Donna Franceschild
Writing
Known For

A salesman starts to run a hospital radio station inside a facility for people with mental heath needs.
Takin' Over the Asylum
Four-part series that studies the personal lives of folk in a remote Scottish fishing village that is coming to terms with rationalisation, and globalisation of its fishing industry.
A Mug's Game

Eureka Street is a BBC Northern Ireland 1999 adaptation to mini-series of Robert McLiam Wilson's 1996 novel of the same name. Set in Belfast in the six months before and after the 1994 ceasefire, it commences with an anonymous hand typing the words, "All stories are love stories." The novel opens with the same text. The story follows the lives of two friends: the Catholic Jake Jackson – struggling with a failed relationship, his job as a repossession agent and the effect of the Troubles on the world around him – and the Protestant Chuckie Lurgan, "fat" and unemployed until circumstances and a previously untapped entrepreneurial spirit lead him to a world very different from Eureka Street. The adaptation was scripted by Donna Franceschild, directed by Adrian Shergold and starred Vincent Regan as Jake and Mark Benton as Chuckie.
Eureka Street

In the women's cancer ward of a large Glaswegian hospital, a group of patients share their hopes and dreams for the future
And the Cow Jumped Over the Moon

Quirky stranger Donovan (Colin Firth) blows into the Scottish village of Port Clyde. There, he rents a room with the Pannick family and ingratiates himself into their lives. Lucy (Katy Murphy) is the long-suffering matriarch of the clan, caring for her senile grandmother (Liz Smith) and mentally disabled brother, Sandy (David Brown). When the town cancels Sandy's train route to school, Donovan suggests starting their own bus line. They do, much to the consternation of local officials.