The universe has spoken.
It’s telling you to stick the kettle on and watch a few wee things. Biccies optional.
Comedy is the best creative work-out for any writer.
You need to nail the structure. There’s no room for any fat. And you have to keep your funny bones flexed.
I was lucky enough to land a place on the BBC Comedy Writersroom* in 2018 (12 of us were chosen from over 5,300 applicants). And was also awarded a place on the BBC Children’s Voices scheme in 2020.
Both these opportunities have led to some lovely TV and radio commissions.
I’m always, always writing. I write sketches and song pastiches for Witsherface (a Glasgow-based comedy collective). My work has been performed on the radio, online and we’ve done several live shows for the Glasgow International Comedy Festival.
And, like all comedy writers, I have a bunch of pilots on my desktop that got close…but no cigar.
But hey, we do it for the love, not the glory.
*Links to a blog I wrote for the BBC about the experience.
BBC Sketchtopia: Britbit
BBC Dynasties
You’ve heard of Fitbit. The tracker thing that measures your fitness.
Well, this is Britbit. It measures your Britishness.
(And not in a good way.)
The brief was to advertise BBC’s brilliant Dynasties (as in Attenborough, not Joan Collins) to a younger audience.
As the real stars of the show are the animals, I created Chimp Chat. A Snapchat conversation between two chimps.
Not gonna lie. I scared myself as to how easy it was to think like a primate. ;-)
Ordinary Day - short
I wrote this for an actor pal during lockdown. We shot it with no budget on a cold October day in Glasgow. Restrictions had been lifted to let people meet outside, but we still weren’t allowed indoors. (Or in each other’s cars.)
Ordinary Day is about the beauty of memories.