| MUMBAI:
BBC Productions has announced that its successful College of Comedy, a scheme
for up and coming comedy writers, will be returning for another year.
The
six successful applicants from last year's intake have, for the last 12 months,
been attached to an existing BBC project and have been mentored by well-known
comedy writers to create original work. Following
the success of the BBC's Writers Academy, the scheme is a fantastic initiative
by the BBC to discover brand new comedy talent, and give those people the chance
to work with some of the best comedy writers in the business. Tthe
scheme is an initiative by the BBC to discover brand new comedy talent, and give
those people the chance to work with some of the best comedy writers in the business.
Like
last year, some of Britain's top comedy writers will be mentoring and working
alongside the students. Among those endorsing the scheme are Hugo Blick, Susan
Nickson, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong and Armando Iannucci. Over
the past year the six students – Catherine Shepherd; Leah Chillery; Rob and
Neil Gibbons (Twin duo); Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, Verity Rose Woolnough, Katie Lyons
(Trippplicate); Andrew Viner and John Warburton – have been working across
a variety of channels on both TV and radio as part of the programme. These
include: a comedy sitcom for BBC Three, Ebony's Yard, BBC Two's new comedy
Psychoville from the two writers of The League of Gentlemen (Reece Shearsmith
and Steve Pemberton), Concrete Cow on BBC Radio 4, Bear Behaving Badly for CBBC
and Comedy North show Scallywagga for BBC Three. The
writers have also been developing their own original material. Recently in a culmination
of their year's work, the six scripts were performed in a comedy showcase at the
BBC in front of an audience made up of comedy producers, directors, writers and
agents. For
the second year the scheme is being run by Micheal Jacob, Creative Head College
of Comedy, formerly the BBC's Creative Head Mainstream Comedy and executive producer
of My Family, Two Pints Of Larger And A Packet Of Crisps and The
Smoking Room. He
says, "It has been really exciting to see these very talented writers develop
over the year, and to showcase some excellent work in progress. When we launched
the scheme I said I hoped to be the Arsene Wenger of comedy – they have made
me feel like I am. I’m sure next year will be just as rewarding, and it’s
great to be able to do it again." The
scheme is the brainchild of BBC's Head of Comedy, Mark Freeland. He says, "I'm
really excited that the College of Comedy is returning for a second year. Our
aim is to find more writers from across the UK, delivering new and diverse voices
into the comedy industry." Also
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