British Expat Forum

I've decided to write a sit com. (Got the basic idea and am working on the first story-line.) Yeah, yeah, I'll never get around to finishing it, but it's a fun and interesting thing to do anyway.

A friend also lent us the entire collection of Only Fools and Horses recently which we're enjoying. Some of it is rubbish, some is dated, but there are a lot of laughs in there and it's pretty good. Neither of us are big fans of the series. It's very interesting, though, to look at some of the techniques employed to get the necessary info across. The pilot episode was excellent - and very funny. The next two were fairly mediocre but there's a heck of a lot of good stuff in there. Apart from the entertainment value it's well worth watching for anyone who is interested in writing a sit com.

On a similar subject, I find a lot of humour where you don't necessarily expect it. Taggart, for example, has a lot of dry wit, as does Lynda La Plante's Trial and Retribution, which we watched (again) recently.

Anyone else interested in comedy writing?

I once did a 5-minute radio 'filler' as an exercise on a creative writing course (the one about taking a baby goat across the Botswana/S Africa border - I think I may have shown it here years ago).

That was fun, but I couldn't find the market that the course told me existed. Setting up a sitcom is a bigger job, but sounds like an interesting challenge. If you keep the cast small, maybe you can actually video it and put it on YouTube...

When you've got something together, I'll be happy to review it and pass comment (not that I am really qualified to do so, but at least you know I won't just say 'Ooh! Aren't you clever, Kay!')

Meanwhile, have fun.

Thanks, Ruggie!