Chances are, you've never heard of Erik Bork. It's more likely, however, that you've heard of Band of Brothers, the HBO/BBC dramatisation of Stephen E. Ambrose's account of life within Easy Company - the 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division of the US army - and its campaign in Europe during the second World War
. The 10-part series was co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks (who had read Ambrose's book while preparing for his role in Saving Private Ryan). Deciding that Band of Brothers would make for a stirring piece of television, Hanks set about adapting the book. Which is where Erik Bork comes in.
Having worked with Hanks's production company for several years, Bork played a significant role on the Emmy-award winning HBO series, From the Earth to the Moon, as a developer, writer and co-producer, and was employed in a similar capacity on Band of Brothers. Officially, his title was "supervising producer" but as well as writing two episodes, he was responsible for ensuring that the script remained cohesive throughout, adding an often uncredited rewrite.
On a short trip to Dublin, Bork, despite having just endured a flight from Los Angeles, is affable. He talks at length about his experience on Band of Brothers, but interestingly, doesn't overplay the difficulties of the actual filming of the series, a process which took some nine months and cost around $120 million.
"We had a lot of money, so that made it an awful lot less arduous. It was gruelling, but the actors and the crew had it bad. I don't consider my job to be gruelling. The writing was hard work, but the actors had to spend months being treated like soldiers, slugging through mud and being yelled at by the military advisers. Now that's a physically demanding job."
Happy as he is to downplay his involvement in the physical aspects of Band of Brothers, Bork takes on a more sombre tone when the topic of dealing with such emotionally taxing material is raised.
"Although everything I write becomes charged for me, doing Band of Brothers was particularly memorable. I'd say that the process of researching the project was more charged than sitting down and writing it. Meeting the veterans and going to their reunions was a very moving experience. Also, we visited places where some of the battles occurred and that was tough.
"Winning the veterans' trust was a big part of it, too. These are older men who aren't necessarily enamoured with Hollywood and come from a very different generation. With some more than others, there was really a testing phase - in that we had to prove we were going to do right by them."
The risk of offending the veterans was never likely to disappear, considering the source material. Ambrose's dense, complex and heavily-populated book couldn't be adapted absolutely faithfully, and some characters had to have their experiences amended to ensure that the storyline remained dramatically compelling.
"That was definitely the key challenge and the thing that I wanted to make sure that we got right throughout the process. If you filmed things exactly the way they had occurred, Band of Brothers would not have made for gripping television. The challenge is that you have to find ways to turn it into a compelling story without betraying the accuracy of what happened. It was a real balancing act between simplifying what had happened and trying to show the full complexity of the situation. Even the book only captures a small segment of all the experiences of the company of soldiers," Bork says.
"Inevitably, there were some people - who were important to the company - we didn't include. In some cases, even things that happened to them got given to another character, if it was felt that it wasn't betraying the experience."
Ambrose says: "It's the most accurate depiction that Hollywood's ever done of World War Two." The industry seems to agree, as a few weeks ago, Band of Brothers picked up a Golden Globe. It perfectly pitched its blend of uncomfortably realistic action with a sturdy examination of the effect that war has on men. But before the series débuted on HBO last September, many assumed Band of Brothers would - since Hanks and Spielberg were involved - simply be an expansion on the themes first explored in Saving Private Ryan.
"The point of the series wasn't to 'one-up' Saving Private Ryan. And this is not a put-down of Saving Private Ryan, but the goal was not simply to have realistic war footage. The goal was to show a 'band of brothers' and how that band evolved. Hopefully, if you watch the whole series, you do get that."
In the future, Bork expects to continue his working relationship with Hanks, and is looking at other television projects, which the pair may collaborate on. The majority of his work has been for the small screen: "I don't prefer television - it's just how things have happened. But I'm interested in working in features as well. It's just how it has worked for me in my career." Directing is an ambition, but one Bork doesn't feel he's ready for. "The hurdle I have to get past is writing a feature that I'm proud of and lives up to the potential that I feel I have, which is different than writing for Band of Brothers. I need to feel I've succeeded as a writer of original material. But an opportunity may arise and I'll be ready for it. Or I'll make myself ready for it."
Band of Brothers is on N2 on Tuesdays at 10.20 p.m.