The BBC's recent comedy, 'All About Me', was hailed by many as the best ever programme to star a disabled person. For me, I felt it was a disaster. Rather than including a disabled person in the fabric of the narrative, they put a dead sack of potatoes in a wheelchair and decided to ignore him and exclude him from the comedy. Without going into extreme detail, his acting, (as he was not that disabled in real life and could talk,) was full of inaccuracies, turning it into a micky-take of disabled people.

My central complaint was the character's inability to communicate verbally and non-verbally. As someone who has a boyfriend who cannot communicate verbally, I am all too aware of how he and others communicate non-verbally, through body language and noises, and believe me, he never shuts up! Also, a disabled son is, in real life, not someone who can sit in the kitchen and be ignored. Rather, they dominate everything the family does to the point where any siblings are ignored.

The climax of 'All About a c**p Brummie Comedian and No One Else' was the magic of the holiday episode. I would love to know how you get a heavy teenager in a wheelchair into a caravan with no ramp and doors too narrow for the wheelchair!

BUT IT'S COMEDY... In contacting the producers about this disaster area, I was informed it was a situation comedy and did not have to represent reality. This raises the interesting debate of what are the rights and responsibilities of comedy writers? Do comedy writers have the right to trample over an area of social culture and norms without being aware of the issues involved? I mean, can a sitcom based on a commercial airline have the pilot wearing a bunny suit, flying the plane from the back using a devil workship sermon? No, only Monty Python could do that. So surely there is a need for accurate portrayal of background information, like disabled access and issues!

Am I being over sensitive? Maybe but with good cause. While most people feel there are not enough disabled people on TV, I argue that there are too many. The issue is that they are often slightly hidden, non-political, one-dimensional characters who are used by writers as emotive symbolisms for death, illness, dependency or so on. In 'Only Fools and Horses', Trigger has a learning difficulty which makes him unreliable. In 'Dad's Army' Mr Godfrey is the one that holds the platoon back, due to his old age and physical impairments. These images of disability are used to reassure non-disabled characters and audiences that they are non-disabled. Writers are emphasising good by creating bad.

The use of disability images has been going on for centuries and disabled people are now tired of it. That is why, when there is a half decent representation or opportunity for representation, it is a highly sensitive issue. In 'All About Me', the views of 8.5 million disabled people have been represented by the BBC through one character. There need to be many more characters in many more programmes behaving in many different ways before the disabled are truly represented.

CAN WE LAUGH...? Many may think I am arguing solely for PC writing where disabled people can't be made fun of. That's exactly what I am not saying. Comedy is made funny by who tells it. Bernard Manning tells funny jokes but he is the wrong person to tell some. I have a speech impairment and I often tell people my problem is that my speech therapist was pissed. I have never understood why people ask me what my handicap is, since I have never played golf. Last week, I won a dancing competition; I only got up to go to the toilet.

I hope these are funny, because I, as a disabled person, am telling them. This is similar to how Victor Meldrew can insult being old. Comedy writers should not be scared of including disabled people but embrace them and their understandings. Life is funny and the experiences of disabled people in everyday discrimination can be extremely funny if the disabled person's perspective is taken. I employ a carer who many people mistake as my mother, I correct them by saying 'no, she is my psychiatric nurse' or even saying 'no, I am her psychiatric nurse'. These are situations where only humour can work.

Any involvement of disabled people in comedy is difficult because for so long it has been such a taboo, but it is time to take the brakes off and start wheeling some good disabled jokes into comedy writing.

PROFILE: Simon Stevens is a disability consultant with his own company, Enable Enterprises. For further information on his work, contact him on 0800 834 8484 or sjs@enableenterprises.com. Simon also runs a e-mail magazine called 'Contact' covering disabled issues. To subscribe to this, or to know more about Simon's work, please do contact him.

QUESTION... Do you think Simon's analysis of the state of disability in comedy is fair? If you have any views on the subject, from your own experience of disability, or from attempts to write about it, please do share them with the rest of us on the general forum.

To be a successful writer you must act like a salesman and sell yourself. You may be the greatest writer in the world but nobody will recognize your talent if they don't know you exist. It is no use writing great masterpieces if you are going to file them away in your desk drawer. Have confidence in yourself and tell everyone what a great writer you are. If you don't believe it, no one else will.

If you're that determined to get into the industry, you will. Talk to people, anyone you can about it. It's hard work breaking into television, but it's not impossible.

