"Steve Coogan's online sitcom allows viewers to write the script. Our writer joins in the fun - or tries to Stephen Armstrong I am trying to get my first joke on air...." via Times Online
It makes one wonder what sort of world the entertainment business has been drawn into. Would it have acceptable to the young Peter Sellers if he had stumbled across a website (what’s a website Eccles?) where upon he saw thousands of people sitting in their humble households banging out amazingly witty and funny scripts for the very first interactive sitcom?
I guess he would have scratched his head and wondered if Michael Bentine had been behind it, yet this is exactly how the world seems to be writing it’s next ground breaking hit. We don’t leave it up to the masters of A League of Gentlemen or just about anyone who every stepped accidentally into Cambridge Footlights, no, we sit in out comfortable armchairs, whilst waiting for the kettle to boil and jot down a scene which would make even Victoria Wood bang her head repeatedly against the nearest piano and say “Why didn’t I think of that??” As a writer I wonder if this whole “come one everyone, anyone can do this” scheme of things is generally a good idea. I am of the old school who engages in a delightful mode when I recall the plights of some of the best loved writers of my proud generation - Stephen Fry, Ben Elton and “Knight-me-now-why-don’t-you" Richard Curtis didn’t suddenly see the Pearly Gates fly open and St Peter stand with beaming smile and a laptop in his arms, inviting you to have a go.
It all sounds a little too easy. As a harmless writer and mediocre comic, I have grafted over several minutes (or even a couple of hours, you know) to find the nearest sweetie at the Beeb who just might take pity on me and a few scraps of meaningless script I may have to offer. So with a similar tone to a long distance runner, who on his last mile, has been offered a lift from a bus driver, perhaps I should be grateful.
I shall, no doubt itch the scratch I have now formed irritatingly and get off to type my next revolutionary dialogue on this genius diversion thought up by Mr Coogan. It is tempting, so if there is a choice between the steady churn of rejection emails from the Beeb and a night of a thousand stars on the Steve Coogan Show, then I know where I’ll be going....http, anyone..?
mduffy 2007
I guess he would have scratched his head and wondered if Michael Bentine had been behind it, yet this is exactly how the world seems to be writing it’s next ground breaking hit. We don’t leave it up to the masters of A League of Gentlemen or just about anyone who every stepped accidentally into Cambridge Footlights, no, we sit in out comfortable armchairs, whilst waiting for the kettle to boil and jot down a scene which would make even Victoria Wood bang her head repeatedly against the nearest piano and say “Why didn’t I think of that??” As a writer I wonder if this whole “come one everyone, anyone can do this” scheme of things is generally a good idea. I am of the old school who engages in a delightful mode when I recall the plights of some of the best loved writers of my proud generation - Stephen Fry, Ben Elton and “Knight-me-now-why-don’t-you" Richard Curtis didn’t suddenly see the Pearly Gates fly open and St Peter stand with beaming smile and a laptop in his arms, inviting you to have a go.
It all sounds a little too easy. As a harmless writer and mediocre comic, I have grafted over several minutes (or even a couple of hours, you know) to find the nearest sweetie at the Beeb who just might take pity on me and a few scraps of meaningless script I may have to offer. So with a similar tone to a long distance runner, who on his last mile, has been offered a lift from a bus driver, perhaps I should be grateful.
I shall, no doubt itch the scratch I have now formed irritatingly and get off to type my next revolutionary dialogue on this genius diversion thought up by Mr Coogan. It is tempting, so if there is a choice between the steady churn of rejection emails from the Beeb and a night of a thousand stars on the Steve Coogan Show, then I know where I’ll be going....http, anyone..?
mduffy 2007
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