British Comedy Guide

BBC Transgender Comedy Writing Competition...FFS!! Page 5

Quote: Claire Parker @ December 3 2012, 4:41 PM GMT

However if anyone is actually thinking of writing a script then please pop over to the www.transcomedyaward.org website where we have been answering questions posed by script writers on the theme of being trans.

A very useful site.

Though I'm sure you'll understand that when one of the quotes on the homepage (from The It Crowd) says "I used to be a man" Nobody would say that, would they? and then one of the posters in the forum says "I tell people that I used to be a man" then it's easy to understand why somebody like myself starts shouting at the computer....

It's like nailing jelly to the wall.

Why has no body looked at my entry yet?

Quote: sootyj @ December 3 2012, 5:25 PM GMT

Why has no body looked at my entry yet?

Sootyj, the trans community would find that double entendre offensive.

Quote: Nogget @ December 3 2012, 5:56 PM GMT

Sootyj, the trans community would find that double entendre offensive.

Its my entry and nobody elses

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ December 3 2012, 4:42 PM GMT

I think the real point I was trying to make was that I hate favouritism in all it's guises

Nah - it wasn't that.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ December 3 2012, 4:42 PM GMT

Still, no one addressed my other points, they just sought to highlight my 'bad words' in some weirdly hypocritical attempt to look non-judgemental and inclusive.

You actually weren't being facetious with them?

Because you understand, it's a little difficult to take seriously an argument that people's stories about ladyboys and late night shock-docs and a Bond extra that got forced into the limelight 30 years ago (seriously, if I was parodying the antifavouritism argument, I'd pick those three examples) show that the current profile of transpeople can't be better. I mean, the most sensitive portrayal of trans issues in British comedy I can think of was in The League of Gentlemen FFS

And black people should have been grateful to the minstrel shows, damn them.

Judging by its reception I suspect Life's Too Short was rather more damaging to the reputation of Gervais/Merchant than to the little people. But then I haven't watched it and probably won't. Again, I'm not sure the failings of a writer whose usual schtick is poking fun at political correctness really undermines the case for giving new writers half a chance to shine in some "right on" political project.

As for your clearly very sincere fears about "blackface" I suspect that the transgendered community aren't clamouring for every single trans role to be filled by a transperson . But maybe youre right, in which case I'm sure the "mentally confused gender benders" will thank you for your brave and not-at-all-hypocritical attempt to save them from ridicule. Damn the BBC and their hypothesised insensitivity!

It's hard not to feel some people are hoping ernest passion will be more important than comedic talent.
Go for it.
Show the love.

Quote: enigmatic @ December 4 2012, 2:49 PM GMT

But maybe youre right, in which case I'm sure the "mentally confused gender benders" will thank you for your brave and not-at-all-hypocritical attempt to save them from ridicule. Damn the BBC and their hypothesised insensitivity!

I am always right and thank you for backing it up. I am really so concerned about the opinions and needs of 0.01% of the population that I lie awake in bed at night worrying about their concerns and so should you. They have a valid voice and should definitely warrant air time above everyone else.

Yes, I know, they haven't been persecuted to the point of being bombed by fighter jets or been subjected to genocide, but a lot of them are quite middle class and can command press attention. Some would say that having an entire 'porn tube' based on your mixed up gender would be enough. But not I.

Let's here it for a new era of trans-gendered comedy and let's open the door for other equally niche commissionings that are easily not a waste of license payers money. Woo.

Think I'm gonna call my character Ernest Passion :)

Seriously, is there much the Beeb does that isn't a waste of licence payers money? Personally, I'd have thought pandering to minorities that advertisers can't be bothered with was the least they could do to justify their continued existence, and I'm all in favour of them doing it in the form of scriptwriting competitions. Here's to the next sitcomp focused on travellers and asylum seekers.

Quote: enigmatic @ December 5 2012, 9:30 AM GMT

Think I'm gonna call my character Ernest Passion :) Here's to the next sitcomp focused on travellers and asylum seekers.

Actively focussing programming on the few people who don't actually pay the licence fee seems a little counter-intuitive, even for the BBC.

:)

What is this licence-payers money that concerns people?

Are the BBC offering much more than their usual Writers' Room 'we read the first 10 pages of anything' service? With no suggestion of a fast-track to a Commission and no cash prize being stumped up by the BBC.

Quote: sootyj @ December 3 2012, 5:25 PM GMT

Why has no body looked at my entry yet?

I think they're still trying to work out the ins and outs. I wonder what's the cut off date?

Quote: enigmatic @ December 5 2012, 9:30 AM GMT

Think I'm gonna call my character Ernest Passion :)

It's just a shame Greg Dyke has left.

Quote: enigmatic @ December 5 2012, 9:30 AM GMT

Seriously, is there much the Beeb does that isn't a waste of licence payers money?

Yes. Loads.

Quote: JohnnyD @ December 5 2012, 12:27 PM GMT

Are the BBC offering much more than their usual Writers' Room 'we read the first 10 pages of anything' service?

The chance for your script to spend (along with nine others) an afternoon in the company of Jon Plowman!!!!

Who needs filthy lucre when you can have that?

Quote: Lazzard @ December 5 2012, 12:25 PM GMT

Actively focussing programming on the few people who don't actually pay the licence fee seems a little counter-intuitive, even for the BBC.

If the next competition is "Write about anyone who doesn't pay the licence fee' then I can send it a 30 minute sitcom about myself.

Quote: JohnnyD @ December 5 2012, 12:27 PM GMT

Are the BBC offering much more than their usual Writers' Room 'we read the first 10 pages of anything' service?

First prize is £5000 - not sure who is fronting this cash, the TGs or the BBC.

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