Big Comedy Conference video: Open Door Shows
With topical comedy shows Breaking The News and The Skewer both back on air and accepting material right now, we thought we better get this video we recorded at our Big Comedy Conference in April online, to help you hone your submissions for those shows.
This panel session, hosted by writer Dave Cohen, features insight and advice from Breaking The News series producer David Flynn, The Skewer creator Jon Holmes and DMs Are Open producer Rajiv Karia.
They discuss topics such as what material they're looking for and need; the quantity of submissions they have to sift through, and how you can stand out in that pile. Plus they emphasise how it is important to get the tone right in your submissions; why persistence and patience are key qualities needed; and more.
This session took place in the second of our conference rooms. We didn't have a proper camera setup available in this room, so thank you to editor Charles Reilly for managing to put something together with this footage, and apologies to you the viewer for the recording starting after the session had already begun, and for the occasional dips in sound quality.
The process of editing the videos of the conference sessions held in our main room - which were recorded with multiple HD cameras - is nearly finished. We will email these videos to those who had conference tickets as soon as they're ready. Meanwhile, for those who didn't come along, they'll be added to BCG Pro across the year, so you can catch-up too.
How to submit to these open door shows
You should apply to join the pool of writers who are send the writing brief each week. To find out more, see our Breaking The News writing tips
You essentially just need to email in your ideas. But, before submitting, ensure you have read the Contributors Guide
Series 2 has now been fully recorded. The programme is expected to return for Series 3, although there has been no confirmation on timelines yet. Stay tuned to BCG Pro for news.
Speaker biographies
Dave has been a consistently successful writer and comedian for four decades, and is best known as lyricist-in-chief for Horrible Histories. He co-hosts the hugely popular Sitcom Geeks podcast and is one of the most respected teachers of comedy writing in the country.
Dave is the series producer of the multi-award winning Breaking The News, Scotland's number one satirical news quiz. He's been writing comedy for 27 years and producing it for BBC Radio, TV and podcast for almost as long. Throughout his career, he's made everything from comedy documentaries to semi-intelligent morning phone ins. Dave's even managed to have a Top 40 hit and, by the way, Ken Bruce loves him.
Jon is a multi award-winning writer, presenter, producer, and boss of indie production company unusual. His Radio 4 comedy The Skewer has notched up shelf-loads of international awards including Gold for Best Comedy at the UK Radio Academy Awards two years running. He's hosted his own shows on BBC 6Music, Xfm, 5Live, LBC, Radio X, Virgin and (a long time ago when he was young) Radio 1. He's since covered Saturday mornings and weekday breakfast on Radio 2, and worked on TV with the likes of Armando Iannucci and Harry Hill. He co-created Radio 4's Dead Ringers, and has won BAFTAs for his work on TV's Horrible Histories.
Rajiv is a stand-up comedian and producer. He won the BBC Contract Writers Bursary in 2021 and has produced The Now Show, Just A Minute and public-submission sketch show DMs Are Open. He produced Series 3 of Ken Cheng: Chinese Comedian which won the BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Scripted Comedy (Longform) in 2023. He has written material for The News Quiz, Dead Ringers, Best Medicine, Horrible Histories, Olga Koch: OK Computer, and Have I Got News For You.
