British Comedy Guide

What next for The House

The House logo. Credit: BCG

Micheál Jacob's long career as an executive producer and script editor encompasses a plethora of television and radio comedies, including Birds Of A Feather, Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps, Goodnight Sweetheart, My Family, Eyes Down, Thieves Like Us, The Smoking Room, Not For Turning and Dead Canny. He is co-creator and producer of The House.

Now that the pilot has been made available on the site, it's time for members to create the next episode.

It seems sensible to organise the exercise in three phases - the episode story, scenes, and punching up.

So in phase one, we will be asking you to suggest stories. There are three characters - what should each of their stories be, and how could they fit into an overall episode?

It might help to think of the episode as 'the one about', or 'the one where...'.

In the pilot each of the characters has a strand. Billy has a YouTube channel. Should he have a story about his channel in every episode, or is he an enthusiast for modern woo woo with a different enthusiasm each week? He has no visible source of income. Where does his rent come from?

Zarah, who does medical role play, is trying to impress her disapproving parents. Is that a feature of every episode, or should she be doing something entirely different in episode two, relating to her work or something else?

Lucy is an accountant who works largely from home. Her story in the pilot is about her irritating ex-husband. Is he going to irritate her every week so that her story is about him, or should he just be a continuing strand? She is the landlady. Is there a landlady story?

Each of them needs to be doing their own thing, yet united or involved in something as a trio.

You have until a minute to midnight on 8th June to submit ideas. These can range from a full episode outline to a one-liner about a character strand - the only stipulation is that the characters remain as they are in the pilot, rather than one being revealed to have a wooden leg.

We will read, assess, juggle, and post a full episode outline and scene breakdown on 22nd June, crediting the members whose ideas we have adopted and explaining our choices and thinking.


Submit your ideas via The House page

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