However, it does take a lot of effort and determination. The days when a writer could sit at home and churn out loads of sketches and scripts are long gone. Nowadays it's all about making contacts. Networking. Meeting the right people at the right time. Producers like to put faces to names, get to know you, and build up a good working relationship. Anyone you know who might know someone who knows the under-assistant tea-boy at Dead End Productions is a good contact. Follow it up. Use it.

Remember, there is always a shortage of good comedy writers so don't give up. Have the determination to succeed. If you have the talent it will be recognized, but you must be persistent. No one is going to come knocking on your door.

TV companies are always looking to encourage new writing talent, and people should therefore keep writing. That's what we are all about. If your work is good, you may not get produced but you'll get noticed.

For personal contacts you really have to get away from the desk and step outside. There are many networking events which give wonderful opportunities to meet people and gather cards. Occasions such as the Golden Rose of Montreux; the Edinburgh Television Festival; the BSCW Networking Days and the annual international conference, or the many events organized by the Writers Guild of Great Britain are perfect opportunities to network.

Don't be shy. Everyone at these events is in the same business. It's not like chatting up a member of the opposite sex for a date. Don't be nervous or frightened. Be confident. You and they are there for professional reasons. Recently I went to a very successful comedy night where a producer stood up and said, 'yes this is what I look like, come talk to me about your work.'

Get yourself some decent business cards and hand them out at every opportunity. At the very least it shows you have a professional attitude towards this business.

What if you can't get to these networking events? Most people can with a bit of effort and organization but if you really can't make it how do you make contacts?

There is a publication called appropriately 'Contacts', which lists all the addresses you'll need for the Stage, Film, Television, and Radio industry. It costs approx UKP 10.00 from all good bookshops and is updated yearly. A simple phone call to ask who is the best person to pitch your ideas to will solve another problem. You'll find most people really helpful if you're nice to them. If you cannot afford a copy, there will be one available in your local library. There is also one available for perusal at the Spotlight offices - 7 Leicester Place, London WC2H 7RH, 020 7437 7631 where you can get details of actors and their agents in the UK.

There are many other publications that carry similar information. The White Book, The Knowledge, The Writer's Handbook, Writers' & Artists' Yearbook all contain useful details and addresses.

If you aren't making it as a writer then there is a reason. Perhaps you don't know what that reason is, perhaps you haven't found your niche or your market, but in most cases, it's not the fault of the agent/producer/investor.

As William Goldman says: "Writing is a tough business and if you don't like it, find another game to play."

A quote from Anji Loman Feld from the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook: "Writing for television is not generally something that can be taken up as a hobby. It may look easy but huge amounts of work and commitment are required in order to succeed. If that doesn't put you off, and it is what you really want to do, then go for it."

Yes, fortunate openings occur; but it is important to remember that such "breaks" are occurring all the time, and all things being equal, the advantage goes to the writer who is ready. The amount of time and effort you put into your work reflects the amount of success you get from it.

TV companies always need new writers, new ideas, new scripts. You have to make sure it's your ideas and scripts that they want.

It's all is out there, you just have to want it hard enough to accept the tough chores, not just the fun of writing.

Remember: The most successful writers in this business are not always the most talented - they are the most hard-working, tenacious and spirited. Do your research, develop your 'voice', keep writing and never give up.

And the best of luck to you.

On 23rd May, I was the lucky recipient of the free enrolment at Robert McKee's Comedy Day in London. It was a very interesting and stimulating experience, and I did get to chat to the man himself "which was nice".

The main principle that I learned, which is repeated in the notes below, is that a TRUE COMEDY is a funny story, ie funny because of the story alone, not because of witty dialogue or clever visual business.

The following are my complete edited notes from the day, which I think you will find useful as they stand. Enjoy.

* The Love of Comedy

Comedy is Pure. Either it works or it doesn't. No critics needed. If the audience is laughing, it's hard to say that the movie isn't funny.

Comedy is a pure form of creativity. Creativity is the discovery of the connection between two things that already exist, but haven't been shown before.

Drama appeals to feelings. Comedy appeals to the intellect. Comedy is for the intelligent. You have to be able to "get it".

* The Comic Vision of Life

Comedy is here to criticise and denounce. You can start your project by asking yourself "What is pissing me off?"

Comedy is the "angry art". Comedy writers tend to be angry people. A comedy writer picks something out (issue / custom / behaviour / beliefs / values) and goes on the attack. The military in particular deserves to be taken on as a target.

