Andrew Dawson is one third of comedy creators The Dawson Brothers. The trio have written iconic TV treats like Ronnie Corbett's The Blackberry Sketch together, and Brain Surgeon sketch on That Mitchell And Webb Look. Their CV also includes shows like The Peter Serafinowicz Show, Walliams & Friend, Katy Brand's Big Ass Show, and their own sketch pilot, Dawson Bros Funtime. With sketch output declining on television, Andrew has written this compelling call for more shows to be commissioned...

You're never more than six feet from a think piece titled "Is sketch comedy dead?". I know, because I've written on at least two sketch shows which prompted such articles. They usually have a cartoon of a dead parrot next to them. While sketch comedy isn't dead, there is not nearly enough of it on TV right now, and as a result, TV is missing out.

Like hundreds of other comedy writers, us three Dawson Bros got our break via sketch comedy. We submitted sketches to a BBC Talent competition and reached the finals, which led to us making our first industry contacts and getting a toe in the door. Frustratingly, given that we were finalists of a sketch competition, we were immediately told that sketch comedy was dead. This was in 2001.

A couple of years later, Little Britain resurrected the genre and prompted a sketch boom. All of a sudden there were double-act sketch shows, TV parody sketch shows, impression sketch shows, relationship sketch shows, sketch shows specifically set during the hours of 8:30-9:30am and 5:00-6:00pm. It was a very fortunate era for us to be starting in the business. There were so many opportunities to write for TV shows, learn from producers and other writers, collaborate with performers, learn how the industry worked and gain those all important first credits.

The same opportunities are just not there for new writers coming through today. Television is in danger of losing a generation of writing talent.

I'm sure we all have gut feelings about the shifts in the comedy landscape, but as a former market researcher, I like a bit of data to back it up. And what's great is, the nerds at British Comedy Guide get horny for this stuff. They are unnervingly meticulous. So much so that, on more than one occasion, I've checked their website to see if I wrote on an episode of something or not. So when the BCG posse drew up a longlist for their Comedy.co.uk Awards, you can be sure it was as long as that list can possibly be.

The numbers aren't great. In 2013, the longlist for Best TV Sketch Show featured 33 shows. In 2022 that number was down to 10. If that trend continues, by 2031 Britain will be making minus 13 sketch shows. We'll have to delete over a dozen classic sketch shows from the archives. A disgrace.

That total of 10 actually papers over the cracks, because only two of those shows were given a traditional six half-hour episode run, the kind of series commission almost always afforded to sitcoms and comedy dramas.

I can understand why fewer sketch shows are being commissioned. Without any recent mainstream sketch smashes in the UK, it must be hard to convince channel heads that it's a genre worth risking. Are comedy entertainment formats cheaper to make? (Yes) Are comedy dramas more likely to garner awards and critical acclaim? (Yes) Will at least one reviewer describe your sketch show as 'hit and miss'? (Inevitably) So commissioning sketch shows right now must feel like a gamble. But the bigger, long term gamble is not commissioning sketch shows at all.

Sketch is vital to TV comedy. It is, and always has been, an essential breeding ground for new performing and writing talent - not to mention producers and directors. A chance to learn comedy in short form, without over-scrutiny, without being thrown in at the deep end - before moving onto sitcom, film and beyond.

When thinking about how best to write this piece, I did consider just writing one long list of British talent who broke into the industry through sketch. People like Dawn French, Peter Sellers, Meera Syal, Steve Coogan, Victoria Wood, Lenny Henry, Edgar Wright, Caroline Aherne, Richard Curtis, David Walliams, David Renwick, Rowan Atkinson, Catherine Tate, Michael Palin, Peter Cook, Jennifer Saunders, Spike Milligan, Matt Lucas, Miranda Hart, the Ghosts team, Jessica Hynes, Stephen Fry, Julia Davis, Sam Bain & Jesse Armstrong, Jocelyn Jee Esien, Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss, Tracey Ullman, Samson Kayo, Simon Pegg, John Sullivan, Olivia Colman, Hugh Laurie, Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci. And that's without mentioning American stars like Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Judd Apatow, Amy Schumer, Adam Sandler, Maya Rudolph, Adam McKay, Bill Murray, Jamie Foxx, Conan O'Brien, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy, Larry David, Mike Myers, Kate McKinnon, Chevy Chase, the Wayans brothers, Jim Carrey, Amy Poehler. But then I thought that just writing a long list of people like that would be a bit of a laborious read.

However, one glance at these names does demonstrate that sketch comedy has been the first step for so many household names who have gone on to make great sitcoms, dramas and movies. Without sketch comedy, how many of those talents may never have had their first break?

Not only does sketch comedy help to unearth and develop incredible talent, but it is also a great way to address gender and diversity imbalances in television comedy. To rectify this ongoing inequality, the industry needs new writers - and sketch shows deliver new writers in large volumes. Most sitcoms or comedy dramas only have one or two writers across a series, while a sketch show could have ten, fifteen, twenty. That's so many more writers getting - or reinforcing - their first break, or gaining credits that might earn them an agent, starting relationships with producers that will help build a career - or just getting their work on TV and being offered some much needed encouragement that they can write comedy. With 20 fewer sketch shows in the last 10 years, how many brilliant comedy writers have fallen through the net?

But, ignoring the trends of comedy commissions for a moment, here's the bit that doesn't make sense to me. Sketch is the perfect comedy genre for the social media age. Short, punchy, clippable, easily shared. Just look at the genius, self-produced sketch comedy being made by Munya Chawawa, Stevie Martin & Lola-Rose Maxwell, The Pin, Harry Trevaldwyn, Jazz Emu, Adrian Gray, Seán Burke, Eleanor Morton and countless others. Meanwhile Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok are all littered with classic (nb. before 2020) TV sketches, with tens of millions of views, usually captioned "Who made this?!" (nb. why not read the credits on the show you ripped it from, dummy?). I still get a thrill when a sketch we wrote several years ago somehow finds itself onto my feed (nb. it is just a thrill though, no actual residuals). This country still loves sketch comedy. That hasn't changed. What has changed is how many sketch shows are on British TV.

If a TV sketch revival does happen, it will all begin with one hit sketch show. The more that are made, the greater chance of landing the next big hit - the one that reverses this sketch show decline. The by-product of possibly unearthing the next big sketch show is the definite unearthing of a new generation of talent. The rewards may not be immediate, but the benefits to the comedy ecosystem are huge and will last decades.

If you're reading this, on British Comedy Guide, there's a decent chance you're a comedy fan. So I urge you to back the British sketch comedies that are being made. Watch them, share them, praise them. Even if you think that a show is "hit and miss", at least share the "hits". (nb. not everything needs to be just for you - remember, a sketch show is tin of Quality Street, not a Yorkie.) The more that sketch shows are loved and viewed, the more likely other sketch shows will get commissioned. So go on - go and watch some. There's Lazy Susan and Famalam and Ellie & Natasia on iPlayer right now, and Netflix is about to premier A Whole Lifetime With Jamie Demetriou. If you show the algorithms how much you love sketch comedy, the revival can begin.

Then, finally, a whole new generation of comedy writers will get to experience just what it's like to be the inspiration for an article titled "Is sketch comedy dead?". And it won't just be a great new era for sketch writers. It will be a great new era for illustrators who can draw dead parrots.