Not that anyone but me is interested, but as far as I can see the first official Sitcom Trials took place on October 26th 1999 at The Comedy Pub in London.
The report is at: http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/SitsVac/message/467
I'm thinking of organising a 10th anniversary show in London in October, who'd like to see that?
OK. I've officially given up on Declan or Simon saying who won last week. Would anyone care to share the results/feedback?
Quote: Ponderer @ March 24 2009, 3:21 PM GMTOK. I've officially given up on Declan or Simon saying who won last week. Would anyone care to share the results/feedback?
Canteen Culture by Chris Ovidu
Yes, right, sorry!!!!
Ok, last week's winning entry was indeed Canteen Culture by Chris Ovidu, with Charlie Rosewarne's Kwarfee coming through as runner-up. Commiserations go to Ben Glassman and Chrissie Bullock who wrote Where Have All The Girls Gone and The Museum respectively, which both did well in the audience vote.
Judges were Avalon's Anna Madley, award-winning writer Steve Keyworth (catch his Radio 4 Afternoon Play tomorrow, Weds 25th) and Dawn Ellis, then a Radio 4 producer, now a freelance radio producer.
The previous week, March 11, saw Jane Perrin's Three's A Crowd, directed by Matt Holt, win (and that's two for Matt in the quarter-finals), with David Melkevik's Top Shelf in second place, with direction from Katy Thompson. Sad to see Griff Phillips' 19th Nervous Breakdown and Anna Bennetts' The Same Paige go out at this stage.
Judges on March 11 were Steve Keyworth, Radio 4's Richard Turner, RDF Comedy Unit's Jacqui Sinclair and Catherine Oldfield from Will MacDonald's Monkey Kingdom TV. Catherine asked to see one of the actors for a casting too!
This week's show is the last of the heats, and it's fair on selling out both shows so get your tickets asap. We've got some lovely judges this week, including the aforementioned Steve Keyworth and Jacqui Sinclair, George Poles who used to write Chucklevision and has graduated to Have I Got News For You and Carol Smith, who's a Radio 4 Producer. And someone called Kev F Sutherland, whoever he is.
Sitcoms on offer are The House On Windsor Street by Jules Bower directed by Maggie Inchley, John Gradwell's The Boot Room directed by Emma Blundell, Bruce McNeal (who directed Alf And Dick into the quarters) returns to direct Martin Riley's Hope And Anka and David Mahmoudieh directs Steve Rosier's Charmed Life.
Hope to see you there, please come and say hello. Sorry again for the delay in getting the results up.
Cheers, Declan
Thanks both. Just wanted to know. Congrats to the winners and commiserations to the differently winners.
Last night I had the pleasure and privelege of being a judge at the Sitcom Trials, the show that I invented ten years ago, stopped doing three years ago, and Declan Hill & Simon Wright now keep themselves very busy running. It was the first show of this season I've been able to make and I was delighted with what I saw.
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They run two shows every Wednesday. A 5pm showcase where industry representatives cast their votes on the 4 sitcoms in competition, then a 7pm re-performance where the public vote. I was in the 5pm session with fellow judges Jaqui Sinclair from RDF's Comedy Unit, George Poles writer from Mock The week & HIGNFY, Steve Keyworth of EastEnders and this afternoon's Radio 4 Play fame, and Carole Smith Radio 4 comedy producer of legend.
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We watched 4 sitcoms, all of which are produced and staged to the highest standard. In my day we used to stand, radio-style, with scripts in hands, but these guys are totally off-book and well directed, all for just two performances. And, not to say anything nasty about anyone or anything, two of the scripts were brilliant. And as for the casts, tonight's show had John Le Mesurier's grand-daughter and Lee off of Steps in, how's that for impressive?
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The winning scripts were The House on Cedar Street by Julie Bower, a flat share comedy which had a level of exciting new writing that made you want to see anything that writer comes up with, and The Boot Room by John Gradwell which is a consistently funny and well constructed sitcom set in a football club, crossing Hi De Hi with The Damned United to very promising effect.
