Newsjack: Crafting a half-hour comedy show from 1000 jokes and sketches
Cathy Loughran
is an editor of the BBC Academy blog
Angela Barnes takes over from Nish Kumar as host of Newsjack for series 16. Photo: Matt Stronge
Creating a weekly comedy sketch show from scratch in three and a half days, using material sent in by the public, can be nerve-racking and rewarding in equal measure, says Newsjack co-producer Adnan Ahmed. As BBC Radio 4 Extra’s ‘open-door’ commissioning show invites sketches and one-liners for its 16th series - and prepares to welcome its first female host Angela Barnes - I asked him about Newsjack’s unusual production cycle, its openings for new talent and what gets the team to the finish line on Thursday nights:
When you start Monday mornings with a blank page and a transmission slot less than four days away, you need good people around you.
“Monday at noon is our first deadline, for topical news sketches,” Adnan Ahmed explains. “It varies, but we normally have about 500 submissions by then and within the BBC Radio Comedy department, there’s a team of people - producers, writers and other production staff - who’ll look at submissions to assess which have potential and, of course, which make them laugh.”
Hours before that deadline, a team of five sketch writers will have already met to throw around their own first ideas, drawing on the week’s news: “They’re often members of the public whose submissions we’ve liked and whom we’re now developing,” the producer says.
With co-producer Abby Kumar, Ahmed will then spend Monday evenings narrowing sketch numbers down to around 40, before turning over their selection to the script editors.
“They’re our unsung heroes,” he says, and also likely to be former Newsjack writers who’ve graduated into a new role. “We’ll sit down with them on Tuesday mornings, make more notes, and whittle the 40 down to 20-25.”
By noon on Tuesdays, the show’s second weekly deadline looms for people to send in their pithy, topical news-based gags (“Obama gives interview to Buzzfeed. What happened next will warm your heart… ”) and number-crunching one-liners (“24: hours the tube lines were closed due to industrial action. 58 million: people who don’t live in London who couldn’t care less… ”)
With a postbag of around 600 -700 jokes on the Tuesday, the team gathers to sort the wheat from the chaff, culminating in a “one-liner party” on Tuesday nights when producers, writers, editors and show host select the funniest 50 jokes: “We work very much on instinct,” Ahmed says.
It’s at this point that stand-up and comedy show panelist Angela Barnes - like her predecessors Nish Kumar, Romesh Ranganathan, Justin Edwards and Miles Jupp - will write the four to five-minute monologue for the top of the show: “It’s the host’s personal take on the week’s news. It will take account of what else might be in the show, but Angela will have a free hand.”
Nish Kumar and cast members Natasia Demetriou, London Hughes and Chris Kendall
Wednesday morning sees producers and script editors making final decisions on which sketches make the grade: “It’s ruthless at this stage,” Ahmed admits, “getting down to the best 14-15 sketches to record. Then we’ll pick the music and cast the sketches.”
Newsjack has its core of regular comedy performers, including the likes of Kieran Hodgson, Cariad Lloyd, Freya Parker and Jason Forbes. As a pattern, each show features two male and two female comedians and nearly always someone who’s new to the programme.
By 2.30pm on Wednesday the cast are having their first read-through in the BBC Radio Theatre, to try out what works and what doesn’t. After revisions, there’s a single rehearsal with mics and sound effects - and then it’s straight to record.
“We record about an hour in front of our audience, which can be quite nerve-racking when you think you’ve started the week with nothing,” says the producer. “And then we usually go for a well-earned drink!” Fans who come to recordings are often people who have already written for the show, or who would like to, he adds.
Thursday sessions in the edit suite, to sharpen and tighten the hour down to 28-minutes and add more music and sound effects, can understandably be “quite intense” as the team strive to deliver the finished programme by 5.30pm, ahead of a 10.30pm transmission.
“There are lots of ideas and viewpoints. It’s the producers’ job to steer the ship, to collaborate and pull it all together,” Ahmed says.
Newsjack is BBC Radio’s only open-door commissioning show, which means that for every week of a typical six-week run, literally anyone can submit material. There are plenty of pointers and examples of what the producers are looking for on the show’s website. But what makes a sketch or one-liner stand out?
“Given the pace of the news cycle, we want items to be as fresh as possible so suggest writers take their ideas from the day before the deadlines. Material needs to be punchy, short and sharp, not from the obvious angle, perhaps not even the obvious stories,” is Ahmed’s advice.
The likes of Trump and Brexit will inevitably feature in series 16, but news about business, sport or technology can be just as rich a seam, he suggests: “And we always look for someone with a point of view - with something to say, as well as making us laugh. The Radio 4 Extra audience is really comedy literate, so make it as intelligent as possible. Give them something to take away.”
It’s a show with no single voice, he insists, but it can be - and has been - a genuine stepping stone in a comedy writing career: “It’s a great way to get your first credit on radio, and get paid to write.” (Flat fees for all non-commissioned material, regardless of the writer's experience, are detailed in the submission guidelines.)
He cites comedian Max Davis, who secured a contract job with BBC Radio Comedy after getting his first writing credit on Newsjack and is currently recording a comedy pilot for Radio 2. Comedy writer Gabby Hutchinson-Crouch was also another “passionate” Newsjack contributor before going on to write for Radio 4 shows like Dead Ringers and The News Quiz.
The series that starts on 26 January will be Ahmed’s second. Will it be a different show, with former BBC New Comedy Award-winner Barnes at the helm?
“In auditions, Angela just blew us away. She was the obvious choice,” he says. “She’s a strong voice, a very funny writer herself and we’re really looking forward to seeing her put her own stamp on the show.”
Ahmed accepts that the odd sleepless night goes with the territory. But there are compensations: “When a brand new writer gets a huge laugh from the audience, or when an idea that we’ve all nurtured over the week really hits the mark, it’s very rewarding.”
Newsjack, 10.30pm, Thursday, 26 January, BBC Radio 4 Extra and BBCiPlayer.
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