2011 - Where Were We?
Wednesday 1st June 2011
So much has happened since we announced the 32 long-list of the Sitcom Mission 2011, we thought we'd send you an update.
We had quite a few people ask us for feedback. It's great when people do this because it shows that they care about their craft and want to improve. Unfortunately we just couldn't give it - we had over 1200 entries and there just isn't the time in the day. Sorry if you were one of those people.
The 32 long-listed writers went about their task of coming up with two more episodes while Simon and I got about a week of rest before the storm gathered once more. During this period, we had to bid farewell to one of our script editors, Hayley McKenzie, who is now script editing Hollyoaks. The brilliant Adam Bromley (who produced The Now Show and Recorded for Training Purposes on Radio 4) replaced her, and we couldn't have had a better person to fill her shoes. If you see what I mean.
The 64 second and third episodes came in, and the results went three ways. Some people improved on their first episode and made themselves real candidates; some writers gave us two more of the same, and some showed themselves to be one-hit wonders. It's all part of the process and it was interesting to see which direction each writer took their sitcom.
What we weren't expecting was how much debate the final 32 would present us. We narrowed it down to 12 and had to pick our eight from them. It should have been a straightforward decision, surely? There were five of us sitting around a table in Hat Trick's offices - we had graphs, leader tables, ticks in boxes and crossings out. Someone summed it up - comedy is subjective. Drama brings audiences together and they tend to respond in a more uniform manner, while comedy can divide opinions like little else.
Eventually, it went down to the wire, and we picked our final eight. There was quite a bit of, "Are you happy?" "I'm happy if you're happy." "Are you sure you're happy?" But then the final eight went out, 24 people went off to fight another day and we had more requests for feedback.
Script Editors were assigned and re-written scripts went back and forth. Directors were in place and actors auditioned. We're just putting the finishing touches together and the first shows kick off on Monday 6th June.
We want to make the shows a real celebration of comedy. Although The Sitcom Mission is a competition and there can only be one winner of the £5000 prize, we want the evenings to be a real comedy festival. We've got plenty of top comedy support acts, and we've put the shows on in June and July so there's some Edinburgh previews each night as well.
The judging panel for the Grand Final on 18th July hasn't been completely confirmed yet, but there are some stellar names from the comedy industry and we're incredibly fortunate and grateful to have them. The list of judges will be on The British Comedy Guide website from Monday.
We're on the final stretch of this year's competition, and we wanted to thank all of you for making it happen. If you can make it to any of the shows at the New Diorama Theatre in London, we'd love to see you. Details are here
And remember to sign up to our Facebook page if you want the latest details about each show, and who the eventual winner is. We'll be doing this again next year, so get those thinking and inspiration caps on, and we look forward to the next 1200 entries.