Clips in the show

I think, in my package, I'm going to include clips from the TV programme's I'm talking about. I'll have to make sure in the clips, that there's no swearing or expletives.  Even though I have heard swearing on a BBC Radio production before, that was a show that heavily mentioned there was going to be swearing and it was at 10 o'clock at night. I think our shows are probably going to be on at some point in the afternoon, so swearing is a no go.

Also, if I'm using clips, I'd have to get permission to do so. If I handed in my package purely as a piece of coursework, and didn't broadcast it anywhere, it's possible that I wouldn't need to get permission. But I may want to put the package online, which I definitely would need permission for.

The clips would be some of the most well-known from the show, or clips that I'm a fan of but are also short.. For example, this is a sketch that I think will fit in to the package.

Clips from Gary: Tank Commander may be included.

Target Audience for Hour-Long Show

Our Hour long show is going to be on BBC Radio Scotland. This is definitely the best, and really, the only station that fits in with our package ideas, all of which, are about scottish exports.
The target audience for Radio Scotland is not really defined; they don't have a target audience. Some shows may have target audiences, but the station targets Scotland as a whole.

This is good for us, as it gives us a bit more freedom. But we will have to listen to specific shows on Radio Scotland to see at what time our programme will air, and why we will choose that time; what do we like about the show that is on then? etc.

Other ways to fill out the 1 hour show

In the last group assessment, where we had to produce the 30 minute show, if there was a gap, we'd just fill it with music that relates to the packages. But as that seems like a really easy, and poor way to go about things, we were having a look at alternatives.

It turns out, that as long as it's prepared and not off-the-cuff, we can have a discussion during the one hour show. It would have to be so prepared for it to fit in with the show schedule, and cover things that haven't already been mentioned in the packages, but I like the idea of it. It's a challenge which I'd be only to happy to go ahead with.

This would also be handy if a member of the group doesn't get their package done in time; I don't think a package from any of the other groups would fit in to our hour long show, so this would be one way of filling that time.

A bit more about the idea.

Burnistoun is a Scottish comedy sketch show, created by writers Robert Florence and Iain Connell. It's currently had 2 series broadcast on BBC 2 Scotland, and a few episodes shown all over the UK on BBC 2. The 3rd series has just recently wrapped for filming, and will be broadcast later in the year.

I'm a big fan of this show, and am glad that it's now being shown across the UK and not just in Scotland. But what I really want to look at, is why that wasn't the decision straight of the bat?

Same goes for Gary: Tank Commander, written by and starring Greg McHugh. It's now being shown all over the UK on BBC3, but why wasn't that the case originally? Why did the BBC decide that only Scottish audiences would enjoy it? Is the comedy too regional? That's one of the aspects that this package will cover.
This is an interesting article that I found on the Daily Record website. It talks about the shows having 40/50% of the audience share these shows have.

'TWO of the most powerful figures in Scottish TV comedy have fired a parting shot at London BBC chiefs for treating our country’s comedy with contempt.

This week, April Chamberlain and Colin Gilbert cleared their desks at the Comedy Unit, the company they left BBC Scotland to start 16 years ago.

They fired a broadside across the Border after years of battling to bring comedy such as Gary: Tank Commander and Still Game to the rest of the UK.

The founding members of the country’s most successful independent comedy production company, responsible for a legion of gag vehicles including festive favourite Only An Excuse, Rab C Nesbitt, Chewin’ the Fat and Burnistoun, said the corporation’s beaks treat Scotland as a country of “unsophisticated bumpkins”.

And they accused them of shirking their duty to provide comedy content for Britain, not just England, on the network.

The criticism comes despite a stellar year for the Comedy Unit, which landed all three nominations in the entertainment category at this year’s Scottish BAFTAs, with Limmy’s Show taking the gong.

It was a victory which served to underline what the outgoing chiefs feel is “like bashing your head off a brick wall”.

When network BBC comedy The Royal Bodyguard has been given a roasting by critics, the reluctance to take comedy from north of the Border seems all the more pointed.

Former boss Colin, 59, said: “For people like Brian Limond to be kept off the network just because someone who is very ­metrocentric doesn’t ‘get’ him, well, I think they’re not doing their jobs properly.

“You wonder if they look at Scottish audiences as unsophisticated bumpkins.”

April, 51, added: “What can you say when there are shows getting 40-50 per cent of the audience share and they’re not considered good enough to go out across the rest of the UK?”

Their frustrations come despite a campaign led by the Record, which saw Burnistoun repeated on BBC2 and Gary: Tank Commander winning a BBC3 slot.

Colin said: “You feel as if you’re making a nuisance of yourself. At the same time you have the talent, and you feel they’re thinking ‘If you can’t get us on the network, then we’ll go down south and find a production company who can...’

“Gary: Tank Commander was finally put on across the UK on BBC3, but BBC3 then said it didn’t get good audience figures. But they put it on at two in the morning.

