Writing the comedy drama?

Hi everyone,

I wondered if anyone has any tips on writing the comedy drama/know of any courses on this specifically? There are of course, set formats for the sitcom and the drama respectively, but I'm having a little trouble with marrying the two in perfect harmony in a script. Does anyone know of any online script banks for this I can peruse, too?

Any help or thoughts on the matter would be brilliant, thanks a lot!

Oh, and if anyone knows the best resource to learn how to set out a script (self-confessed newbie) that would be great too !

Not sure about courses but you can find some scripts here -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts

Also check out the 'opportunities' section.

Good luck.

I think to get a good idea you should try to find the Auf Weidersehen scripts.

Writing the comedy drama

The indefinite article confuses me here - I suppose you mean the only comedy drama you'll ever write. I would hard pressed to come up with THE comedy drama, the one that changed a generation, say. This Life was probably the closest, not that I ever watched it.

In terms of format, do it in screenplay format.
Lots of formatting software out there, from the free to the expensive.*
I think it's best not to get hung up on the comedy-drama label itself - too much blood has been spilt in pursuit of a definition.
The main thing is to get the audience to care about the characters.
Good luck.

* This is usually the point when I harp on about Scrivener, the best £35 a writer could ever spend. And today is no exception.

Thank you for all your advice, especially the 'label' comment - am realising through scientific analysis (watching old episodes) that it matters more that the characters have depth, light and shade and yes - that you actually care what happens to them.

Ha, I'll attempt to start with "A" comedy drama and work my way up..