, which she seems to use mainly on me.

Under the nom de plumme Nick Rilke I have a background in the arts stretching back 15 years. A trained sculptor, I have been involved in numerous projects including caberet, street theatre, performance art, film, club nights and music. For more on me click on the link below.

Nick McMaster and Maphead

Nick McMaster and Spirit of Gravity

Claudia on the otherhand had little experience in the arts and in a way has taken a much bolder step to get involved in such a major project. It is to her credit that she’s taken such a steep learning curve and turned it into a gentle incline.

What were your comedy inspirations for Hanover Square?
Claudia and I are real comedy fanatics. The drunken conversation that led to this whole shebang was on our favourite comedies. There was no direct inspiration drawn from any particular comedy except perhaps in the way it was made. Putting aside the fact that Hanover Square is outside of the established entertainment media, we have followed in the great British tradition of being involved at every level of its making. As creators, writers, directors, actors and producers we share a common ground with Monty Python, John Cleese, Ronnie Barker, Ricky Gervais, Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoude (Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place) Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash (The Royle Family) among others.

At the risk of embarrassing ourselves our early promotional material contained the immortal line: 

"Imagine Robert Altman directing the cast of Nighty Night in an episode of the Archers at the Theatre of the Absurd and you get 'Hanover Square'."

I’ll have to take full responsibility for that beauty as Claudia would never be so daft on her own. In our defence this was written before any of the actual script. Or plots. Or character profiles.