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BBC New Comedy Award 2017 open for entries 4th May deadline. The BBC New Comedy Award, the Radio 4 stand-up competition, closes for entries tonight (Thursday). If you want to apply, get over to the BBC website pronto! Details |
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Class Dismissed 5th May deadline. CBBC sketch show Class Dismissed is entering its third series and is looking for more sketches. The BBC says there is no guarantee of selection but, if chosen, your sketch may feature in a future episode. Details |
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Comedy Acting For Television 6th and 7th May event (London). Producer and Director Dr Paulette Randall will be at The Comedy School (Camden, London) this weekend to give students a unique opportunity to enhance their comedy acting skills in front of the camera. Details |
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BAFTA Guru 6th and 7th May event (London / Glasgow). This weekend BAFTA is running two days of panels and masterclasses in London and Glasgow. Comedy-related speakers include the Still Game team and Susan Calman. Details |
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Murder In Successville free tickets 7th May event (London). On Sunday in London at 12:15pm at BAFTA HQ, as part of the BAFTA Guru weekend, the creative team behind Murder In Successville will be talking about 'how to take the small screen by storm'. Event details. We've got five pairs of tickets to give away to Make It subscribers. Interested? Email us. We'll randomly select five entries Friday morning at noon. |
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BBC Writersroom 15th May deadline. As we mentioned in the last newsletter, the BBC Comedy Script Room (an avenue to get the BBC to look at your comedy script) is now open for submissions. Details |
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Situation Critical event 22nd May event (London). The Writers' Guild of Great Britain is putting on a panel discussion about ways to bring the sitcom back to life. Panellists are set to include top writers Marks & Gran, producer Julia McKenzie, and writer/producer Gail Renard. Details |
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Funny Women Awards Registration for the 2017 Funny Women Awards is now officially open. It's not just for performers nowadays... if you're a writer or producer, do look at their Comedy Shorts or Comedy Writing categories. Details |
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BBC calls for family-friendly comedy BBC comedy commissioner Shane Allen has updated the guidelines for what the BBC is looking for. For example, more family-friendly, pre-watershed comedies are required for BBC One. Read |
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The Hippopotamus - ask the director New film The Hippopotamus, which is based on the comic novel by Stephen Fry, is coming to cinemas in June. Watch the trailer. Ever wanted to put technical or career-based questions to a comedy film director? John Jencks, who helmed the project from inception and has previously worked on films such as Swallows And Amazons, has kindly agreed to answer some questions about directing from BCG's Make It readers. To ask a question, just send a message via the website |
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Want to be an Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2017 judge? Ever wondered what it's like to see lots and lots of stand-up in a day and to view it with an analytical eye, like those in the industry often do? If you can take time off work in August you can apply to be a judge on the Edinburgh Comedy Awards panel. Details |
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Livin In The City The Livin In The City festival is looking for submissions. Their competition categories include filming a comedy sketch in a 1970s or 1980s style. Read |
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Opportunities for diverse talent Televisual magazine rounds up the industry schemes and training opportunities available for new and emerging talent from diverse backgrounds. Read |
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Steve Stamp interview Steve Stamp, the co-creator of BAFTA-nominated sitcom People Just Do Nothing, talks to BBC Writersroom about what makes the show so successful, the writing process, and his top tips for comedy writers. Read |
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Stand-up comedian tips The Huffington Post has asked a bunch of comedians for tips to give to performing newcomers. The advice includes doing your homework about the location and thinking about your body language. Read |
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Sitcom Geeks James Cary and Dave Cohen continue to publish their fortnightly podcast about comedy writing. In the most recent editions there's an in-depth chat with Eric Chappell, the writer of hits such as Rising Damp. Listen |
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The BBC Academy Podcast Have you discovered the BBC Academy podcast yet? It delivers insight from the BBC. TV and radio production related episodes include advice on how to pitch programme ideas. Listen |
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James Cary blog 'Finding A Character's Unique Voice' and 'Polishing Your Script' are amongst the great topics that can be found on James Cary's Sitcom Geek blog this month. Read |
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Dealing with mixed reviews Sh*t-Faced Shakespeare has had mixed press reviews for their shows - some reviewers love it, some don't. Lewis Ironside explains how they've dealt with that. He says: "Ultimately each outlet will write for their target audience, just as we will craft our shows for ours." Read |
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Porters - 10 years in the making Here's a bit of a morale boost for anyone who has a script project stuck in development hell. We recently revealed that UKTV has commissioned the sitcom Porters: Dan Sefton's script first appeared in our pilots database nearly 10 years ago, showing just how long it can take for something to finally get commissioned. Ultimately, if you stick with it, you can get there in the end. Don't give up on a good idea. News |
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British Comedy Guide forums We have six forums on our message board for those who create comedy. There's more discussions and ideas to be found here: Opportunities Writers' Discussion Performance Discussion Looking for Collaborators Showcase Critique |
A reminder for you: Talk to as many people as you can! Caroline Raphael, who recently produced the Radio 4 comedy drama Almost Like Being In Love, tells us how she started working with creator Catriona Knox...
"It was pouring with rain, in the way it only can during the Edinburgh Fringe, in 2012; I was sheltering under an umbrella at the Pleasance waiting to dash to the next show and there was this woman stapling reviews to a large pile of flyers. We got talking. I did not tell her what I did but she told me later she sort of did assume I was something in the industry, just by the sheer amount of shows I seemed to have seen.
"I said I would come [to her show], if I could. And I did. And was very impressed. That led to two series on Radio 4 with her sketch group The Boom Jennies and ultimately to asking Catriona to be one of the four writers in this project [bringing writer-performers to Radio 4's Afternoon Drama slot].
"When people ask what's the point of the Edinburgh Fringe, I often tell them that story as an example of how performers, audiences and the industry occupy the same space, meet each other, share recommendations and so on, unlike almost anywhere else."
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Collecting donations Carlos Manwelly, posting on the message board, explained his sketch as follows: "Carlosmanwelly is out collecting donations for the local hospital, and Rob is always happy to help a worthy cause." Our feedback to Carlos would be that it's a neat concept for a sketch, and he's done a good job of keeping it short, but there's perhaps a case here that the last lines of dialogue diminish from the punchline? YouTube |
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