Members ask... The Skewer's Jon Holmes

The Skewer returns to Radio 4 this Wednesday at 23.15, and, as usual, the show will be welcoming open door submissions. To help Pro members maximise their chances of getting their material on the show, we put some of your most asked questions to creator and producer Jon Holmes.

What do the successful writers/creators who make it onto the show have in common?

On the surface, not so much which is why the pool of cultural references runs very deep. Each contributor brings their own unique back catalogue knowledge of film, TV, music and more to the show - not to mention a wide range of different opinions, thoughts, and takes on different stories. The Skewer doesn't take sides, all we do is reflect what's happening in the world back at it itself and we let the listener make up their own mind. What everyone DOES have in common (apart from being funny) is an anger or a passion to kick against the pricks, as satire should be doing.

Do people have a greater chance to get on if they edit their own clips with music included?

We welcome audio fiddlers. We encourage editing your own piece (always pitch the idea first though before piling into your DAW of choice) but do not want to be sent a .wav of what you've made. We'll always want the individual consolidated stems so that we can pull them into our edit session where we serve the right to remix and play around with it. If you're keen on giving audio editing a try, we can talk you through this.

Are there any areas/topics underserved at the moment?

For balance we always have to go for politics on all sides, but its fair to say we get far fewer pitches having go at Labour / Lib Dems / SNP etc etc. It's understandable because the power at time of writing is in the hands of the Tories, so naturally we get a lot of stuff on them, but a good idea involving other MPs and leaders will always be welcome.

To find out more about submitting to The Skewer, see the contributor guide. As ever, thanks to Jon, and we'll have more advice on nailing your first professional credits in the coming weeks.