Coldplay, Seal, Heston Blumenthal, Alexander Armstrong and Bradley Cooper

From comedian & Writer Paul Kerensa:

As a writer I’ve contributed to the odd sitcom, even co-writing one episode of Lee Mack’s ‘Not Going Out’ featuring Alexander Armstrong. We gave you the challenging task of playing host of ‘Pointless’ Alexander Armstrong. Glad you won that role – the lookalike was useless.

I don’t so much enjoy writing, as enjoy having written. Comedy writing’s like childbirth – enjoy the outcome, don’t dwell on the process. I worked on ‘Miranda’, and a post-series meal was booked for a fine restaurant called ‘Dinner’, run by one Heston Blumenthal. (I think there is only one.)

I couldn’t wait – nothing would stop me attending that meal, except, it turns out, a kidney infection that sent me to A&E. That evening, I had a sneaky phone-call in my hospital bed from the team in the restaurant: me eating boiled pork and boiled carrots with boiled cutlery, them enjoying Heston’s meat fruit and spiced pigeon.

It was like I was in a sitcom. I could almost hear the wa-wa-waaah, such were the polar extremes of the dinner I'd hoped for and the one I was “enjoying”. Sometimes life feels like we’re a put-upon sitcom character, salt added to the wound – although there was no salt in hospital, though there were wounds.

Maybe how we deal with those moments sets us up for the big stuff. Me? I see life as one giant divine plan, by the ultimate scriptwriter. The prophet Jeremiah has Him saying: “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper and not harm you, to give you a future and a hope.”

If we can laugh at ourselves in our sitcom moments, maybe we’ll gain perspective for the big stuff, as if our characters might be part of a wider series arc. I think comedy’s great training for tragedy: those little tragicomic scenarios prepare us for the tougher times.

However we rationalise the world – divine provenance or muddling through, may we power through our sitcom moments, knowing one day we’ll look back and laugh. Sometimes life feels Pointless, but we’re never gonna survive unless we get a little Crazy.