House building

Micheál Jacob's long career as an executive producer and script editor encompasses a plethora of television and radio comedies, including Birds Of A Feather, Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps, Goodnight Sweetheart, My Family, Eyes Down, Thieves Like Us, The Smoking Room, Not For Turning and Dead Canny. He is co-creator and producer of The House.

Late last year, BCG Pro's own Tim Dawson, a friend who I have worked with since Two Pints days, asked if I would like to collaborate on a new project - a participative audio sitcom for Pro.

We would create it, write a pilot, and then it would be up to members to contribute jokes and ideas, ending with a fully scripted series of 15 minute episodes. We would share our process and report on the development phase, leading up to the pilot being recorded and posted on the site.

It was an exciting idea, and I was very keen to be involved. And so the process began.

Tim's idea was to have three people living in a house. It was a sound idea, because three characters is a good number for a 15 minute show, and a house is an ideal setting for a micro-budget project.

Because specifics are always good, and because we both live in Manchester, we settled on an area called Levenshulme for the house location. It's a mixed, up-and-coming area, where a tyre repair workshop sits next to a natural wine and vegan nibbles bar, and one that can feed into stories if necessary.

Then, who is living in the house and why? We thought that the owner, Lucy, had taken on the house and mortgage as part of her recent divorce settlement from the irritating Gary. She's an accountant who largely works from home, and she needed lodgers to keep up the mortgage payments.

The lodgers are Zarah and Billy. Zarah is an actress who doesn't get much acting work, and earns a living doing role play in the NHS. Her appendicitis pains have won rave reviews across the north west.

Billy's source of income is mysterious, though he is never late with the rent. He is an aspiring YouTube star, with a channel specialising in longevity - we could all live forever if the Davos Dudes weren't keeping the secret to themselves.

They're housemates rather than friends, although they get along, something essential in a three-bedroom, two bathroom house. Lucy has the en-suite.

The model is that there is a story of the week, and that each of the characters is capable of generating their own stories, so that in each episode there will be several things going on.

Having established setting and characters, the next step was to write an episode outline/scene breakdown for the pilot. Tim took on the first draft, and then we Zoomed about it, me with pernickety questions and some ideas, Tim explaining his thinking - a typical writer/producer exchange, punctuated with silliness. Because it's a comedy, we're allowed to be silly, and sometimes silliness leads to something useful.

Now Tim is writing a first draft, which we will talk about, analyse, tweak, and that will become the pilot. The episode involves food, death and a cuddly toy. All human life is there.

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If you haven't already, register your interest in the project now