Anyone following the blog will know that we've been slightly obsessed with the tale of linguistics lecturer Dean Hardman's rebirth as a comedy genius. His script for From Riga to Rotherham is now in the finals of The Sitcom Trials, a national competition to find new comedy scriptwriting talent. The finals take place tomorrow and Dean's work faces a pretty star-studded panel of judges:Lucy Lumsden (Head of Comedy for BBC TV), Andrew Newman (Head of Entertainment, Channel 4) and Jane Berthoud (Head of Comedy Commissioning, BBC Radio). We, of course, wish him the best of luck (but are now beginning to worry that he might eventually leave us to hang out in some glamorous clique of celebrity Mancunian comedians somewhere in Prestwich).
Showing posts with label comedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comedy. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
The Sitcom Trials
We’d like to break with our normal (relatively) academic focus to say ‘good luck’ to Dean Hardman, a member of our research group and lecturer in linguistics. It turns out that Dean is ‘a bit of a comedian’ (although this is usually used as an insult hurled at unsuccessful criminals by middle-aged cops on dramas like Ashes to Ashes).
Last summer in an idle moment after completing his PhD, Dean decided to enter a competition called The Sitcom Trials. With an established pedigree and operating as a showcase for new comedy writing talent, The Sitcom Trials invited aspiring comedy writers to submit a treatment for a sitcom. This call produced over 500 entries. Then 32 fifteen-minute scripts were selected to be performed live at the Leicester Square Theatre, London. Dean was one of the 32 writers selected.
Dean’s treatment for his script – From Riga to Rotherham – tells us that it ‘follows the fortunes of immigrants Marian, a Latvian who has moved to Britain to realise his dream of competing at the Olympic games, and Patience, a Nigerian hair stylist who wants to be closer to her family who have already settled in the UK. They find themselves living in shared accommodation with Jay, a British man who makes ends meet by working in the local tourist office. We see the social quirks and oddities of Britain through their eyes. In this first episode, Patience and Marian arrive in Rotherham before Patience discovers that her mother is to visit and that she needs a boyfriend-and fast. Is there anyone who could take on the role?’
To be honest, we were fairly surprised that Dean achieved this much in his first attempt at comedy writing (we are, at heart, a fairly cynical bunch). We knew he was funny but…. We were a little more surprised when he came into work on 5th March saying that his sit-com had been performed the previous night, that he’d won his heat and that his script had been received enthusiastically by professionals from the broadcasting industry.
Tomorrow night, From Riga to Rotherham features in the quarter finals of the competition. We wish him the best of luck from the cultural studies team (although we are increasingly believing that he might not even need luck). We'll keep you updated on his progress but you'll be able to find out more quickly here.
Last summer in an idle moment after completing his PhD, Dean decided to enter a competition called The Sitcom Trials. With an established pedigree and operating as a showcase for new comedy writing talent, The Sitcom Trials invited aspiring comedy writers to submit a treatment for a sitcom. This call produced over 500 entries. Then 32 fifteen-minute scripts were selected to be performed live at the Leicester Square Theatre, London. Dean was one of the 32 writers selected.
Dean’s treatment for his script – From Riga to Rotherham – tells us that it ‘follows the fortunes of immigrants Marian, a Latvian who has moved to Britain to realise his dream of competing at the Olympic games, and Patience, a Nigerian hair stylist who wants to be closer to her family who have already settled in the UK. They find themselves living in shared accommodation with Jay, a British man who makes ends meet by working in the local tourist office. We see the social quirks and oddities of Britain through their eyes. In this first episode, Patience and Marian arrive in Rotherham before Patience discovers that her mother is to visit and that she needs a boyfriend-and fast. Is there anyone who could take on the role?’
To be honest, we were fairly surprised that Dean achieved this much in his first attempt at comedy writing (we are, at heart, a fairly cynical bunch). We knew he was funny but…. We were a little more surprised when he came into work on 5th March saying that his sit-com had been performed the previous night, that he’d won his heat and that his script had been received enthusiastically by professionals from the broadcasting industry.
Tomorrow night, From Riga to Rotherham features in the quarter finals of the competition. We wish him the best of luck from the cultural studies team (although we are increasingly believing that he might not even need luck). We'll keep you updated on his progress but you'll be able to find out more quickly here.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Media Anaysis, Media Production and Irate Users
What motivates us to analyse the media? By Dean Hardman.As analysts of the mass media in general or of media discourse in particular, why do we do it? It’s likely that reasons can vary from person to person and that we all have our own. Chief of these, I suspect, is an innate curiosity and fascination with culture – a particular personal interest in film or television and their effects on people’s lives, for example. In my case, there are two main motivations. The first is outrage that I’ve often felt at ideologically loaded and biased reporting that I’ve seen in newspapers and television, the control or hold they seem to think they have (and do have) and a feeling that by pointing these out in a scholarly fashion, that the world will be, somehow, better. This is almost certainly very naïve.
The second is just mere fascination, and it is that fascination that has led me recently to dip my toe into the water of media production and to actually have a go at participating in the media. One relatively recent phenomenon in electronic mass media is 'user generated content' and 'interactivity'. Many media professionals – the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman, for example – rage about the inane nature of user contributions, yet it seems to be the latest fad, with all national newspaper websites enabling readers to leave their thoughts in blogs (not unlike this one). Such user generated content is encouraged (or at least allowable) on the football website 'Football 365'. Here - and here - are two examples of my own contributions to the site, along with 'user comments'. These range from interesting thoughts on the issues raised in the pieces, to inane observations written by people who don’t appear to have even read the articles in question. Best of all, are the foul-mouthed aggressive responses, railing against the inanity of the articles themselves. Any thoughts about why people are motivated to abuse 'journalists' or bloggers are welcome in the comments section at the end of this blog.
My final excursion into the media production game comes in the form of a short sitcom script I entered into a competition called the Sitcom Trials. The play, 'From Riga to Rotherham' deals with issues of immigration and displacement, although suggesting that it is in any way more cerebral than that would be stretching things considerably. If you’re around the Leicester Square Theatre on Wednesday the 4th March, do pop in – although perhaps leave the 'interactivity' until after the show.
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