Welcome to The Sitcom Mission 2018 - here at last!
Sunday 1st April 2018
First off, we'd like to congratulate last year's winners, Ben Hogan and Colin Elves, who had a script optioned as a direct result of winning the contest. It's often been said that being a Sitcom Mission finalist opens doors that would otherwise remain shut, and on this occasion it was a Yellow Door that opened for Ben and Colin. Well done, lads, all the hard work paid off but the real fun starts now!
There are a couple of changes to previous years, but mainly the format remains the same.
The main difference is the timings for the launch and for Gold and Silver entry. We launched at the beginning of April instead of the usual January because Simon had a heavy teaching schedule and Declan was in the middle of a battle with the big C. Now that the scheduled chemo treatments are out of the way, we're ready to script read and especially send out feedback before the closing date at the end of June. Remember, we have a vested interest in you producing a better script! The better your sitcom, the better our showcase...
Speaking of feedback, the other change we've made is dropping the Bronze Bullet option that we toyed with last year. It was a nice idea at the time, but, as we mentioned in the longlist blog last year, we were doing feedback on too many scripts that were first drafts and hadn't done basic checks and improvements. The full Bronze option still remains, as do the Gold and Silver Bullet versions for those wanting feedback before the closing date.
Deadlines for entry and feedback are: Gold/Gold Bullet - 29 April; Silver/Silver Bullet - 2 June; Regular/Bronze - 30 June.
As ever, we take on board your feedback as well as dishing it out ourselves so please feel free to get in touch via Facebook, Twitter or our British Comedy Guide forum.
And let the games begin!