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As is my wont, I doodled on my notes, little cartoons of most of the actors. You can see those at the links above (I can't work out how to embed images on this forum, sadly)
I'd encourage anyone interested in sitcom to come along to these weekly shows, as they race through the tournament towards the final in May. They're at the Leicester Square Theatre every Wednesday.
Thanks to everyone who made last night's shows the successes they were. We were putting more chairs out again to accommodate extra peeps who wanted to come in.
In contention were Steve Rosier's Charmed Life, directed by David Mahmoudieh, The Boot Room by John Gradwell directed by Emma Blundell, Martin Riley and Ross Mackintosh's Hope And Anka, directed by Bruce McNeal and The House On Cedar Street, directed by Maggie Inchley and written by Jules Bower.
Judges were George Poles, who wrote for Chucklevision and writes for Have I Got News For You and Mock The Week, Steve Keyworth, who wrote one of the Afternoon Plays on Radio 4 this week, Radio producer Carole Smith, Jacqui Sinclair of the RDF Comedy Unit and Kev F Sutherland, who invented The Sitcom Trials and for whom it was a bit of a homecoming.
The judges' voting was pretty unanimous, with The House On Cedar Street winning (a great ensemble cast and some wonderful individual performances) and The Boot Room coming a close second. The audience vote had the crowd-pleasing The Boot Room way out in front with The House On Cedar Street in second. Commiserations to Steve Rosier and Martin and Ross who we lose at this stage.
Next week sees the first of the Quarter-finals, and we hope to see you there. We'll also be doing another How To Get In The Yes Pile workshop in April, so email us at info@every1sacritic.com for further details.
Cheers, see you next week
Declan and Simon
The first quarter-final of the Sitcom Trials 2009 took place last night, and it was the first show that didn't sell out. Still, seeing we're up against The Apprentice, England v Ukraine and Barack Obama in town, we had a gorgeously sweet and wonderful audience in.
First up was Ben Davies' Pumpkings, followed by Harris/Blakewell's Chain Gang, Anthony Dewson's Dave and finally Boarders by James Parker.
Judges were writer Steve Keyworth, Jo Evans from literary agent Macfarlane Chard and actress Eileen Dunwoody, who played the midwife in the final episode of Men Behaving Badly, making her a sitcom legend.
The judges voted Boarders the winner, one vote ahead of Chain Gang. So congratulations to their casts, writers and directors, and commiserations to all involved in Pumpkings and Dave, we're going to miss you guys. If it's any consolation, Dave won the audience vote.
Next week we've got Charlie Boucher's Kwarfee, Michael Everett's Alf And Dick, Toys by Imran Malik and Trainspotting by Grahame Knowles.
And it's been brought to our attention that TicketWeb aren't selling tickets for the 7pm show and the Leicester Square Theatre site and Chortle aren't selling tickets for the 5pm show. Trust us, both shows have tickets left and this technical glitch is being sorted as we speak. The best thing to do at the moment is go to TicketWeb for the 5pm and the Leicester Square for the 7pm, but normal service should resume shortly.
Have fun, people, thanks to our regulars for turning up each week, it's always lovely to see you.
Next week, we've got BBC Writers Room coming down, so that should be fun. And we're in discussions with Graham Linehan, too. Well, we accosted him in a cafe in Fitzrovia, whether he liked it or not, and he knows all about us now.
Cheers, Declan and Simon
Graham Linehan? Ah,man. I'd love for him to see my work.
Hi all
Just to let you know that tonight's 7pm show is completely sold out. There's still tickets left for the 5pm show, so hope to see some of you there.
Tonight is the second quarter-final, with F**k Buddy by Lydia Parker, Trainspotting by Graeme Knowles, Toys by Imran Malik and Alf And Dick by Michael Everett in contention. And two of those writers are now in discussion with TV companies, thanks to their appearances in the first round.
Judges this afternoon are writers Paul Dornan and Jane Lamacraft, producer/writer/actor James Wren and writer/director/actor and one-third of The Congress Of Oddities Hannah Mackay.
Much fun and joy to all
Declan
Hello again my comedy chums
A completely packed and sold-out and we had to put more chairs out evening last night, with four very strong entries and again, it's such a shame we had to lose two of them. I'm starting to feel like Bruce Forsyth, and not in a good way.
