Adrian Poynton

America: where British sitcoms go to die

It is the holy grail for British writers - having your sitcom remade for America. But can Raised By Wolves succeed where Fawlty Towers flopped?

Comedy writing: Creating comedy characters that last!

It's the most commonly stated and in my opinion (so therefore must be true) most correct thing ever said about sitcom. "It's all about the characters". That's it, right there. The secret to writing a good sitcom.

Auditioning for a role in my own show

For ages after I told my friends that I was writing a series for BBC Three, everyone would ask the same few questions: 'Who's in it? Can I come and be an extra? When will it be on?' And the question they asked above all - 'Are you going to be in it?'

There ought to be mileage in a comedy based around the much maligned white van man, but on early evidence this series fails to make the most of the opportunity. It's not that it's bad (we are not talking Two Pints of Lager..., a sitcom with links to both White Van's main star Will Mellor and writer Adrian Poynton), it's just that's it's not very good - or clever. Mellor plays Ollie, an amiable fool who has to put his dreams of running a restaurant on hold to run his father's handyman business, with the help of an idiotic assistant (Joel Fry).

White Van Man: The Journey From Head To Screen

Okay, so this feels weird. After four years work, a silly amount of writing and god knows how many litres of tea, White Van Man is going to be shown on the TV. It doesn't exactly seem real and I'm still not totally convinced it's actually going to happen... and here's why: I had two dreams as a child.

1. To write a TV comedy series and
2. To write an episode of Doctor Who.

Apparently, I've just done 50% of that. Yikes.