KI: Dave's Shed

SAMDavid, the shed in the garden has fallen down. Could you please go out there and fix it.

DAVESam, I think it's very important to understand that the previous Government left that shed in a terrible state.

SAMAll you needed to do is pop to Wicks for a hammer and you could have repaired it.

DAVEYou can't just throw money at the problem, I recognise that it's a difficult time for the shed right now but we need to stick to the plan.

SAMWhat plan?

DAVEI'm reducing spending on the garden to cut down on our monthly bills. It's so we can afford Sky.

SAM That's not a plan. That's keeping your fingers crossed that the shed won't fall over. Well, it has fallen over.

DAVELook, I don't want to hide from this. The reports this morning that the shed has fallen over is terrible, terrible news. I had been hoping to see some improvement in the state of the shed in recent months.

SAMHow? The shed's not just going to repair itself is it? You need to take action.

DAVEAlright, alright. I'll sort it out.

SAMAre you going to go and fix it?

DAVENo. I'm going to harness the power of the marvellous hard-working people of this family to form a community action group to deal with the whole issue of the shed.

SAMYou mean me and the kids are going to have to fix it ourselves while you sit here watching 'Cash in the Attic'

DAVEIt's the Big Society in action.

That's really good. I laughed all the way through. Thanks for posting it. Great reference to Sky!
My only worry is would it work if the male character didn't sound like DC? Sadly I haven't got Rory Bremner in the cast! What do you reckon. We can do upper class Toff voice - and the dialogue sets it up for the audience.

Hurrah! Glad you like it.

If it were me, I'd probably give it a lead in like "Meanwhile, over in Downing Street the Prime Minister is in the doghouse with the wife" or, you know, something that doesn't sound like it came out of a rubbish seventies sitcom.

I don't think you need an accurate impersonation for famous people. If people know the actor's meant to be D-Cam then a heightened toff voice can be funnier.

It's kind of setting up David Cameron as a character within KI and then that character in itself becomes funny?

I'm not sure if I'm making sense. It does make sense in my head though, honest.

Funny. And yes, there are plenty of ways round it if the actor isn't obviously Cameronesque, e.g. introduce as "At Home with the Camerons".

Cheers for this Trinder. Thanks for submitting.

What I think is missing in this is an inevitable bellowing for their butler/jack-of-all-trades 'Nick!' to go and fix the shed (or even because 'Nick!' is the expert consultant on how to renege on promises). That would also add a bit of action to the sketch if he scurries in as it's all a bit talky at the moment.

Does Dave need to be a toff? We could make out they are in fact very, very common behind closed doors, though we'd have to make clear who they are from the initial dialogue. I'm unsure whether this works or not so let us have a think first.

Dan

I'll help Dan. It doesn't. You're over-complicating a simple sketch.

Posh/Common? Up to you. In my head D-Cam is the uber-toff but as far as I'm concerned, it's the performer/director's choice how the script is performed.

I'm not sure how I could get Nick into this, other than maybe sending him to Wickes to pick up the hammer, but I'll have a think.

I really wouldn't worry about accurate impersonations though. As long as you can establish that the character speaking is D-Cam, Milliband, Obama then I think a sketch can work.

I don't know if this helps, but when I read this I was too thick to realise it was Sam and Dave Cameron (In fact, I didn't even realise Sam was a woman at first) - but I still really enjoyed it.

Would it be too much to tentatively suggest that it works just as well, and that perhaps the satire is heightened, if it's very ordinary people taking an inept and inappropriately politicized approach to fixing the garden shed?

Just a thought if you are having problems with the impersonations.

Hello, I've had a ponder and I can't think of a way to get the Nick as butler into this sketch without it getting a bit flabby and less focused.

That said, the idea of Sam and Dave having a hapless butler/handyman in Nick Clegg is a lovely one. But I think it's a different sketch to this one.

Anyhoo, you're welcome to it if you like it. But if you don't no harm/no foul.

I agree with Trinder. Simple and focused. The sketch, I mean, not Trinder