Like Hustle?
Ever wondered how that whole breaking-the-fourth-wall thing was described in the script?
I know I did.
Wonder no more. Thanks to production company Kudos and writer Tony Jordan, we now have the script for the very first episode available in our Script Archive.
As usual, you may need to download Acrobat Reader to read the script if you don't have it already.
Time for me to rewrite my first draft. Although it sounds like a pain-staking task, I do enjoy it. The bulk of the script's down so it's just a case of strengthening the characters and sprinkling a bit of magic comedy dust over it. (Mind you, if it was that easy I suppose there wouldn't be a re-write... aaarrgghh!) My best inspiration for gags definitely comes from real people. Living in Costa Del Salford means I only have to hang out of the window for a bit of inspiration. It's also great when I'm stuck for character names - the amount of Levi's, McKenzies and Destinys on my street has certainly opened up my eyes.
Watching Gavin and Stacey on BBC3 has inspired me too! What a great sitcom, and the charcaters are fabulous, particularly the lovely 'Nessa. It's such a simple idea, executed brilliantly and rapidly becoming my new favourite - thank God 'cos something's got to replace Peep Show!
For the last year or so, I've been working as a script editor and writer on Miranda Hart's Joke Shop, a new sitcom set in, uh, a joke shop. This weekend it's being piloted on Radio 2, at 1pm on Saturday 26th May, just after Jonathan Ross' show. This - or, to be more precise, the recording - was a great opportunity to try stuff out in front of a live audience before spending loads of money on a series. It's also going to be available on the Radio 2 website for a week, so you can listen again.
For me, it's also a good opportunity to let some of my work be heard by my granny. She doesn't get out of Lincolnshire much, and my work doesn't get into Lincolnshire much, so it's quite an exciting moment for the two of us. Admittedly, that work should be 'invisible' - the script is written by Miranda, and my job was to make it more like itself, with jokes and editing to shape it, but I imagine I'll big up my input at parties.
Here's hoping she laughs.
A bun-fight between the theatrical and critical establishments has escalated to near-hilarious proportions. It all kicked off when Nicholas Hytner, director of the National, lambasted the ‘dead white men’ who have held onto their jobs as first-string theatre critics for thirty years and, he claims, habitually underrate the work of female directors – a response to the underwhelming critical reception of A Matter Of Life And Death, directed by Emma Rice. The critics, of course, weren’t slow to reply, as this handy digest shows. They have all pointed to their own positive reviews of female directors; the practitioners to younger, female critics who’ve apparently appreciated more experimental work.
Both sides, of course, are right in part. Or in other words, both sides, in part, are wrong. Am I alone in thinking that Hytner’s sweeping generalisation of misogyny is blind to its inherently ageist assumptions? Andrew Haydon, in a discussion show over at right-wing internet TV station 18 Doughty St., thinks that Hytner was writing with his tongue in his cheek, and makes the point that the contentiousness of his pronouncement has provided a massive boost in publicity for the show. I certainly had no intention of seeing it until all this kicked off.
In many of the blog replies, the argument now has turned into the age-old one of whether critics should be allowed free tickets, column inches, or even to exist in the first place. One odd thing about this debate is the fact that it’s happening at all: these days audience members of any age, gender or personal bigotry can get online and publish whatever they like in any number of outlets, set up their own blog, or even a whole website: the critical landscape at the Edinburgh Fringe is almost unrecognisable compared to when I first took a show there in 1992. And for every Billington there’s a Reduced Billington to undermine it. This massive increase in published opinions has meant that the weight and authority of broadsheet reviewers has been diminished – and perhaps there are times when their weighty, authoritarian prose style seems pompous in comparison with a lot of ‘user generated comment’. But it has meant too that the overall standard of writing has fallen: I’d rather have a well-argued, less positive critical response than the witless gush that passes for a review on the Fringe. Come August, however, I’m sure I’ll eat my words, and be praying that one of the shows I’m directing is lucky enough to receive some witless gush.
Confirmed this week that I'm off to London in the summer to have a nosey round the set of Grown-ups when the second series goes in to production. I can't wait as I get to shadow Susan Nickson, the writer, for the week and see what really goes on behind the scenes. I've also heard from the Two Pints team about doing some work with them in the summer, so it looks like once again my dreams of a week in Benidorm must go on hold... Oh well, the life of a 'real' writer, hey?
As well as frantically sorting out my diary, re-writing my script, graduating from uni, finding somewhere to live and fitting in my second job, I forgot my blog last week so many apologies - if my head hasn't exploded by next week I'll be back with the next exciting installment - how glamourous this media life-style is x
Last week I got to have a nosey around the set of a new BBC3 sitcom at the Pie Factory. I was lucky enough to have read a few of the scripts before I went down there so I knew I'd be entertained. It was very strange walking in to the set - which looked exactly like we were in prison. Perhaps I should have taken a bus-load of my neighbours with me to show them the error of their ways and put them off continually stealing shopping trolleys and driving them in to people's cars...
It's so exciting to actually watch a sitcom being filmed, but obviously pretty hard not to let out a big Grotbags-esque cackle at the funny bits. It's definately spurred me on with my own writing. I'm in the right business, if only for the free sandwiches. It never fails to amaze me just how much hard graft goes in to comedy, it's certainly not as easy as you might think to make people laugh. (Are you reading this Lenny Henry...?)
I've finished my first script now, so it's back to the drawing board. If I'm gonna win a Bafta, I might as well aim for two or three and get them all out of the way at once...
Yesterday the writersroom had one of its occasional Readers’ Days, when all the readers – or at least the ones who aren’t rehearsing Shakespeare or making puppets – meet up to discuss one particular script and meet development producers from across the BBC.
This is a rare chance for us to all discuss the same thing (this usually only happens with last night’s Life On Mars); get a sense of what our quality threshold should be, and what different things each reader saw in the same script. It was a relief to discover that while we didn’t all have exactly the same opinion of it, we had many more points of consensus than of difference.
Meeting development commissioners from comedy, CBBC, radio drama and continuing series was welcome too. They reached consensus too: unsurprisingly they’re all looking for good new writers. They also reiterated how helpful it is for writers to have some knowledge of what different departments and channels actually look for, by checking out the Commissioning Guidelines on the BBC website.
Then we all went to the pub and in a welter of unfounded paranoia, discussed which of us the boss was most likely to sack… The Apprentice has a lot to answer for.
