Quote: takeabow @ April 19, 2007, 6:11 PMYes, there are lots of varying answers!
The rough and ready way is a page a minute, through heavy action sequences run longer.
The ultimate way is to time it yourself, do a read through and time everything and add it up. Dialogue you can time easily. You should have a rough idea how long an action sequence takes.
For a 30 min sitcom (although obviously the actual length varies depending on the channel, commerical 30 mins, versus Beeb) I'd say anywhere between 28-35 pages - approx.
Well my scripts usually end up from around 45-50 pages in length and when read through are usually 30 minutes, if not less. I've read a few of the sample sitcom scripts on the BBC site and stuff like Two Pints of Lager and a Packet Crisps is 50 pages. But I always see people saying it should only be 30 pages, but for me that would mean my sitcom would only last about 10 minutes.