When writing a television series inspired by real events research is key. Since not every team member and writer has time to read every single one of the hundreds of books that might exist for a given topic, the research has to be split.
Here is how that works:
The first step for research is obviously reading the book, marking background information, important events, character development and ‘filmic’ material.
Taking colored notes is the second step. That way, patters emerge visually.
The third step is to organize everything into a readable, coherent text for the writers and the team. A table of contents provides an overview. For a character centric piece it is a good idea to make the first chapter a portrait.
As always with multi-million euro projects, everything is *TOP SECRET*