Quote: Tokyo Nambu @ April 26 2013, 2:40 PM BST

Even if they're not passing up on great scripts, they are presumably passing up on OK scripts. In the current climate of BBC sitcoms, who wouldn't settle for OK?

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Indeed. I don't think people are asking for too much with MOR BBC sitcoms. I don't expect every new programme to be as radical as The Office. Shows like My Family didn't set my pants on fire but I could easily sit down and enjoy an episode or two. Recent shows just make me react in an angry fashion.

Quote: Tokyo Nambu @ April 26 2013, 2:40 PM BST

Even if they're not passing up on great scripts, they are presumably passing up on OK scripts. In the current climate of BBC sitcoms, who wouldn't settle for OK?

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Pedigree goes a long, long way in commissioning.

Quote: Dr Sanchez @ April 26 2013, 2:35 PM BST

It's goes beyond so bad it's good into so bad it needs new words to describe how bad it is. Imagine all the great scripts the BBC ignore year in year out yet they accept this utter shit.

Recycling cast members from your previous sitcoms is pure laziness too.

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Yes David Croft used to do the same thing, nothing to do with knowing and trusting and liking people and their work, and building his own Rep it was just laziness. Or, you know, not! And you don't have to invent new words Doctor old bean to write a meaningful critique.. just use the ones that already exist and put them in some meaningful order. Not at all convinced the BBC ignore that many 'great' scripts either. I am sure some don't get picked up, but mostly comedy programmes that are 'great' are 'great' because a number of factors, and timing, contribute to that greatness .. the writing, the performance, the direction. It's an ensemble thing television, admittedly the original writing is the original art in it, but the craft of actors, designers, directors and everyone else that positively contributes to its facilitation is pretty gosh darned important too.

Quote: Marc P @ April 26 2013, 3:00 PM BST

Yes David Croft used to do the same thing, nothing to do with knowing and trusting and liking people and their work, and building his own Rep it was just laziness. Or, you know, not! And you don't have to invent new words Doctor old bean to write a meaningful critique.. just use the ones that already exist and put them in some meaningful order. Not at all convinced the BBC ignore that many 'great' scripts either. I am sure some don't get picked up, but mostly comedy programmes that are 'great' are 'great' because a number of factors of factors contribute to that greatness .. the writing, the performance, the direction. It's an ensemble thing television, admittedly the original writing is the original art in it, but the craft of actors designers, directors and everyone else that positively contributes to its facilitation is pretty gosh darned important too.

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You're just rambling here. Ben Elton wrote the first episode, it was awfully written. No amount of "ensemble things" could have changed that. I'm sure he had a huge part to play in the casting too, wedging his old pals and pals' kids into the mix which just added to the awkward inbred feel to the whole thing.

It's a lurid abomination of a comedy. A flapping shit bird that needs to be clipped and hidden away in a cage somewhere until it dies. Is that enough of a critique for you?

I am not rambling at all. I am making lucid points. You sir are saying it is shit and then doing a poor Eltonesque impersonation of a Blackadder extended metaphor to say it again. Now that is funny and beautifully ironic!

Quote: Marc P @ April 26 2013, 3:18 PM BST

I am not rambling at all. I am making lucid points. You sir are saying it is shit and then doing a poor Eltonesque impersonation of a Blackadder extended metaphor to say it again. Now that is funny and beautifully ironic!

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I love Blackadder though so it's not ironic. I'm slating The Wright Way, you're defending it.

Who's the fool here?

It's ironic because it was a poor impersonation! I am addressing your points re casting and ensemble not 'defending' anything there. Likewise your statement re all the 'great' scripts that the BBC pass up on each year. There is nothing foolish in loving a programme or hating it. Sometimes there is in the way one may express judgement.

Quote: Marc P @ April 26 2013, 3:30 PM BST

It's ironic because it was a poor impersonation! I am addressing your points re casting and ensemble not 'defending' anything there. Likewise your statement re all the 'great' scripts that the BBC pass up on each year. There is nothing foolish in loving a programme or hating it. Sometimes there is in the way one may express judgement.

