Well, it's sort of summer, and plans are progressing for the first college workshop next month. It has a venue, a shape, guests, an outing, a surprise, and an inaugural lecture which is occupying quite a lot of my time, but researching it is proving massively entertaining. Delving into the history of broadcast sitcom - which goes back much further than I thought - is throwing up all sorts of fascinating information, so with one reference leading to another reference, and the need to double check everything, I feel I'm either becoming a bit of an expert or a bit of a bore.
When I've written it I'll either post it here (quite lengthy) or put up an edited version, but until it's complete, I'm not going to pre-empt the content. So don't ask.
The workshop is going to look at comedy on BBC1, BBC2 and BBC3. We'll be viewing pilots and analysing their essentials. The writers will be going to a recording of After You've Gone,a mainstream success. And we'll be workshopping scripts by the writers, so it feels like a full and, I hope, fun week. I'm looking forward to getting to know the writers better, and to them getting to know one another.
The guests are Paul Mendelson (May to December, My Hero); Hugo Blick (Marion and Geoff, Sensitive Skin); and Susan Nickson (2 Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Grownups). As part of the After You've Gone trip, the writers will meet Ian Brown and James Hendrie, who were showrunners on My Family and have the same function on AYG.
College aside, I'm pursuing various development projects, two of which seem to be finding favour higher up the food chain (but some way to go). Towards the end of next month, we're organising development reads for the writers, colleagues and me on three scripts which feel as if they need one more heave to become pitchable. One is funny but has a central character who needs another comic element. One is seen by me and the writer as an audience show, but by others are a non-audience show, and the read should help us decide on a route. The third seems as if it should work but doesn't feel as if it is quite there, and the read should illuminate that.
Advice to new writers always includes the suggestion that they should try to hear their work, but it's just as useful for established writers and producers.
Meanwhile, My Family is approaching the recording of its 100th episode - in a series to be broadcast next year - so there will be celebrations. Few British sitcoms get to the hundred mark, and it's a considerable achievement to run for nine series, maintain sizeable audiences, and contradict the critics who hate it.
Indeed, My Family, along with 2 Pints, are the two most excoriated yet successful sitcoms in recent years. Interesting.