“BBC3 flatly rejected Limmy.”

April said: “You know it’s wrong. These shows are good enough and it would cost them nothing to repeat them.”

A spokesman for BBC Scotland pointed out that Scottish-produced programmes such as Lip Service, Case Histories and Young James Heriot had been networked.

But he insisted getting comedy onto the network was a matter for commissioners in London. He added: “Garrow’s Law is a returning drama series produced in Scotland and Waterloo Road is coming to Scotland next year.”

A spokesman for the BBC in London declined to comment.

The Comedy Unit was bought by independent production outfit RDF Media, who were bought by the Zodiac Group.

Limmy, Gary and ­Burnistoun are scheduled for new series in 2012, with other projects in the pipeline.

Sales of DVDs of all the Comedy Unit’s major shows and iPhone apps for Gary Tank Commander help keep the company buoyed.

Colin and April were senior creative director and managing director of the Comedy Unit respectively.

They’ve been influential in producing much of Scotland’s TV comedy but ask them which are their favourites and the conversation could go on all day.

April said: “It’s too difficult a question to answer without offending.”

“No it’s not,” said Colin. “Things like the second series of Naked Radio and City Lights wrote the cheque for everything that came after, because the bosses started to believe that comedy made in Scotland could work. Rab C’s Seasonal Greet was great too, and Chewin’ The Fat and Still Game were highlights too.”

After the Comedy Unit, Colin is keen to return to writing and April is brewing ideas in the theatre world.

Colin said: “It’s too early to say what we’ll do next. Ideally, you want to put some clear water between you and what you’ve done before you decide what to do next.”

April added: “We have had a great time. It’s been hard work but huge fun.”

General Timeline

Here's a short, and basic timeline of what I'm aiming to get done in the next few months (and when.)

6th March to 27th: Pre-Production.

• Everything heading up to the production of the package. Ideas, research, making the ideas form in to something more than just thoughts, costings, interview preparations, etc.

27th March to 17th April: Interviews/Preparing Script.

• I aim to use this time to record my interviews, and prepare the script. I feel that this is enough time to get the majority of interviews recorded. In terms of the script, I'd probably be better waiting until I've got the audio of the interviews before writing that; if I script it beforehand, the content of the interviews may not fit in with the planned script. So it's better to wait until after that. I feel this would be roughly enough time to do this.

23th April to 8th May: Recording Presenter, and editing package.

• This time will be used to record the presenter of my package, and edit the content of the package. Once the script is down, it will only take a few hours to record the presenter. And then the rest of the time, up until the 8th will be editing the package. I think this will be enough time to do so, as by then I'll already have a good idea of what I want it to sound like, and the content of the interviews will already been cut down to the best bit.

8th May to 22nd: Final hour-long show preparations. 

• This time should be used for the final preparations of the one-hour show. By this time, everyone should of finished their packages, so we can start to time how long the show will last and the duration of everyones package. The interview for the show should already be in place. 

Updating Jen.

I recently caught up with Jen, and she is happy with the idea (Scottish Exports) and is planning to do her package on whisky. I think it will work well with the rest of our packages, especially Hassan's one on Tartan. Both are Scottish staples that are known the world over. Where as the other packages are more based on the 'scottish entertainment' side of things, these two are more just about Scotland.

Change of Ideas + Beginnings of the Package

Since the last blog, the general idea for a theme has changed completely. We had a discussion and thought that the last idea, was way too focussed; there wasn't much room for making the packages different from each other, and we'd be struggling to find 3 different people to interview per package.

The idea that we've now settled on is Scottish Exports. Things that have originated in Scotland, and have then made an impact elsewhere. Liam is planning to do his on comic book writers, Allan on a band/artist from Scotland that has 'made it' elsewhere, and the others are, as yet, undecided. I'm going to focus on Scottish TV Comedy as it's something I'm very interested in, and would like to learn more about it. Last year, Gary: Tank Commander and Burnistoun, comedies originally on BBC 2 Scotland, were both shown across the U.K (on BBC3 and BBC2, respectively.) I already have a vague idea for the 3 people I could interview.

1. Someone who has created a scottish comedy that has been shown elsewhere.
2. A commissioner who decided that a scottish comedy should be shown elsewhere.
3. And a viewer from elsewhere.

Asking 1 something along the lines of 'do you think about who's going to be watching your programme when you're making it?' etc.
Asking 2 something along the lines of 'what made you think that people down in england would respond to this as well as those in scotland did?'
and Asking 3 something along the lines of 'what is it that you like about scottish comedy? does it give you anything that your comedies from England can't?'

These are just vague ideas at this stage, but I have a pretty good idea of people I could interview for 1 and 2, if I do decide to go down this road. I think this idea will work on radio, because the people listening will be proud about the comedy they've produced. I can imagine people thinking 'we did that. i'm so proud of our scottish boys out there in the big bad, tv world'. As I said, they'll be proud and interested to learn more about why these shows weren't shown all over the UK.