Quote: Nil Putters @ August 28 2009, 12:01 AM BSTFish & Chimps.
If you see it in some obscure Canadian cartoon one day you can come sue me first. 
Lunch Monkeys - Series 1 Page 3
Danny Cohen (the head of BBC Three) picked the name Lunch Monkeys. I'll pass on your comments Tim.
And, the BBC will change anything they want to change in your comedy. You have just about no say whatsoever. It's all done by committee on a 'take it or f**k off' kind of a deal. If you have another full time job you find it easier to opt for the latter option. Otherwise you just cry, write a death list and count the money. I'm not bitter though, nor am I David Isaacs.
Quote: Mark @ August 28 2009, 10:51 PM BSTI think Tim Chip probably means the show similar in the fact that, like the other shows named, Admin/Lunch Monkeys features slightly bawdy comedy, performed by a fairly-young cast.
Quote: YesNo @ August 29 2009, 8:42 PM BSTDanny Cohen (the head of BBC Three) picked the name Lunch Monkeys. I'll pass on your comments Tim.
Please do.
Quote: YesNo @ August 29 2009, 8:42 PM BSTAnd, the BBC will change anything they want to change in your comedy. You have just about no say whatsoever. It's all done by committee on a 'take it or f**k off' kind of a deal. If you have another full time job you find it easier to opt for the latter option. Otherwise you just cry, write a death list and count the money. I'm not bitter though, nor am I David Isaacs.
I'm happy to f**k off and write a death list.
Actually I am Danny Cohen and you've just won your own sitcom, but I get to pick the title.
Quote: Tim Walker @ August 27 2009, 11:57 PM BST"Hey everyone, I've just written a sitcom about builders. What's it called? 'Wall Shitters', of course."
I just need to write a script, but I think the title will appeal to your channel's demographic as it is.
Matt Tiller writes...
Getting Lunch Monkeys commissioned was simple. In late 2006, I met a solicitor called David Isaac who'd written a script, which was then called Admin. Set in a personal injury law firm, the young post room characters caught my cynical producer's eye. David made me sign a legally binding agreement that I would secure a series. In my own blood. You can take the man out of the law firm…
BBC Three wanted pilots that could be made for £50,000. We pitched. We waited. Spring 2007 and then commissioning editor Jon Rolph said yes. It was guerrilla sitcom making (pay peanuts, you get…) but it wasn't rubbish, largely down to the great young cast found by Janet Hampson. We waited. The BBC commissioned a second script. We waited. A fully funded pilot was ordered as a co-pro with BBC Manchester and broadcast in May 2008. We waited.
Summer 2008 and we all went slowly insane. David Isaac often rang to check we were still "not rejected". My bosses at Channel K, Jim and Alan – experienced, cool heads – promised to dance naked through Soho if that would help. David spent October in my street holding the blood-stained contract and screaming – Romeo and Juliet meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in Manchester (our next pitch) – but we knew that the show had many supporters at the BBC and finally the big call came from Rebecca Papworth late that month.
So, a simple two-year process… not unusual with scripted comedy and it has had advantages. Two years ago, David was a talented but inexperienced writer and I was very new to scripted comedy. Once greenlit, he quickly wrote six great scripts that proved their worth when casting and crewing up; Matt Lipsey, a brilliant director (of some of my fave shows such as Human Remains and getting rave reviews for Psychoville) said he was up for it, then Nigel Havers agreed to play the law firm boss, Mike.
Shooting was still a mighty challenge. Our budget was tight, but the location was on our side – a floor in Stockport's imposing Pear Mill. It has a huge pear on top, which could lead to infantile double entendres, but we're better than that.
Securing the mill came down to the wire and, while we did have alternatives, without it we would have struggled to give Lunch Monkeys the look it deserved. It gave us the law firm's regular office and a scuzzy area for the post room where our downtrodden admin team would work. It also had all the nooks and crannies we needed – the stationery cupboard where various shenanigans happen, toilets where, er, others occur, the goods lift and basement for our final episode where things take an odd turn. Practically, it worked too; space for the production office, art department, green rooms, make-up, costume, camera, lighting. There was also a kitchen that doubled as a set and somewhere to make a decent brew when we weren't shooting.
Having nailed down our location, all we had to do was make it look like a working office. We'd secured experienced designer Jim Holloway – a fair-skinned man, he went virtually invisible on seeing the budget. Thankfully, there was plenty of office furniture and detritus already there and David Isaac rang his solicitor mate Martin whose firm just happened to need a load of bumph clearing out. Jim and his team still had a bit of work to do – including moving existing partition walls twice to create different office floors then putting them back where they started.
