I noticed with interest that the latest Creative Screenwriting podcast is an interview with UK screenwriter, Peter Morgan, discussing his writing of The Queen, a film I didn't expect to like as much as I did.

You can listen to the Q&A here.

This reminded me of Laurie Hutzler's take on this screenplay in her October 2006 Emotional Toolbox newsletter (you can subscribe to this free email bulletin on her site).

I'd wondered why a hardcore republican like myself had found the central character so sympathetic.

The film looks at the story from what was the commonly supposed antagonist's point of view; taking us behind the Queen's stiff royal veneer and into the heart of her complex humanity. The key point Hutzler makes from our point of view as screenwriters is that 'every Antagonist is the hero of his or her own story'.

Throughout the film the Queen insists on her strong personal credo of remaining emotionally distant, and that their grief is a private family matter, whilst under constant pressure from Blair to reach out and connect to her subjects to give them what they need: 'By allowing herself to be more open, and therefore more vulnerable, she emerges stronger than ever'.

It's a valuable reminder that, as a screenwriter, you have to examine the internal conflicts of the characters whose politics and belief systems you personally disagree with, just as much as the ones who are thinly veiled self portraits.

It should be Rule 1 of the screenwriter's personal handbook, but it's one we often forget, and it never hurts to be reminded of it from time to time.