Mailbox

A round-up of the latest news, gossip and other information from members.
Health warning: Anything in this article should not be relied upon as gospel. 

Got something to share? Send it to mailbox@bscw.co.uk

WEB PROBLEMS
From: BSCW Admin

Many of you will have noticed that the website has been suffering problems over the past few days. This is because our ISP (Internet Service Provider) hit financial problems. We are moving to another, but this is taking some time to get working. We are doing our best to ensure that the BSCW website (www.bscw.co.uk) will be back up promptly. As the problem hit shortly after the 'Market Information' was posted on the site, we will be mailing this out to members shortly. We apologise for the delay in getting this to you.


SKETCH AWARDS
From: Damian Estall

The BBC are running a new competition this year called the Sketch Performance Awards. It is a great chance to get short sketch ideas shown on TV. For further details look at the Website www.bbc.co.uk/talent


COMEDY WEBSITE
From: Paul Lowton (paul@laughsend.com)

Sorry, this isn't a "story" as such, but...well, it kind of is...

My name is Paul Lowton and I own a website called laughsend.com. I am writing to you because laughsend (like every site on the web) needs help with its promotion.

Briefly - laughsend is a spoof news website, and the content is written entirely by its readership. It is currently released once a month, and we have a reasonable cache of writers.

Laughsend strives to specifically promote comedy writers - writers who might otherwise have difficulty plying their trade publically. We are constantly looking for new writers to maintain the excellent quality we currently enjoy.

Laughsend is quite capable of challenging a site like theonion, and it has already been featured in the Daily Telegraph (a UK newspaper). The site itself is not commercial and brings in no revenue at all, and this has always been the plan.

I ask that you please consider the site, and I hope you can see its increasing potential.

Thank you for your time,

Paul Lowton


BBC WORKSHOP
From: Mario Stylianides

I am a Producer working for the BBC Entertainment Department and I will be running a workshop for aspiring comedy writers on 26th June at the BBC in Manchester.

We normally hold these workshops in London but I felt it was about time we took them to the writers rather than relying on them coming to us.

The session will last all day with lunch and booze provided. It is all free and will hopefully give people an opportunity to have their questions answered and help them improve their writing skills.

The ultimate aim is to launch this year's Local Radio Initiative for the North of England.

We ran a similar scheme last year. We invited writers to submit their work based on a strict brief with a view to choosing the three best scripts and developing them for Local Radio and ultimately for network radio. The scheme was a resounding success. Of the 3 projects chosen, two were offered to Radio 4 and have a very good chance of being bought and played out sometime next year. The last project is about to go into Production starring Richard Whiteley(!), Andrew Dunne (DinnerLadies) and Bea Kelly (Phoenix Nights)

I will mainly be talking about writing for radio, but I will cover TV too. It should be fun, informative and will hopefully open doors for people to getting their stuff on the BBC.

There are about 20 places on this particular project, so if people are interested they should e-mail Claire.Bartlett@bbc.co.uk or phone her on: 020 7765 4220

All the best
Mario Stylianides
Producer
BBC Entertainment