£5000 Script Commission for Best Sitcom
With an emphasis firmly on script development, The Sitcom Mission is an international sitcom writing competition, 'The X Factor for sitcoms'. It showcases 15-minute sitcom scripts at The New Diorama Theatre in London in front of the comedy commissioners from British TV and radio.
The Sitcom Mission is in partnership with Hat Trick Productions, the award-winning independent production company behind such programmes as Outnumbered, Have I Got News For You, Father Ted and Episodes. The prize is a £5000 script commission from Hat Trick.
The 2010 winner was Bryn Mills for his sitcom Thunderer; in the 2011 contest it was Emma Edwards and Abigail Dooley with their sitcom What Next?; and this year Snez Naik's Yo Valet walked away with the £5k prize.
Jimmy Mulville, MD of Hat Trick comments: "Every 1's A Critic and Hat Trick are on a joint mission to find more of the writing stars of the future. We want to discover and support the very best new writers and to present the final judging panel with an outstanding shortlist of material with a terrific opportunity for the talent to develop their ideas with our help."
The last three Grand Finals have been judged by a who's who of British comedy commissioning, including Shane Allen (Channel 4), Jane Berthoud (BBC Radio), Sarah Farrell (Comedy Central), Lucy Lumsden (Sky), Myfanwy Moore (ITV), Gregor Sharp (BBC TV) and Paul Schlesinger (Hat Trick).
Declan and Simon comment: "We're absolutely delighted to be working with the legendary Jimmy Mulville and his brilliant, proactive, forward-looking staff at Hat Trick Productions. They are responsible for ground-breaking sitcoms like Father Ted, Drop The Dead Donkey and Outnumbered, and it's our mission to spread the net wide and find the next one. The first rule of our competition is that it's open to everyone, and we're looking forward to unearthing a gem that we know is out there."
It's not just the winners who get picked up, one of the runners-up in 2011, In The Meantime by Ciaran Murtagh and Andrew Jones, has also been optioned by Hat Trick. Andrew adds, "it's not just about the grand prize, this is a great opportunity to have your work read and assessed by lots of very useful people!"
Entry details for the 2013 contest will be announced later in the year. If you want to start preparing now though read the guidelines to make sure you start writing a sitcom that can be staged.
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