Sam and I have completed the first draft of our comedy drama! We’ve got a cast of six main characters; not too many that we don’t have time to flesh them out and not too few to be boring. We want to appeal to as many people as possible, but given that we are forty-something housewives with jobs, kids and husbands, I suppose we’ve narrowed it down to your middle class, dysfunctional, argumentative, modern, happy family viewer, just like us. Even if we never get any further than reading it out loud to each other in Sam’s kitchen we feel we’ve achieved something.
Actually that last sentence is completely untrue
Of course we want to go further than that – even an obscure digital channel would be great, but honestly, what are the chances?
Well, I might be one step closer to finding out. I’ve just booked a place on a seminar in Manchester taking place on Wednesday 5th December entitled ‘Writing for TV and Radio’. Apparently it will give aspiring scriptwriters tips on what telly and radio script editors are looking for. Literary agent, Jane Smith, will be there together with Katherine Beacon from BBC Writer’s Room and Ric Michael from Baby Cow productions. (The latter is responsible for The Mighty Boosh, Ideal with Johnny Vegas, Sensitive Skin with Joanna Lumley and Gavin and Tracey - which I loved.) I’m really looking forward to hearing what they have to say.
But what if they make it clear that viewers don’t want to see comedy or drama about a family of five living in Cheshire, running a property company that is in trouble financially and relying on an east European au pair who is the only innocent party in the sorry mess they find themselves in?
Actually – reading that last part back, I don’t think I’d want to find out more either. Sam and I need to spend time on our pitch.
Suffice to say, there’s any awful lot of deceit in the story; wife deceiving husband, husband deceiving wife, husband deceiving lover, husband deceiving accountant, gay antiques dealer deceiving wife….
Unfortunately, there was only one ticket left for the seminar and although I offered it to Sam she said it was fine for me to go. But she is much better at networking than me - she used to work in telly. (I don’t think my previous job experience is as useful; I used to work for Tumble Tots.)
Anyway, I’m going and I’ll be doing what I do best – taking notes.
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