Freezing

Kind of mentioned previously on https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/post/8656 but the first 'series' of Freezing is on Beeb 2 at 10pm. I use 'series' lightly as I think the first episode is the pilot made last year, and also it's only three episodes; so 'series' in the way that The Thick of It was two 3-ep serieses.

Also, like Outnumbered showing on three consecutive nights (Wed/Thu/Fri).

I thought the pilot was excellent and probably the best of the 'Tight Spot' series of pilots (though I did miss one of them). Glad there's a 'series' of it.

Dan

It's actually three new episodes, the pilot is not being re-broadcast (which is an odd decision in my mind). You're right though, not a full 'series'...

https://www.comedy.co.uk/freezing/series1.shtml

EDIT: I'm wrong! It is only two new plus the pilot. See below.

I’ll def be watching this although I didn't see the pilot episode.

Someone has told me the premise is very similar to something I’ve been working on So if you all listen carefully at approx 10.30pm tomorrow (Wed) night you might just hear a script being torn in half >_<

Quote: Mark @ February 19, 2008, 4:35 PM

It's actually three new episodes, the pilot is not being re-broadcast (which is an odd decision in my mind). You're right though, not a full 'series'...

https://www.comedy.co.uk/freezing/series1.shtml

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Hmm, from your write-up, episode 1 sounds *very* much like the pilot I saw! The adverts I've seen for it seem to be from the same episode I've seen. If Vincent Gallo is the ex-flame and film director Liz talks to on the phone, it is the pilot.

Dan

Quote: Writer2K @ February 19, 2008, 4:47 PM

So if you all listen carefully at approx 10.30pm tomorrow (Wed) night you might just hear a script being torn in half >_<

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Quote: swerytd @ February 19, 2008, 6:47 PM

Hmm, from your write-up, episode 1 sounds *very* much like the pilot I saw! The adverts I've seen for it seem to be from the same episode I've seen. If Vincent Gallo is the ex-flame and film director Liz talks to on the phone, it is the pilot.

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You know what, I'm sorry - you're right now I look at it! I blame BBC Publicity for being so vague!

I've just looked through the stills of Wednesday's episode and they look like they come from the pilot. Unfortunately I didn't see that episode myself but if I remember rightly Richard E Grant, Alan Yentob and Ben Miles had cameos in it?

Here's a scene that will be in Wednesday's episode. From the pilot yeah?

Ooohhhhhhhhhhhh, I think I did see that pilot. I think it was rather good.

My memory is awful. Stupid drugs.

Yeah I saw it too.
Cannot remember if I liked it or not.

I seem to remember quite enjoying the pilot, but I can't help but groan at the thought of yet another media-centric sitcom. Surely there must be other subjects out there for TV to cover? That said, Hugh Bonnerville's great and long overdue for his own show.

I don't recall the picture, but Grant and Miles were definitely in it.

Now, where is that picture from?

[wracks brain trying to recall]

Dan

Based on last year's pilot this is likely to be a completely ordinary piece of writing with no jokes produced by someone who is not really a comedy writer, dragged out of the bins by stellar acting. It has two of the best actors in Britain in it - Tom Hollander and Hugh Bonneville. Anyone who saw BBC4's Diary of a Nobody and This Charming Man will know that Bonneville is an unsurpassed comedy actor and nobody plays little shits like Hollander - cf Hotel in Amsterdam.

Assuming that there's only two new episodes because the writer couldn't manage any more rather than the studio burning down, or the crew busted for drugs etc., one has to ask what is up at the BBC. Why don't they throw their money at someone who can push out a couple of series. There are enough c**ts who can.

Much as I admire great actors, not many great actors are great comedy actors. Yes, a lot of them are good at performing very understatedly in fairly pallid, jokeless comedies of social embarrassment and manners. Not many could handle being put in a role demanding more exaggerated characters who actually have to deliver real comic lines and physical performances. Where is the next Rowan Atkinson, Coogan, Mayall, Leonard Rossitter or Barker, who can comediacally act brilliantly, creating proper comic performances of real subtlety?... Er, yes, not actually seen any of 'Freezing' yet, but it does sound like it's going to be funny in the way 'Never Better' was funny.

Quote: Writer2K @ February 19, 2008, 4:47 PM

So if you all listen carefully at approx 10.30pm tomorrow (Wed) night you might just hear a script being torn in half >_<

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Quote: Paul W @ February 19, 2008, 6:58 PM

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Well I watched it; and some of the themes were very similar.

Age group....the same
Disillusioned writer...the same
Main characters acting out scenes from a play...the same

I certainly don't have to rip my script up but I'll need to buy a new red pen!

In spite of the extra work it's caused me I thought it was great! Obviously aimed at 35+ age group (if not older). It'll be interesting to see how it develops in pts 2 & 3.

Writer2k, do still tear your script up. The world does not need another TV show about about a writer. There should actually be a law on the statute books to stop writers producing scripts where the central character is a writer. Have you thought about how difficult it is to relate to for so much of your audience and how uninteresting. And it's a failure of imagination.

Shakespeare didn't write many plays about a bald bloke who worked in a theatre, did he?

I didn't say it was a central character.

But of course you’re correct I’ll tear it up right away!