Gerry Stembridge has done almost every job on stage and screen. Recently, he wrote and directed two films - Guiltrip and the smash-hit About Adam. He also wrote Ordinary Decent Criminal, subsequently directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan. So he seemed the ideal person to ask about the Writers Guild's demand that directors no longer receive the credit "A Film by" - the so-called "possessive credit".

"Well, I negotiated the possessive credit for myself on both my films as director, but in the end chose not to use it; using it strikes me as a little egotistical," says Stembridge. "I suppose I was just concerned that nobody else should use it. It was a bit of benign despotism on my part.

"Mind you, given how some films turn out, writers should often be relieved when they don't get the credit. However, I can see their point. It's all very well if the director has been there from the beginning, but often, in Hollywood, the director is brought in right at the end; they have not seen the project through. In that case, it's just crazy to say its the director's film.

"Of course, in the past directors didn't get much credit either. It was the producer who was in charge. Directors weren't even present at the editing stage. Now that has changed, thanks to people like Alfred Hitchcock, who gained control of their own films. Writers now want this as a bit of a sop to their egos; they feel it's their turn."