First up was F**k Buddy written by, directed by and starring Lydia Parker, then Toys by Imran Malik, directed by Jamie Harper, Graeme Knowles's Trainspotting directed by Andrew Shepherd and finally Alf And Dick by Michael Everett directed by Bruce McNeal. Judges were Jane Lamacraft, James Wren and Hannah Mackay.
The judges saw two clear favourites, and there was one point between Trainspotting in first place and Toys in second, so we'll see them in the semi-finals. The audience vote agreed with the judges, with Trainspotting and Toys out in front. Farewell to F**k Buddy and Alf And Dick, you gave us many moments of fun and you'll be sadly missed.
It's great to see some familiar faces supporting us each week, please say hello, I won't bite and it'll be good to put names to faces.
Next week is selling well, so if you want to come get your tickets asap.
If you want to write for us next year and improve your chances of getting in the Yes pile by loads and loads and loads, why not come to our How To Get In The Yes Pile workshop in central London on May 23. You'll have your work read out by professional actors and have insights that the vast majority of entrants won't have. Contact us on info@every1sacritic.com for more information.
Love and peace to you all. And remember, secret documents are secret for a reason.
Declan
Hi guys
Well, the internship at Strictly Come Dancing served me very well.
Just need to make a correction to the above. The audience did indeed vote Trainspotting way out in front on 26, but it was closely followed by All I Need Is A F**k Buddy by Lydia and Maureen on 21. Well done to those guys for producing a crowd-pleasing piece of theatre.
Toys actually polled 11 and Alf And Dick got 7.
Have fun this Easter. I'm doing some decorating. Who else is doing decorating?
Cheers, Declan
Thanks Declan,
A "crowd-pleasing piece of theatre" sounds like a good audience sitcom to me. At least we made the audience laugh a lot, that is some consolation!
Hello all
Tomorrow's third quarter-final is a super-goody, actually they all are but this one definitely is, as are they all. But this one is absolutely the best one.
Up in contention are Kwarfee by Charlie Boucher, directed by Andy Pandini, The Boot Room by John Gradwell directed by Emma Blundell, Jules Bower's The House On Cedar Street directed by Maggie Inchley and finally Welcome To The Jungle by Peter Higgins directed by Kamaal Hussain.
We'd urge anyone who wants to come to try for the 5pm show, mainly because the 7pm show is completely sold out. We look forward to seeing you there all those of you who've got tickets. For those who haven't, they're currently changing hands at a thousand pounds a pair on eBay. Yes they are.
Have fun. I did some weeding today. Aren't dandelions tenacious little chaps? And there's always a bunch of them. They're scared, that's why.
Cheers, Declan
Hi guys
It's 1.17am but I'm still up. Now that's what I call 'anarchy'.
Today's shows were absolute humdingers I hope you'll agree. If not, tell us.
Good to see our regular punters, thanks for your support as ever.
The judges (Katie Tyrell and Karen Rosie from BBC Radio, writer Paul Dornan and Monkey Kingdom TV's Catherine Oldfield) voted Peter Higgins' Welcome To The Jungle top (dir Kamaal Hussain) with Jules Bower's The House On Cedar Street second (dir Maggie Inchley). We'll see them in the semi-finals in a couple of weeks.
So sad to see the back of Charlie Boucher's Kwarfee, directed by Andy Pandini and The Boot Room by John Gradwell, directed by Emma Blundell. We're missing you already, and huge thanks go to the casts, directors and writers of those two fab sitcoms for their efforts. Great things will come to you all.
The audience voted for Welcome To The Jungle, with Kwarfee second, House On Cedar Street third and Boot Room fourth.
Thanks again to those who came and made it another sell-out. Hey, let's do it again next week. We've got Marc Blake along as a judge, has anyone signed up to do his course?
Oh, and in attendence today were Caroline Raphael, head of comedy commissioning for Radio 4, Jim Reid from Channel X and the head of development from Objective Productions. And Paul Dornan liked one of the actors so much he's asked her to go in for a casting for a new show next week at ITV.
Love to all
Dec and Si