The title of comedy movies often tell you the subject of the attack: Police Academy, The General, Airplane, Young Frankenstein, This is Spinal Tap.

When writing comedy, start with reality. The characters in the comedy don't know that what is happening is funny.

Comedy doesn't tend to travel well. There are different conventions within different places & cultures, and these conventions tend to be the implicit basis of much humour.

Any society that is intimidated by its institutions finds making comedy difficult, eg Germans and Muslims.

(Bob made many jokes about the lack of a German sense of humour, some of which are bordering on racist. eg "All the Germans with a sense of humour were killed.")

There are two types of "Sense of humour":

1) Comic "Gets It" - the ability to see jokes.

2) Comic "Does it" - the ability to make jokes.

Germans tend to be Comic "Gets It", but not Comic "Does it".

* Comic Structure vs. Dramatic Structure

The principles of story apply to Comedy as well as Drama.

A true Comedy is a funny story. The story itself generates the comedy. No additional jokes are really needed. (Example movies - "Sullivans Travels", "Bringing Up Baby")

In comedy, "narrative drive" can be halted to allow for comic set-pieces, that are not essential for the story.

Comedy allows for more coincidence and randomness than Drama. Even a whole Comedy story can be told through coincidence.

At the end of a Comedy, if the main character has suffered a lot but not given up, it is acceptable to have a major (illogical) coincidence which resolves everything.

* The Comic Character

All characters want something. With comic characters, this is a blind obsession. Comic characters can be created by giving them an obsession. eg Alf Garnett - Racist / Bigot; Inspector Clouseau - wants perfection as a detective.

Character's Desire - Subconscious.

Character's Obsession - Explicit.

There is no inner conflict in a comic character.

A character dimension means that there is conflict or contradiction between two elements of a character, eg appearance and true character. Bob distributed a handout illustrating the character dynamics of "A Fish Called Wanda"

No two characters in a comedy story should have the same attitude and react the same way. You should polarise the characters - to maximise the opportunity for conflict in reaction to events.

The supporting characters in a comedy should be designed to demonstrate the features of the main character(s). Also they should demonstrate features of each other.

* The Comedy Genre - Three Grand Conventions

First Convention of Comedy - in Comedy, nobody gets hurt. However, Black Comedy allows a certain amount of pain, eg "Prizzi's Honour".

Second Convention of Comedy - in Comedy, clarity is most important. The viewer must understand all the essential elements of the story.

Third Convention of Comedy - in Comedy, the story has a happy ending - often a marriage.

* The Comedy Sub-Genres

Parody - An attack on something that you like, often on a style of movie or TV show. This is a favourite with younger people, eg "Young Frankenstein", "Naked Gun"

Satire - There is genuine anger in this attack, eg "Analyse This", "MASH", "Hospital", "Blazing Saddles".

Farce - To write a farce, you need to be very familiar with the set or locations of the story. There tends to be a "McGuffin" - something everybody wants. The characters keep colliding in the most inconvenient way possible. eg Guy Ritchie movies, ie "Snatch".

Slapstick - Humans are treated as things, eg "The Road Runner" and other cartoons.

Comedy of Manners - which satirises the middle class trying to act as they think that the rich do.

Romantic Comedy - eg "The Lady Eve", "Forces of Nature", Moonstruck".

Screwball Comedy - A woman (free spirit) pursues a man (restrained character), eg "Fish Called Wanda", "Bringing Up Baby", "It Happened One Night".

Black Comedy - eg "After Hours", "Catch 22", "Man Bites Dog".

* Mixed Genres

You know you've written a true comedy when you sit an innocent victim down and pitch the story. Just tell him what happens, without quoting any witty dialogue or sight gags, and he laughs.

Every time you turn the scene, he laughs: turn it again and he laughs again... until by the end of the pitch you have him collapsed on the floor. That's a Comedy.

Simply put, a Comedy is a funny story, an elaborate rolling joke. While wit lightens a telling, it doesn't alone make it a true Comedy. Rather, wit often creates hybrids such as a Dramedy (Annie Hall) or the Crimedy (Lethal Weapon).

Tragi-comedy - Chaplin was the master of this form.

Dramedy - Wood Allen's later movies are not true comedies. They have serious stories. His movies are about his failure to love - a very serious subject.

* Structure of a Joke

Set-up & Punchline

The real humour is in the Set-up, not the Punchline. With the right Set-up, there are many possible effective Punchlines (usually quite obvious).

