BBC's New Writing Initiatives Page 21

Quote: bushbaby @ October 7 2010, 3:11 PM BST

I guess people today would have a right hoot then if their wife or daughter announced she didn't know which man's baby she was carrying.
Perhaps it's my age and I'm old fashioned

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Depends how it's handled, really. Looked at a certain way My Two Dads was a sitcom about a girl who's mother shagged about to the extent that she didn't know who the father of her child was. And Pretty Woman was the irredeemable story of a filthy whore who married for money. It's all in the execution.

Yes I can understand Pretty Woman, a film and a drama, it's not a sitcom.
But each to their own thoughts.

###Also, Waking Ned proves that lottery win stories aren't the no-sell you seem to think they are.####

..............................................
That was then and eventually lottery stories weren't accepted. Perhaps because they were overdone in the early days of the lottery.
Some magazines even state...no lottery stories

Wasn't the unknown father the premise for Mama Mia??

Again that's a cinema film Marc. I was referring to the sitcom genre.

Quote: bushbaby @ October 7 2010, 3:38 PM BST

Again that's a cinema film Marc. I was referring to the sitcom genre.

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Isn't that kind of like saying "That's a book though!"

Quote: bushbaby @ October 7 2010, 3:11 PM BST

I guess people today would have a right hoot then if their wife or daughter announced she didn't know which man's baby she was carrying.
Perhaps it's my age and I'm old fashioned

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That would be hilarious. It happened to a friend and I laughed my ass off for a week. He didn't think it was that funny but I disagreed. I feel a bit bad about it now.

Quote: Marc P @ October 7 2010, 3:35 PM BST

Wasn't the unknown father the premise for Mama Mia??

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Being a hetrosexual male, I've never seen it.

Quote: chipolata @ October 7 2010, 4:05 PM BST

Being a hetrosexual male, I've never seen it.

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You told me you never saw it as a film because celluloid could never reproduce the thrilling magicalness of seeing it live in theatre!

Ahem, I think you'll find he said 'dressing up and seeing it live in theatre'.

Dan

Quote: Marc P @ October 7 2010, 4:13 PM BST

You told me you never saw it as a film because celluloid could never reproduce the thrilling magicalness of seeing it live in theatre!

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Poppycock!

I'm more a Wicked man.

Does your mother know?

Quote: bushbaby @ October 6 2010, 8:49 PM BST

I'm not impressed with the choice of the Beeb but then again I haven't read them but how can a story about a woman that is preggers and doesn't know out of four men who the father is, progress into a lengthy series?
I won't comment on the others but just say this. Every time one submits a short story or a play or a sitcom idea, it is absolute death to do one on a lottery win theme [everyone knows that except the beeb seemingly] no magazine or theatre will touch it........the mind boggles.
My entry was scripted from a published novel....my husbands [with full permission to do that BTW] and whilst it is obviously good enough for publishers, it's not good enough for the beeb. It's hilarious/sad/pathos/true and could have gone on for years.........

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Hmm..interesting opinion. I just ask you trust in my abilities as a writer. I am incredibly conscious of longevity, and have everything pre-planned. I do not need to justify my ability nor the choice of the BBC, but I thought I'd point this out. I promise you it's very good. Gordon the Bournemouth Tramp rates it very highly...

For the record, I liked the sound of it. But I didn't enter so I'm not speaking through a veneer of bitter disappointment

Quote: bushbaby @ October 7 2010, 2:58 PM BST

Some years ago there was a sitcom titled Joking Apart. The head of the beeb at that time said he didn't regard divorce as a proper subject for a sitcom and it was nothing to laugh about.
Here we have one about a woman that doesn't know out of four men who the father of her baby is. How times change and as I said.... try selling any story about a lottery win.
The other choices seem fine.

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Sad you feel that way. Life is funny. The way we treat each other, the way we see the world, these little lies we call 'morals', the big game we call 'society'. Laughing at what we've never laughed at before is accepting that surely. Celebrating it...? It's not everyone's taste. I find it fascinating. Angela Carter said the most amazing thing: "Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people".

Quote: Nat Wicks @ October 7 2010, 6:18 PM BST

For the record, I liked the sound of it. But I didn't enter so I'm not speaking through a veneer of bitter disappointment

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Might be a generational thing. I suppose I've grown up with the Office, The Thick of It etc...comedies which, in many ways aren't 'comedies' at all. Not in the 'with hillaaaarrrious consequences' sense of the word. A lot of the time you find yourself laughing at things which conventionally speaking aren't funny. But that's the beauty of it. Life is totally farcical, and the things we do and say to each other equally so. I love sitting in the living room listening to the absolute rubbish my housemates talk about and laugh away thinking, 'these aren't 'gags', but it sure is funny'. That's the style of comedy I like, 'people' stuff, not 'two cooky bisexual transvestite vampires buy a flat in Eltham with HILAARRRIOUS consequences' type of thing. Although I'm as partial to a good mindless giggle as the next person, and I have no right to say 'what is or isn't funny', because one's stuff is only as funny as the number of people laughing at it

And by it I mean the finished product, not the 'logline'

F**k it. I write what I want to watch, and I write because I love to do it more than anything in the world. If people like it, then that's absolutely brilliant. I'm still utterly blown away by the whole BBC thing. My caffine intake though has increased to unhealthy levels . Slog time!

Quote: David Bussell @ October 6 2010, 9:24 PM BST

Yeah. Jews and comedy just don't mix.

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Nah we don't. We're dull as piss-water I spent Hannukah playing Ping-Pong....