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I wasn't impersonating anyone though. You took it upon yourself to say I was in order to have a cheap jab at me. I judge it how I see it. The casting was lazy, the writing was awful, the acting was wooden. I'm sure we could pick apart each aspect of TV making and be more considered about the whole thing but we'd come to the same conclusion in the end. It's crap. Now stop being a bumbling nincompoop (That is a Blackadder impersonation)

Quote: Dr Sanchez @ April 26 2013, 3:26 PM BST

Who's the fool here?

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The fool is the one getting so het-up over a subjective judgement.

Quote: Lee Henman @ April 26 2013, 2:49 PM BST

Pedigree goes a long, long way in commissioning.

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It should work both ways. Ben Elton's last three projects (Blessed, Get a Grip, Live From Planet Earth) were turkeys, that were cancelled as soon as humanly possible. The last of the three had the advantage of being live, so they could kill it without going to the effort of filming episodes that no-one would watch. That's his current pedigree. Why not take a chance on a new writer, who might be good, or a newish writer, whose last project was OK, when the alternative is a tied and stale script from a writer whose last three projects failed completely, both critically and commercially?

Quote: Aaron @ April 26 2013, 3:56 PM BST

The fool is the one getting so het-up over a subjective judgement.

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Yeah, Marc P is one serious fool.

Quote: Marc P @ April 26 2013, 3:00 PM BST

mostly comedy programmes that are 'great' are 'great' because a number of factors, and timing, contribute to that greatness .. the writing, the performance, the direction. It's an ensemble thing television,

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You might say that. But who, do you think, said:

I'm pretty clear about what I have in mind when I'm writing, which is why I take such care over casting. There's no doubt that once the actors start to make the characters their own it's a real inspiration towards further comedy but they don't come up with lines, it's not a cooperative!

Quote: Tokyo Nambu @ April 26 2013, 4:03 PM BST

Why not take a chance on a new writer, who might be good, or a newish writer, whose last project was OK, when the alternative is a tied and stale script from a writer whose last three projects failed completely, both critically and commercially?

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They do occasionally take chances. But if you had a million quid (which is roughly how much it costs to make a six-episode studio sitcom), and you were forced to bet that cash on a horserace, would you go for the odds-on favourite or the promising but unproven 10-1 contender?

I'm not saying that's how it should be, but how it often is, ESPECIALLY on the flagship BBC1 channel. It's under enormous national scrutiny, and huge public expectations to make every comedy as loved and revered as the likes of Only Fools And Horses. It's hardly surprising then that nerves run high when making BBC1 comedy, and producers are naturally-attracted to writers with past form. Elton has produced amazing comedy in the past. Yes he's had a few failures but then so have other huge names in comedy. Sitcom history is absolutely littered with the corpses of stinkeroos, a lot of them from highly-regarded writers and performers.

I think it's f**king disgraceful how Elton has been assassinated in the press like this. It's just a sitcom after all. It's funny isn't it, how when a new TV drama falls flat, nobody gives a shit. But if a sitcom fails, suddenly the writer is the most pathetic excuse for a human being that ever drew breath.

Plus there's only been one episode. Give it a chance.

Quote: Lee Henman @ April 26 2013, 5:27 PM BST

I think it's f**king disgraceful how Elton has been assassinated in the press like this. It's just a sitcom after all. It's funny isn't it, how when a new TV drama falls flat, nobody gives a shit. But if a sitcom fails, suddenly the writer is the most pathetic excuse for a human being that ever drew breath.

Plus there's only been one episode. Give it a chance.

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The BBC have hardly been supportive either, have they? 10:35pm, Jesus.

Quote: Lee Henman @ April 26 2013, 5:27 PM BST

if you had a million quid (which is roughly how much it costs to make a six-episode studio sitcom)

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This is much of the problem in comedy. Broadcasters need to pump shows out with a focus on quality scripts, not spend thousands on design and filmic direction to stop some c**t at The Guardian complaining about "poor production values" because the set doesn't look like it could be used in a Spielberg film.

I mean, seriously, has anyone ever noticed the sets in Fawlty Towers? F**king hell.

It just seems so odd he's still making them, he stopped doing standup.

His books and musicals do well, why not take on a new challenge like a screen play?

His last book was a very serious work of satire that was reminesent of Brooker in a good way,

I do wonder how much the BBC are paying him and for what?