Attention comedy writers – the BBC Comedy Collective Bursary Award is open for submissions. But hurry! The deadline is a week on Friday, 31 January. There aren’t many competitions or schemes I unequivocally recommend comedy writers investigate – two to be precise. This is one of them. This will be the third year the BBC […]
Sixteen reasons why Horrible Histories was such a hit On Friday 29 November I’m off to BAFTA with a legion of writers, performers, costume designers and history experts to celebrate the Honorary Award for Horrible Histories. I wrote around 100 songs over ten years from 2009 and saw close-up how it evolved from just another
I don’t normally talk about politics on here because… well, cos it’s a blog about comedy ffs. Occasionally politics crosses over with what we do. For those of you interested in what’s going on in the news, politics provides a route to your first BBC writing credit. I’m proud to say that in the last
I hadn’t intended to end the year with a Final Flourish and a Big Gesture but the decision to take my teaching and comedy chat off Twitter happened to coincide with a few other plans that mean it makes no sense to stay. I still call it Twitter. This isn’t a passive-aggressive attempt to stick
Can you make a living writing comedy? Yes you can, but…
Regular listeners to self publishing podcasts will know that for your novel to stand a chance of succeeding it requires a gripping story, compelling characters, snappy dialogue, a world for the reader to escape to. Plus a great title, professional cover, creative marketing – oh and ideally you’ll have at least three of them in
Since lockdown I’ve been running a series of courses designed to help you speed from nought to first draft. To write a sitcom in eight weeks flat. I’ve run this course ten times now and have been amazed at the response. Initially thought hardly anyone would get there. In the ad for my course I
We’ve talked a lot on the podcast over the years about finding your writer’s voice. How difficult it is to know how to do that, or indeed what it actually is. Recently there’s been a fantastic course on this exact topic. It’s the kind of thing you’d normally have to pay hundreds of pounds for
Exciting news – the much-cancelled BCG Pro Big Comedy Conference has finally slain the mighty Covid dragon and is using St George’s Day weekend to celebrate a return to real life networking for comedy writers. And there’s an extra bonus if you live near London or are planning to stay overnight – a Sunday session where
