The Revival of the Audience Sitcom
Around 100 writers crammed into the Writers’ Guild Centre on 12 February to hear an expert panel discuss the state of the audience sitcom and to put their own questions to them.
The panel, comprising Charlie Hanson (independent producer), Lucy Lumsden (Controller BBC Comedy Commissioning), Beryl Vertue (producer and Chair of Hartswood films) and writer-producers of After You’ve Gone, James Hendrie and Ian Brown, was chaired by writer Dave Cohen.
Dave began by asking each panel member to introduce themselves and their work.
Charlie explained that his background was in theatre. “I’ve always enjoyed working with writers and actors,” he said “and I make sure today that, if certain directors are nervous of having writers too closely involved, I persuade them otherwise. It’s important for me that writers are ‘in the room’”
Despite the rise in writer-performers, Charlie said that he felt writers were still the backbone of a successful sitcom. “Even when you’ve got a performer who also writes, if that show runs to more than one series, they’re going to need other writers to support them.”
Lucy Lumsden explained that her job entails assessing ideas from independent and in-house producers for all four BBC TV channels. There are three commissioning rounds and the process can involve readings, commissioned scripts and pilots.
The BBC is committed to audience sitcom, Lucy insisted. In fact, they want to see more of them. “Of 280 ideas I received from independents and in-house,” she said, “only 18 were audience sitcoms.” The BBC can only make a certain number, “but there something we attach enormous importance too and there’s a great appetite for them.”
Beryl Vertue explained that her background was working directly with writers. She started out as secretary to Ray Galton and Alan Simpson (Hancock’s Half Hour, Steptoe And Son) and then worked as an agent to them, Eric Sykes and Spike Milligan.
“Writing is the most exciting and important part of the process,” she said. “But it’s also very competitive so you have to be strict with yourself. Ask yourself, why me? Why this idea? What will the audience get from it?” Filming a sitcom in front of an audience changes everything, Beryl said. “You have to get the rhythm, and the regular laughs.”
James Hendrie agreed that audience sitcom was a very different undertaking from single camera comedy. “It sharpens you,” he argued.
Character
In response to Dave Cohen’s question about what producers were looking for, all the panellists agreed that character was the most important single factor.
“When you first read a script, the jokes are the least important thing,” Ian Brown insisted. “You can add those in later. But there have to be characters you want to spend time with, even if they’re not likeable.”
Charlie Hanson added that you also need believability and a good premise, and Lucy Lumsden summed up what she looked for as “familiarity but also saying something new.”
For Beryl Vertue the key is, again, characters and relationships and “an idea you think will last and sustain several series.” She also mentioned that visual comedy was often under-used – surprising when you think how many of the great sitcom moments (from the chandelier crash in Only Fools And Horses to Victor Meldrew picking up a dog instead of a phone) are purely visual comedy.
Lucy then explained about the new BBC initiatives for comedy writing. Several series, she said, are based around team writing and they’re proving a great way to bring people into the process gently. The Comedy College was also being set up – six new writers will be mentored by in-house comedy experts and hopefully they will have a script made at the end of the process.
Various other schemes are also running via the BBC Writersroom and Radio Four.
Diversity
Dave asked the panel how they felt regarding Lenny Henry’s recent complaint about the lack of diversity behind the scenes in British TV comedy, and all agreed that there was still a very long way to go.
Lucy said it was something they talked about a lot at the BBC and had various schemes to try to address, but Charlie said the situation didn’t really seem to have improved in the last 15 years.
From the audience, Caryn Mandabach, who produced The Cosby Show explained that Bill Cosby had insisted on ethnic minority involvement behind the camera. Mandabach had to set up a special scheme with the Writers Guild of America to train writers because the industry was so lacking diversity at the time. She suggested that the British TV industry should look to theatre for new writers since it tends to have a broader range of people and writing for audience sitcom had many similarities to writing for the stage.
The future
Asked about how they saw the future of the audience sitcom, James Hendrie said he hoped that BBC Two would be used more as a launch pad for new shows, rather than exposing them to the full glare of BBC One.
Beryl worried that there was a danger that shows were dropped if they weren’t an instant success – even though most of the great sitcoms have taken time to develop and grow an audience. In response to audience questions
Lucy Lumsden said that radio was still a good way to get into TV. Indeed, BBC TV were explicitly investing in radio to develop new ideas.
Asked about the best routes to submit scripts Charlie said that all producers want to see new work but generally what he sees will come through an agent. He recommended BBC Writersroom and, in particular, Micheal Jacob at the BBC. For independent companies, identify the head of comedy development and send material to them. If submitting sketches to a show, he advised, only send the best three rather than a huge pile.
Beryl said that her company didn’t take unsolicited scripts but would meet with new writers recommended to her by agents, even if they didn’t have specific ideas ready to develop.
James Hendrie stressed the importance of “getting yourself known”. Submitting ideas for sketch shows, for example, will mean that, if they’re good, you’ll start to pop into people’s minds when they’re looking for new sitcom writers. Finally, Ian advised that, if you’re targeting a particular show, it’s best not to submit a sample script of that show. Write something different – one writer had submitted a sample script for Frasier, for example.
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