New Open Door Comedy Sketch Show
Hm. Still not quite sure about that title.
Does it entice? Does it scream "Click upon me, for I have information about how to get your sketches read at the BBC," or does it merely look like six words slapped haphazardly together? Aged Fish Rake Brain Pike Whiplash, sort of thing?
Well, you're here now and that's the main thing.
We don't ordinarily read sketches here at the writersroom. But for the next week or so, that's changing.
7 on 7 is a new topical sketch comedy show which will appear on BBC Radio 7 in the near future, and they're looking for new writers.
To get under consideration for the show, you need to email us three comedy sketches for radio, at least two of which should be topical comedy.
We've got a page detailing exactly what 7 on 7 are looking for and how to send it in, and an interview with Sanjeev Kohli and Gareth Edwards all about writing sketch comedy.
The deadline is 27th February, so you need to get cracking.
Go on. Write something funny.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~20~RS~)
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Great opportunity Piers. Just a quick question. When do you become a 'successful applicant'? Is this if you get asked to the masterclass or will this be decided after the masterclass?
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@Piers,
Comedy sketch writing isn't my particular forte but I've just shown this to someone at work who is very interested. Although there is lots of useful info here is it possible to include a sample of what you would define as the kind of sketch 7 on 7 are looking for?
If you've never written comedy sketches before, but have lots of ideas, it could be useful to show one example of that kind of format to give the newbie writer confidence re whether they're submitting the right kind of thing.
Just a thought.
Mrs M
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Yes, I'd find an example very useful.
Cheers.
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I agree.
There is only one sample of a Radio Comedy script in the Writersroom vault; a sketch sample would be good...
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Yes, I also would find an example very handy. Just to check script format, etc.
Thanks.
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Ditto that! Thanks.
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I guess the idea is to read the news, see what's topical and write a sketch about it. I don't think the format is too prescriptive so long as you are aware of the medium, i.e., radio and write accordingly.
For example there was a bit on the news this morning about random drug testing being introduced for the first time in professional golf.
DRUGS TESTING SKETCH
COMMENTATOR:
Golf now and we go to the headquarters of the Professional Golf Association where random urine sampling has been taking place.
FX: The sound of liquid being poured into a glass, someone sipping and then spitting out disgustedly.
WOMAN:
Bleuch! That’s corked.
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Are there scenes like that in Hard Evidence, Marc? I hope so. :)
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My novel 'Hard Evidence' available from Waterstones and Amazon and all good bookshops you mean?
:)
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I might have missed this info but is there a page limit, word expectation for the sketches?
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@Mr P,
Suddenly that evening glass of much needed Chardonnay seems less attractive...
Mrs M
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ABC becomes ABP
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InTheCan: It's more a sliding scale - you're a success if you get on the masterclass, and you're supersuccessful if you then get on the show.
It's all good.
Mrs M et. al.: Phill Barron has lots of excellent advice on writing topical comedy sketches on his blog.
First Part
Second Part
Third Part
They're written for topical sketch comedy in theatres, but the advice is all solid for radio too.
It should be noted that the language there is fruitier than I'm allowed to post on this blog. Which is a shame, as I'm naturally quite sweary.
Slightly wrong format won't kill your chances (as long as you're not submitting, I don't know, a short story or something), but if you want to get your radio format down pat, the standard BBC format is known as BBC Cue Style, which can be found on our page o' script formats.
If you can't follow that style exactly, I wouldn't stress about it at all - it's far more important to be funny.
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Antoniablue: There's no hard limit - but bear in mind that the longer a sketch, the funnier it's going to have to be to justify its length.
F'r'example, the recent series of Recorded for Training Purposes, like 7 on 7, is a 30 minute sketch show. You can see their lists-o-sketches here, and a few minutes work with a calculater gives an average time of a little over one-and-a-half minutes a sketch.
Okay, 1.6513761467889908256880733944954 minutes, if you really want to know. Or even if you don't.
So if you've got a sketch that's more than, say, three minutes long, it better the funniest sketch these people have ever seen.
Short and sweet is a better bet.
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Calculator! I meant calculator!
(It was an accepted variant spelling early in the 20th century. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.)
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Thanks Piers, so if you can't make the masterclass you will still have your sketches considered?
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Yes; it's all part of the same selection process.
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Piers, wouldn't you know it, mine's 1.6513761467889908256880733944955! minutes. Ha!
No, seriously, thanks for all this info. It's great.
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Speaking of formats...
What electronic file formats are acceptable? PDF? Word? ASCII? Hexadecimal?
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Hexadecimal would be... unusual.
Any of the others are fine, but I'd recommend either Word or PDF, so that the formatting's the way you want it.
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Hello Piers,
I've just emailed my sketches and received an automated reply saying the BBC doesn't accept scripts by email. Which of us is peculiar?
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Hello Piers,
Yes, I second that from notStoppard. I sent my sketches to writersroom@bbc.co.uk with subject - 7 on 7, as instructed and got the automated reply thingy. So freaking out a bit in case you didn't receive it.
Will '7 on 7' definitely get it? Can anyone put my mind at ease? I may be being anal, but I just don't want to miss out on this great opportunity.
In other words...HELP!!!!
Ta.
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Yeah, I can see how that could be confusing. Sorry.
Competition entries went to our standard email address, which has the autoresponder to stop people sending us scripts via email, which (as it correctly says) we won't read.
However 7 by 7 sketches are fine.
If you got the autoresponder, don't worry about it - we have the sketches and will be passing them on.
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Hello Piers,
Is there an imminent announcement for the 7 on 7 open call?
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Hey hey,
How much notice will successful applicants get, in order to attend the David Mitchell masterclass? It's on Monday isn't it?
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Hi - I never heard anything back about this - I'll take that as a no then, since the event is today... But it seems other people have got rejection emails. Why is that?
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We got an awful lot of entries - over 700 writers, which means 2100+ sketches - so it's going to take a while to get back to everyone.
Obviously everyone who got through to the masterclass was told sooner rather than later, so I'm afraid if you didn't get notice then you didn't get through to that stage.
Everyone should get an email to say thanks for sending us your work though - it's possible yours just hasn't gone out yet.
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