Tamsyn Kelly developing Cornish C4 sitcom and making R4 sketch show
- Cornish stand-up Tamsyn Kelly is developing an autobiographical sitcom, Pirates, for Channel 4
- The project is in development with Fudge Park, based on her youth in Penzance
- Kelly and Ed Rowe are also part of the team making a Radio 4 spoof magazine show, Wasson Cornwall?
Tamsyn Kelly is writing a sitcom for Channel 4 about social inequality in Cornwall and is part of a team making a Cornish sketch show for Radio 4.
The Penzance-raised stand-up is developing the loosely autobiographical sitcom, with the working title Pirates, with production company Fudge Park (White Gold, The First Team), essentially portraying her younger self.
The comic, who recently supported Kiri Pritchard-McLean on tour and signed with the PBJ management company, shared details of her upbringing in her 2019 Edinburgh Fringe debut Petroc, in which she recounted being born homeless, growing up on a tough council estate near Land's End with a disabled mother and financially irresponsible, violent father, and two younger brothers.
Speaking to presenter Julie Skentelberry on BBC Radio Cornwall, the now London-based Kelly said that Pirates "is about growing up on my estate in Penzance.
"It's about me and my mother and my two little brothers and what we get up to. My character works in a car park ... She doesn't want to leave Cornwall, she loves Cornwall. Some people have a problem with her being happy working in a car park for her entire life.
"There's a lot of social politics that comes into it as it's all about tourism and second homeowners ... and the situation that tends to go down in the summer months ... It's nice to revisit the younger me and set that person up in the way that I want them to be set up. It's fulfilling.
"Like a poor man's Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the plan is [for me] to play the main character. But I better get a wriggle on because I'm not getting any younger."
Cornwall's popularity as a holiday destination has resulted in a scarcity of affordable homes for locals to rent or buy, with younger residents being priced out of their home towns.
Anger at absent second homeowners and their perceived contribution to the housing crisis has prompted protests, with one empty holiday home targeted with graffiti earlier this month, reading: "Second home owners give something back: rent or sell your empty houses to local people at a fair price." Another building in the village has been daubed with "No more investment properties".
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"The whole premise of the show is kind of turning those ideas of Cornwall, 'Corn Porn', turning the idea on its head and showing the underbelly of Cornwall and all of the people out there who are living a completely different life that no-one has any idea of" Kelly told Skentelberry. "Certainly, no-one expects for people to be living that kind of life down here I don't think. And I think it's really important that they do know that."
Meanwhile, Kelly is also part of a team making a Cornish sketch show for Radio 4.
Spoofing magazine shows like The One Show and This Morning from a local perspective, the four 28-minute episodes with the working title Wasson Cornwall?, will comprise sketches, character monologues, tongue-in-cheek reports, interviews and nonsense items, potentially with a drama serial pastiche too, all from "a funny, contemporary, mischievous angle".
With a cast including Kelly and Ed Rowe, the stand-up best known for his Kernow King character and starring in the BAFTA-winning film Bait, the writing team is led by James Henry (Green Wing, Smack The Pony) and includes Kelly, Rowe, Paul Kerensa (Not Going Out, Miranda), Max Davis (The Mash Report) and stand-up Anna Keirle but will also be an opportunity for newer Cornish talent to showcase themselves.
Produced by Simon Nicholls (Bridget Christie's Utopia, Genius With Dave Gorman) for Mighty Bunny Productions, the company set up last year by Radio 4 comedy veterans Lyndsay Fenner and Victoria Lloyd - producers of staples like Just A Minute, The News Quiz and The Now Show, as well as series with newer talent like Ken Cheng: Chinese Comedian and Susan Calman Makes Me Happy - Wasson Cornwall? was inspired by Nicholls's desire to make "a comedy that celebrates contemporary Cornwall: its big heart and silliness, whilst playfully poking fun at the Metropolitan elite's superiority complex: delivering a well-timed comic riposte from the regions".
After leaving his role as an executive producer in the BBC Studios comedy department shortly before lockdown, Nicholls moved to Penzance to freelance and to run the MA course in comedy writing at Falmouth University.
"Moving to Cornwall, I soon discovered a wealth of untapped comedy talent down here" he told British Comedy Guide. "My instinctive producer/rug-salesman's alarm went off and I thought it would be fun to pitch a properly Cornish comedy - written by and starring Cornish talent.
"Shows like Doc Martin and Poldark have shone a light on Cornwall, but really they're London's version of Cornwall. Often in comedy Cornish people are depicted in a cartoony way: as thick and foolish. The reality is far more interesting: they're smart, strong-willed and ruthlessly funny. I was keen to develop a contemporary comedy that showed off the reality and gave a tangible platform for Cornish comedy writers and performers. A comedy that was authentically Cornish but also relatable and funny for a national audience."
Ordered by Sioned Wiliam, Radio 4's outgoing comedy commissioning editor, who could see that "a lot of the issues Cornwall is facing right now are the same as many places outside the London bubble", Nicholls says "there was an opportunity to make a regional comedy that would chime with the nation".
Comedy talent in Cornwall has been largely passed over until now, he believes. "People come and film TV shows and films here - why wouldn't you? Cornwall is stunning" he enthuses. "But when it comes to promoting local comedy writing and performing talent it has been overlooked. I think when broadcasters think 'Nations and Regions', Cornwall often loses out.
"BBC Writersroom ran an initiative for Cornish writers a couple of years ago, but really it needs more than one-off initiatives. There's so much creative talent in Cornwall: Mark Jenkin's BAFTA-winning film Bait has helped give some much-needed attention for Cornish talent in the broadcast arts. I hope we can build on this with the sketch show and with Tamsyn's new comedy for Channel 4."
As with Pirates, the Radio 4 show will highlight the issue of locals feeling like second-class citizens in their own towns.
"The show will certainly poke fun at rich second home-owners and entitled tourists. So there will be some bite to the comedy, but it will also be a celebration of all things Cornish. There's a brilliant confidence to Cornish people, but also the ability to take the piss out of themselves too. I find the rivalry between different towns particularly funny: everyone thinks the town next door is crap!
"There's a real warmth to the Cornish people - something that sometimes feels lacking in big cities. So I hope we can celebrate the warmth and humour of the Cornish people ... as well as poking fun at the Maserati-driving London idiots who insist they should be able to order a pizza in a fish restaurant."