* The Substance of Jokes

The problem with creating new original jokes is trying to find a more controversial subject, as one by one things get done to death.

Human suffering is a wonderful subject for Comedy.

* Comic Timing

Two types of Comic Timing:

1) Timing the gag. The Punchline mustn't come in too early or too late. Verbal gags should have the key words at the end of the Punchline.

2) Timing the laughter. Wait until the laughter is over it's peak before continuing. If you step on an audience's laughter, they will learn not to laugh.

Verbal gags usually employ a periodic sentence, where the meaning is not clear until you hear the final word. This is easier in English than in other languages, which have stricter grammatical rules.

Sometimes you can have such a good set-up that a series of punchlines can come one after the other, with no further set-ups required.

In comedy there should be no redundant language or business.

* Comic Devices

Callback - When a previous item from the script or story is referred to or returned to.

Incongruity - Can be applied in many ways (reversal, inversion), eg Hell's Grannies from Monty Python.

Impersonation - Good for comedy, which includes using dialects and foreign languages, eg "Tootsie".

Exaggeration - of all kinds.

Nonsense - eg Knights who say "ni" from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

Repetition - the basis of many Monty Python sketches, where the dialogue comes from using a Thesaurus.

Double Entendre - Double meaning in dialogue. Talking at cross-purposes, eg hitchhiker sequence from movie "Something About Mary".

Visual Comedy - or physical comedy, where a person is dealt with like a machine.

* Analysis of a Comedy Film (A Fish Called Wanda)

The day finished with a scene by scene analysis of the movie "A Fish Called Wanda"

For each scene we identified any turning points for the character dynamics of the protagonists (both Wanda and Archie):

Positive - to advantage of protagonist.

Negative - to disadvantage of protagonist.

Neutral - No change.

This allows you to see how a comedy story features ups and down for the main characters in a more exaggerated way than a drama. It's worth trying this on "A Fish Called Wanda" or a favourite film of your own.

Walk into Pinewood Studios on a Thursday evening, past the latest James Bond on your right and you get to a familiar home with a sloppy mauve settee. This is the set where Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker are hard at work filming the next series of My Family.

The pilot was written by Fred Barron who has created and written for shows in the States including Seinfeld and Frasier. Several series on, My Family is still written by Fred along with a team of Ian Brown, James Hendric and American brothers Jim and Steve Armogida. They take two months working out plots as a team and then split up to write the actual episodes. During the course of production hours and hours of rewriting takes place in the writers room where they go through a new script, line by line together each week as they lead up to the recording.

Rehearsals can bring forward unexpected comic bonuses. Robert Lindsay just cannot suppress his creativity and often explores different comic possibilities during retakes. The cast are all masters of physical comedy, making the whole performance electric at times.

Steve Armigoda is outgoing and friendly and Jim is tall and charming. They both obviously care about their characters, their craft and other writers. Having come up through the well known American route from 'spec script' through to junior writers to their present success, Jim was a little puzzled about how writers could progress in England. One of the English writer worked up through the 'WeekEnding' route, and radio certainly seems to be an option - although not the only one.

It was interesting to see the charming, gentle Zoe Wanamaker dance across the set and then transform into Susan Harper who could spear giants with a sideways glance. Kris Marshall (eldest son Nick) is another who can milk every moment for comedy and appeared to sink into character with a simple drop of the jaw. There was a great feeling of team spirit at Pinewood from the writers, production guys and actors who at times behaved much as a real family, with the odd word of encouragement and plenty of horsing around.

Talking to writers afterwards, it appears that they really do have something special. Maybe it's the smell of success?

BSCW HONORARY MEMBER Ronald Wolfe will be hosting a book signing session at Borders Bookshop, 120 Charing Cross Road, London (opposite Foyles), on Tuesday 16th July, from 6.30pm to 8pm. All BSCW Members and Subscribers are welcome to attend.

CENTRAL LONDON 14th/15th September Two Day Masterclass with one of London's leading Literary, Film and Television Agents. "Julian Friedmann is full of insights that help writers in the business of screenwriting to actually get a script sold" - Linda Seger, author of Making a Good Script Great. Julian spoke at the BSCW conference last November, giving much helpful advice. For more information, contact BSCW member Felicity Fair Thompson at felicityfair@clara.co.uk

MEDIAXCHANGE, THE WRITERS' GUILD and ScriptWriter Magazine present "Team Writing for Television Series." This evening forum will include an interesting session addressing the important issues of collaborative writing and will involve visiting US professionals from key shows in America and their UK counterparts writing some of the UK's current successes.

