Bob Kushell

Penultimate episode of Bob Kushell's likable black comedy about a bunch of DIY euthanasia facilitators. Scott (Blake Harrison, aka Neil from The Inbetweeners) is still trying to win Julia back after accidentally cheating on her with his boss, and Joey's gambling-addict sponsor threatens to spill the beans about the boys' operation. Yet again, there's another excellent guest cameo, this time from Kate Fleetwood as a furious young cancer sufferer. Very funny, perversely touching, and way more thoughtful than anticipated.

Bob Kushell interview

I wanted to find out more about the controversy surrounding the show, so I got in touch with Bob Kushell, and offered him a chance to speak out about it here on my blog. Thankfully he obliged and here is what he had to say...

Watching this BBC3 sitcom is the televisual equivalent of listening to a toddler squealing 'poo-poo' every five seconds because they think it's the most offensive word ever invented. Way to Go simply tries too hard to shock. The premise itself is controversial (and has already sparked the inevitable outrage from a Tory MP), but has plenty of potential for black humour: three blokes go into business to help the terminally ill to die. But the Beeb apparently feels the subject matter alone is not enough to grab our attention. Instead, it's stuffed the show with enough race, sex and vomit gags to make Judd Apatow blush (the writer is US TV writer Bob Kushell) and the result is heavy-handed and self-conscious. In this episode, the lads try to brush up their professionalism with a business seminar, while Scott (Blake Harrison) wimps out of helping a client with stomach cancer die. It all falls rather flat - and that's a shame. Assisted suicide is surely a subject, er, dying for a more intelligent treatment than this?

Writersroom interview: Bob Kushell

Writersroom talks to TV comedy writer and producer Bob Kushell about Way To Go - his comedy series for BBC Three.

Three down-at-heel, down-on-their-luck blokes decide to set up an assisted suicide business. In common with a lot of shows on BBC3, it's not very good at all, despite having been written by US-writer Bob Kushell (The Simpsons, Third Rock...) and featuring Blake Harrison of The Inbetweeners, but that's largely down to both the filming and the cast, which both work against any actual comedy occurring. It also falls victim to the other "US writer discovers British creative freedoms" syndrome - a substitution of things that would be banned on US TV for things that might be funny.

Way To Go: Writing a highly-charged comedy

Mel Brooks once said - and I'm paraphrasing here - "Cutting your finger is tragedy. But falling down a manhole and dying... now that's comedy." He's right. Heightened situations of hopeless desperation are far funnier than tiny, subtle moments of pain.

British TV: What a Way to Go!

"What's the difference between a plum and an elephant? They're both purple. Except for the elephant." I remembered that joke when I sat down to write this post about Way To Go, my new BBC3 comedy (Thursdays beginning January 17 at 10:00pm) about three guys who start an assisted suicide business.

An opening scene in which a young woman panics about her dog shitting itself might lead you to some understandable conclusions. Namely, that Way to Go can join Coming of Age, Grown Ups and the rest on the giant trash heap of dreadful BBC Three sitcoms. But Bob Kushell's new series is a little more ambitious than that, probing and prodding for laughs - at a genuine taboo - with moderate success. Half-brothers Scott (Blake Harrison of Inbetweeners fame) and Joey (Ben Heathcote) recruit their oafish chum Cozzo (Marc 'Shirley Ghostman' Wootton) to build an assisted suicide machine when it becomes apparent that bumping off people who want it could be a lucrative business. Given the pitfalls, it's surprisingly ungratuitous, and both writing and performances are reasonably accomplished at this early stage. It remains on the watchlist, but we won't be sending this one to Dignitas just yet.

Is assisted suicide appropriate for a sitcom?

The thorny issue of assisted suicide doesn't seem to be fertile, or even appropriate, ground for a television comedy. Not so, says Bob Kushell, a writer for The Simpsons and Anger Management.

US writer Bob Kushell has devised something absurd and very funny in this new black comedy about three men trying to set up an assisted suicide business. Circumstances force brothers Scott (Blake Harrison) and Joey (Ben Heathcote) and their friend Cozzo (Marc Wootton) into considering the drastic move: Scott has been asked by a terminally ill neighbour to help him kill himself on the promise of a pair of George Best's football boots, Joey has gambling debts and Cozzo's girlfriend is pregnant. Oh, and his experience of mending deep-fat fryers in takeaways means he has the know-how to build a suicide machine.