Press clippings Page 24
A Busload of Quakers
'Pigs n Spivs' is the title of Ep 2 of series 2 of Hut 33 (now on iPlayer here) I'm not convinced this is the best title,since it implies that there is more than one pig and one spiv in the episode, when there isn't. There is one spiv who sells our starving codebreakers a job-lot of bacon. Which is still in pig form. Unfortunately, they discover the origins of this pig and could be in serious trouble.
James Cary, Sitcom Geek, 17th November 2010The recipe for sitcom success
Miranda writer James Cary on his unfailsafe recipe for creating a sitcom.
James Cary, The Guardian, 13th November 2010Escaping Our Certain Fates
I was in a meeting recently when someone who makes more money than me told me not to be cynical, and to hold fast to original ideas and not make my ideas fit into holes that I may have perceived commissioners and controllers think they have in their schedules.
James Cary, Sitcom Geek, 28th October 2010Whites review
What I like about Whites is that I believe it. It feels like a real kitchen and that the characters really are who they say they are - even though they are all very familiar faces.
James Cary, Sitcom Geek, 20th October 2010The Most Successful Makers of Comedy in the UK
I was talking to some comedy writers last night - and we were thinking about why we liked BBC4 so much - the comedy, the documentaries and everything else.
James Cary, Sitcom Geek, 10th September 2010Do People Really Talk Like That?
It's a question worth asking yourself all the time as you write. Do people really talk like that? There are plenty of moments where, if you're honest with yourself, someone has only really said something in a certain way in order to provide the set-up for a joke.
James Cary, Sitcom Geek, 24th August 2010Happy Tuesdays: Mr and Mrs Smith
I listened to Will Smith's Mr and Mrs Smith the other day - part of the Happy Tuesdays season of pilots on Radio 4. It was a show about a married couple undergoing counselling, and starred Will Smith and Sarah Hadland. I rather liked it. In fact, I like it a lot.
James Cary, Sitcom Geek, 13th August 2010Missing the Point of IT
Comedy is huge business - and it always surprises me there isn't more of it on television. There is so little comedy now that every new episode of a show is hyped and picked over to an extraordinary degree.
James Cary, Sitcom Geek, 12th July 2010Why I believe in Rev Adam Smallbone
I have to declare an interest here. I'm not involved in the show. But I do go to church. In fact, I'm on my local PCC.
James Cary, Sitcom Geek, 3rd July 2010A Very Bad Week in British Comedy
This week is a very bad week for the British sitcom. It's probably not the first week of its kind. And won't be the last of its kind either, sadly. But I think I'm right in saying that on terrestrial TV there is not one single new episode of British scripted comedy. None.
James Cary, Sitcom Geek, 1st June 2010