Editing Billy Elliot (section)

=== Development ===
Lee Hall developed ''Billy Elliot'' from his play ''Dancer'', which premiered as a rehearsed reading in 1998 at the [[Live Theatre]] in [[Newcastle upon Tyne]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Lee Hall interview: Why Lee will always love Live Theatre |date=17 June 2014 |url=http://www.thejournal.co.uk/culture/culture-news/lee-hall-interview-lee-always-7279467 |work=[[The Journal (Newcastle upon Tyne newspaper)|The Journal]] |access-date=6 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150106235237/http://www.thejournal.co.uk/culture/culture-news/lee-hall-interview-lee-always-7279467 |archive-date=6 January 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> He was heavily influenced by photographer [[Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen]]'s book ''Step by Step'', about a dancing school in nearby [[North Shields]]. Writing in 2009, Hall said that "almost every frame of ''Billy Elliot'' was influenced by ''Step by Step'' [...] as every member of the design team carried around their own copy."<ref>{{cite book |title=Byker Revisited |first=Sirkka-Liisa |last=Konttinen |page=vi |publisher=Northumbria Press |isbn=978-1904794424 |year=2009}}</ref>

Hall met with director Stephen Daldry, who was working at the [[Royal Court Theatre]] at the time. At first, Daldry was not convinced with the script, but said, "I liked the emotional honesty of ''Billy Elliot.'' Also Lee writes brilliant kids. And there's a series of themes in it I rather enjoyed: Grief; finding means of self-identification through some sort of creative act, in this case dance; and the miner's strike itself."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2000/10/interview-stephen-daldry-dances-to-success-with-billy-elliot-81337/|title=Interview: Stephen Daldry Dances to Success with "Billy Elliot"|date=2000-10-17|website=[[IndieWire]]|language=en|access-date=2020-01-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102200205/https://www.indiewire.com/2000/10/interview-stephen-daldry-dances-to-success-with-billy-elliot-81337/|archive-date=2 January 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Working Title Films]] approached Daldry to become director and he accepted the offer. The [[BBC]] financed the project.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr247/mitchell.htm|title=Interview: Lee Hall, screenwriter of Billy Elliot|website=pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk|access-date=2020-01-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190704151046/http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr247/mitchell.htm|archive-date=4 July 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>