* How do writing teams work in long-running series? What are the skills of collaboration that writers need to learn to produce their best work within series and serial television writing teams?

* How should storyliners, script editors and writers work together in the fast-paced and competitive environment of soaps and television drama series?

American panellists will include Jennifer Robinson (VP Drama - Imagine Television, Prod. Company of 24); Lucas Reiter (Writer/Producer - The Practice); Mike Duggan (Executive Producer/Writer - Law & Order, Hill St Blues, Miami Vice).

UK panellists will include Ann McManus (Job Titles Coronation Street, Bad Girls, Footballers' Wives); Maureen Chadwick (EastEnders, Bad Girls, Footballers' Wives); Steve Matthews (Harbour Lights, Urban Gothic).

The date: Monday 1st July 2002. The time: 6.00 for 6.30pm - 9.00 pm. The place: Scientific Society Lecture Theatre, New Burlington Place, London W1 (nearest tube stations: Piccadilly Circus or Oxford Circus). The cost: Writers' Guild members £10; others £15. The bonus: in addition to a fascinating panel there will be drinks afterwards.

To attend (apologies for the short notice) contact Anne Hogben on 020 7723 8074 ext. 201 or e-mail anne@writersguild.org.uk

HITCHIN ANYONE? Next week, just five shows comprise the first ever Hitchin Comedy Festival - in what could be the world's smallest comedy festival.

Running from July 5th-7th, as part of Hitchin's festival for arts, it's sole organiser, Paul P Edwards, hopes that this is the first of many. Shows include the regular monthly comedy club in conjunction with LastMinute.com, and solo shows from David Hadingham, Howard Read, Tony Hendricks and Ian Cognito.

Paul, a Hitchin resident for 20 years, describes the event as "a tiny acorn which one day may be a great oak on the comedy map of Great Britain".

If you're in the area, why not go along!

A relatively new subscriber, Darren Everitt, reports that he has been trying hard "I do not have a great success story for you as yet. However in the scheme of things Alomo did acknowledge receiving my first Sitcom episode which they read with interest and suggested that I sent them a further episode more indicative of the series (The first was unusually location based). They didn't say they liked it, they just suggested I sent them another episode."

Darren continues "Perhaps I should get out more, as their response had me celebrating in the manner of England winning the world cup and income tax being abolished. I now take two dozen Calms a day and have a defibrillator on hand, just in case someone finds my work mildly amusing." Quite right too - as Ken's article above shows - someone who actively asks to see more of your work is an extremely useful contact - best of luck with the next episode you send them!

Subscriber Annette Ward asks: "May I claim a minor success? At the start of the year I was asked to write for a local drama group. They included some of my work in their April variety performance and more in June. The latter was especially exciting as this was the first time I have had a long awaited 'double act' actually performed on stage. Although not too ambitious, it went rather well.

Annette also reports "Following the encouragement of Pets writers, Andrew Barclay and Brian West at the BSCW's London Networking day, a 'try out' evening of comedy material was staged in a Devon pub in May due to the efforts of member Gill Smith and subscriber Annette Ward. Admission was a drink from the bar and the informal evening included readings of comic verse, sketches and a half-hour sitcom."

Gill Smith has had a good month "On Thursday 20th June, I entered Richmond's Poet's Kitchen Poetry Slam. I've performed poetry there before, and knew it was a nice venue. So nice, in fact, that their laughs and cheers took me to second place in the Slam. As it was a cash prize, I'm not bothered that it was out of just five poets!"

Alan Stafford has "Some very recent successes ... After having several gags on Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections, I had a full length sketch tried out in the warm-up section of the last show. This may be used when the show returns in September." Along with this "Another Radio 2 series - 'It's Been a Bad Week' with Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis - used a piece of mine in the first show."

AS USUAL, I'd really love to see your articles, review, news and successes for the next E-zine. You know where to send them by now - gill@bscw.co.uk. In case some of you, like me, work better to a deadline, then I'd like everything in by 25th July, please, for the August issue.

Apologies if there are any formatting problems with this issue - it's sent to you from a holiday on the Llyn Peninsular in Wales, thanks mainly to the wonders of modern technology - and to my husband knowing how to use said technology! And yes, right now, it is raining!