Conditions weren't five-star, but thankfully, no one came with a starry attitude – they knew what they'd signed up for and embraced it. The young cast are used to slumming it – fame has yet to go to their heads – while the famous ones grinned and bore it like consummate professionals.
Everything bar a few days out in sunny/rainy Stockport was shot in the mill, meaning our five-week schedule was just about achievable (six is usual). There was even time to play with costumes' hula hoops (the things you played with as kids, not the snack product). Matt Lipsey and I found we could hula far better with our necks than our waists, which goes to show that good directors and producers use their heads not their, er… mmm… hips.
Director's View
"Lunch Monkeys is about what it's like to have that fi rst job after school - the idea that there is something out there that's even more boring than school," says director Matt Lipsey.
"But set against this there's the human spirit: people fi nd a way of making it through. These school-leavers haven't had their youthful vibrancy beaten out of them yet. There's something that marks out the human spirit, and the show is about capturing the humour in that. It's bittersweet."
'Don't go big' is the maxim for the series, according to Lipsey. "We still have moments that are big, but we approach them with the same mindset: we're trying to play it as real as possible. It's The Office for the slacker generation."
The sitcom is shot using two handheld Sony 900 HD cameras. "We used two cameras in order to get through the amount of material. I've gone for a looser, messy approach to give it a gritty feel. It's less composed than I would normally be - with cross-cutting I usually carry tape-measures, but with Lunch Monkeys I've allowed them to develop in an organic way. We went for a cluttered look to the set. There are grubby desks, wires, cables, mess."
Lipsey says you need three things for a good show. First is an excellent script: "I wouldn't have taken the job on if I wasn't happy with the script." Second, you need a really good crew: "They need to 'get' the vision." Third, you need a brilliant cast: "It was a breath of fresh air working with actors just out of drama school. The most fundamental thing is getting the people right. One person who doesn't 'get it' can really screw things up… that could even be a runner.
"If you get all that right, my job is made fantastically easier - it's almost a case of just quietly driving the show along. We were doing 11-12 pages of script per day, twice as much as I would expect to comfortably cover, but there was very little stress. When everybody steps up and gives it their all, there's nothing more exciting."
Quote: Lee Henman @ September 1 2009, 4:14 PM BSTIt's The Office for the slacker generation.
Good to see they aren't in any way deluded about the quality of their product.
The trailer looks quite good. I'll certainly be watching.
Quote: Aaron @ August 28 2009, 1:03 AM BSTI'm standing up for arguably the most obnoxious poster who's ever graced these forums
\o/ First this Isaacs fellow and then Seefacts. I'm not very well liked, I hope I get commissioned next.
*starts penning his new show about gay admin staff called Butt Monkeys*
yea we'll see... I'll catch up to see your views on the 10th
Looking forward to this
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ September 1 2009, 6:51 PM BST\o/ First this Isaacs fellow and then Seefacts. I'm not very well liked, I hope I get commissioned next.
*starts penning his new show about gay admin staff called Butt Monkeys*
Sorry, I must've missed this - what's Seefacts been up to?
Don't get too excited, he's not been commissioned yet, but he is doing OK. Going to phone him in the next couple of days to have a good old bitch.
Quote: Lee Henman @ September 1 2009, 4:14 PM BSTThe sitcom is shot using two handheld Sony 900 HD cameras. "We used two cameras in order to get through the amount of material. I've gone for a looser, messy approach to give it a gritty feel. It's less composed than I would normally be - with cross-cutting I usually carry tape-measures, but with Lunch Monkeys I've allowed them to develop in an organic way. We went for a cluttered look to the set. There are grubby desks, wires, cables, mess."
And it was sounding so much more promising...
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ September 1 2009, 6:51 PM BST\o/ First this Isaacs fellow and then Seefacts. I'm not very well liked, I hope I get commissioned next.
*starts penning his new show about gay admin staff called Butt Monkeys*
Isaacs? No. Seefacts? HELL NO.
You're alright though.
Quote: Aaron @ September 5 2009, 4:33 PM BSTYou're alright though.
<3 
Just from the production notes, I'm not looking forward to it. Having said that, Stellar Street was shot on some handicams and certainly Curb Your Enthusiasm has that same doco feel, so I could be wrong.
I'll watch it but I've got a bad feeling about Wall Shitters Lunch Monkeys.