The Glen Road born man has written his first novel after leaving Coronation Street
A west Belfast man and previous Coronation Street director has written his debut novel at the ripe age of 81.
Born in 1944, Eugene Ferguson, who is originally from the Glen Road, moved to England when he was 23 with hopes of making his way into the television industry.
After finding a job with Granada Television in Manchester, he eventually found himself on the set of Coronation Street, where he would go on to direct over 80 episodes of the show.
Now 57 years after initially crossing the Irish sea, Eugene has written his debut novel, ‘The Ghost Dance Fault’, a thriller centred around investigative journalists Gill and Mick finding a grisly murder, bringing them onto a path to discover something much darker.
Eugene found the inspiration to write the novel during the COVID-19 lockdown, but admits to having “always been a storyteller”.
“While I loved designing, the whole idea with directing is you really get to tell the stories”, he said.
“With the risk of sounding like a control freak, you can’t do that by just designing, so I loved directing and being able to tell a story the way I wanted to.”
Eugene helmed some of Coronation Street’s most historic episodes, with many pulling in twenty million views each week during his time in the director’s seat from 1982 to 2003.
“It was very exciting when it was in its prime”, he admitted.
“I began designing the sets in 1970, and went off to direct other things before coming back to Coronation Street. When I look back on my life, a lot of it was spent on that set, which I loved.”
Eugene has said that Coronation Street and his upbringing had a direct influence in how he continues to write today.
“I was brought up in a very matriarchal society. My father died when I was very young, and that meant I was brought up by my mother, sister and grandmother. Your background obviously has some influence on how you view the world.
“I have noticed I seem to favour writing strong women characters, which is very similar to the themes of Coronation Street. The women are always independent, whereas, whilst the men are not weak, the women are most definitely firmly in charge.
“That slipped across to me without really noticing while writing The Ghost Dance Fault, with the characters that are in it.”
Despite spending a life behind the camera, Eugene has said writing a novel is something he has “always wanted to do”.
“I had always been involved in writing to some extent, but it was really during Covid where I got the thought of writing a novel instead of a script. It was a new departure for me really, compared to everything I had done previously.”
Eugene believes his life experiences helped shape the book to be what it is, which includes working around the world.
He travelled far away from his original home of the Glen Road, to both Canada and China to work on adaptations of Coronation Street, named Riverdale and Joy Luck Street.
“The book isn’t autobiographical by any stretch of the imagination, but you end up putting things in your writing that you have learnt, that appeal to you, and that you think is funny”, he said.
“They all come with life experience, and you tend to write what you know. One of the protagonists is Canadian, which was very much inspired from my time working there.”
Eugene’s efforts with his novels has shown he’s continued to work at a committed pace long into retirement, but admits the workstyle change from television to novel writing took some time getting used to.
“Despite being a writer, the publishing process was very new to me”, he admitted.
“With television, everything was on a strict deadline, and very immediate.
“If you have actors, a cameraman and set ready for Tuesday, then that means you are there on Tuesday with no excuses.
“But with novels, I was surprised how long it could take, since I’m so used to the pace of being on set.”
Despite having only recently released The Ghost Dance Fault, Eugene has already finished his second novel, which he hopes to get published soon.
“Friends and family have all read the book and said they’ve enjoyed it, but I’m looking forward to reading some reviews soon.”
The Ghost Dance Fault is published by The Conrad Press, and is now available at Waterstones.
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