Taking a YouTube character and turning him into the lead in his own sitcom pilot C-Bomb has been a great experience.
YouTube is primarily known as a platform for short videos, and somewhere to share videos with friends, family, and the public.
It’s also provided a new place for aspiring comedians to publish sketches and films they’ve made - and a potential route for them to work in television.
As a producer for BBC Comedy, I create websites, videos, games, social media and anything else we might publish on the web. I’ve ended up working with a lot of ‘YouTubers’ - one of these being Rob Madin.
He sent us a tweet via @bbccomedy introducing a comedy character he’d created: C-Bomb, the ‘Godfather of the North Yorkshire underground dubstep scene’.
Dubstep Da Vinci: C-Bomb introduces himself with a red hot track
Rob had already made a music video for C-Bomb’s song Irresistible, and one of the funniest things I’d seen in ages was his mockumentary Behind The Music in which the character shows us round his Sheffield ‘crib’ and waxes lyrical about his music and philosophy on music.
I showed Rob’s stuff to my executive producer Will, and we thought C-Bomb would go down well with our online audience, who we had been reaching out to on bbc.co.uk and YouTube.
Comedy consistently tops the lists of what people are watching online, whether that’s full length TV episodes on BBC iPlayer, short videos on YouTube, or more recently, even shorter videos on Vine which allows you to upload just six seconds of video.
BBC Three then signed off two C-Bomb music videos for the BBC website and Feed My Funny on the BBC Comedy YouTube channel: Bowl Date and Mutha Nature.
C-Bomb wants to show you a good time... at the bowling alley
The comments were good and the audience seemed to warm to C-Bomb, so I wondered if we could delve deeper into the man behind the music - what would C-Bomb: The Sitcom look like?
To find a writer for Rob to work with we approached Jason Cook, a stand up who had enjoyed his own success with Hebburn, a BBC Two sitcom also set in the north of England.
Jason and Rob teamed up and surrounded C-Bomb with more characters like his put-upon mum Sheila and the object of his affection Claire.
With this world in place, they wrote the story of C-Bomb’s comeback to the live music scene with some help from another writer, Daniel Peak.
BBC Three then commissioned a Comedy Feed pilot, so with the help of experienced TV producer, Adam Tandy we set about creating a world for C-Bomb to inhabit.
We discussed what he really wanted (was it the girl, fame and fortune, or underground credibility?) and how to put some real jeopardy into the story so the audience would root for C-Bomb.
From filming himself with his own camera six months before Rob found himself on location in Sheffield to shoot the pilot with a full TV crew, make up, costume, catering – and me, the producer.
Making a comeback and taking over Yorkshire
The director Chris Cottam and the brilliant cast and crew did a great job creating a British 8 Mile in the Sheffield suburb of Gleadless - even shooting a music video in the rain which looks as good as anything on Vevo.
I hope you like the end result – it’s got songs, unrequited love, and C-Bomb’s bombastic comeback in a quiet carvery.
And to any budding comedians out there not yet publishing videos online, what are you waiting for?
Stick something up, and send the link to us on Twitter or Facebook. Aspiring writers can also contact the BBC writersroom, and have a look at their website for comedy writing tips.
Jon Aird is the producer of C-Bomb.
C-Bomb is on at 11.45pm on Friday, 18 October on BBC Three. It is also available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.
Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.
